This is another one of those posts that isn’t specifically related to our cattle software nor cattle production. Instead, it’s about online marketing which is probably helpful if your ranch or business has a website.

This post isn’t exactly related to CattleMax, but I thought it may be of some interest to those who have a website or are considering creating a website.

Recently, Rachel at Ranch House Designs had a blog post on .CO domain names and Jeff at Cattle.com had a follow-up post. The subject of domain names doesn’t come up often in the cattle blogosphere, so I thought I’d share more of my thoughts in hopes it helps others in the industry.

One of my side businesses is investing in domain names, of which we own several hundred. I have attended domain name conferences from Vancouver BC to Los Angeles to Miami and a few places in between. We’ve met some fascinating people along the way… many millionaires and even a couple of billionaires. If you’ve ever landed on a webpage with just tons of ad links, we’ve probably seen the owner at a conference.

A few examples of our domain names in use

I’ve purchased a lot of cattle-related domain names over the years for current and future projects. A few of those have been developed into full websites including a trial download site for CattleMax at CattleSoftware.com, an e-commerce store at CattleTags.com, an in-progress e-commerce store at LivestockSupplies.com, and our online magazine at CattleManagement.com. Personally for our ranch, we are working on establishing our longhorn beef business and will be using LonghornBeef.com.

As you can see, I don’t even have to tell you what the site is about as the domain name is descriptive. All of these sites rank well in the search engines because of a great domain name, relevant content, and relevant links. The domain name is not a silver bullet all by itself but it is a great springboard.

How well do domain names work for us?

Within 6 months of launching our Cattle Tags online store, we were ranking #1 on both search engines for many of our main keywords. Not only that, but our use of the category-defining domain name helped us stand out from our competitors who had longer domain names including several who had “cattletags” in their domain name. The amazing thing was this domain name was acquired in an auction after the previous owners, an ear tag company in the UK, failed to pay the $10/year to renew the domain name.

In early 2009, we paid just under $1,000 for FarmSoftware.com. Shortly after buying the domain name, we created a small site with information related to farm records and added a small banner for CattleMax. While I won’t share the exact revenue, I can say the domain name paid for itself within a matter of months.

Why are some domain names so expensive?

Since domain names are one-of-a-kind and a seller can only sell a given domain name once, domain names are often priced on the optimal buyer. Since many domain name owners are waiting around for this “ideal buyer”, it’s not uncommon to see great domain names that resolve to a page full of ads instead of an actual content site. This passive development of “online real estate” is similar to the passive development in “offline real estate” and why you see valuable land in and around cities underutilized with car washes, parking lots, or agriculture uses like hay bailing or cattle.

I’ll save all the SEO (search engine optimization) stuff for another day, but I will say it’s a known fact that search engines give a domain name an “exact match bonus” when the domain name matches the keyword exactly. In addition, search engines rank you higher when you have quality links that contain the keyword… so when your domain name is the keyword your links naturally are keyword-rich. Some SEO experts feel that exact match bonus has declined, but none the less it’s still a great boost. When you have valuable and highly searched keywords, having a website that ranks well can be extremely valuable.

Is a good domain name really worth paying thousands for?

Our reason for getting into the domain name business has been because they work so well for us in our extensive online marketing efforts. We found they offer a higher return on investment than print ads that just gets set aside a few days after reading and trade shows that only reach a limited audience.

If you are a small breeder or a local business who depends more on word-of-mouth or a breed association directory to help promote your product, you are just as fine with a newly registered .com that represents your ranch name. However, if you are looking to reach visitors online and willing to make the commitment to building a strong web presence which also includes social media, search engine optimization, and great content, then you may want to see if a domain name upgrade works for you.

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons after he spoke at a conference earlier this year