Re-enforcing Direct Navigation (The “Good boy” Concept) at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

Re-enforcing Direct Navigation (The “Good boy” Concept)

Published on February 28, 2007 in Domain Names.

Searching is a global mindshare. Some people reach sites by searching through search engines, like google, yahoo, msn. Others get to sites through word of mouth, and yet other through bookmarks.
Besides these methods some (estimated 10-15% of search traffic) type in domain names, essentialy those are keywords without spaces, with an extension, such as RodeoDrive.com) to their address bar with the hope of cutting through the search engine’s noise and get to a final destination quicker. This is called "Direct Navigation".
Search engines work relentlessly to increase their search market. While each of them do it on its own ("Do you yahooo?" or "Google this") together, they increase the concept of finding information through a search box.
Domain owners should unite and enforce what consumers are already doing, that is, searching through the address bar. Some consumers search through the address bar naturally without thinking of it much, as they are not techie.
One way for domain owners to increase their property valuation is to increase the search mindshare of type in traffic. This will not cost domain owners a penny as the traffic is already in place and will simply tell visitors that what they do, type in domain names, is a good thing.
The concept here is to enforce a behavior that is already being conducted by our visitors.
The following image represents the thinking which domain owners should strive for:

There’s no cost invovled. The image (whatever it is) is non-clickable and will not reduce from your CTR or traffic. Think of it this way, if we increase our mindshare from 10% (assuming it is 10% now)to 12.5% you will increase your earnings and property value by at least 25%.
You have nothing to lose but the world to gain.
I’ve been preaching this concept for many years and most never got it, but it is true today as it was then. If we change the market mindshare we will change our income level and property values.

4 Responses to “Re-enforcing Direct Navigation (The “Good boy” Concept)”

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1 Frank
Feb 28th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

This is a cool image. I like this idea alot.. do you have so I could insert one of my names instead of yoyo.com? I am going to have to redesign my pages to incorporate one of these.

—-Answer—-
I don’t. This was just an example we made a while ago to show others. I showed it also to DS guys and they thought it was way ahead of its time however, I don’t really think the concept is. I think it’s a viable concept that can be applied today.
You can get a graphic artist to make something unique for one name, create a script that will work on multiple names, or create one standard graphic that will work on multiple names. The choice is.. yours.
2 kamal
Apr 14th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

Sahar,

I agree with your points. But, I do think that landing on parking pages crammed with ads does not make the user trust that domain. Now, transform that into a blog or website or a wiki like Frank Schilling’s WebHealth, then you’ve got a compelling argument for the user.

Seems like natural evolution for this industry.
3 Sahar Sarid
Apr 14th, 2007 at 11:24 pm

I’m not saying current parking pages are best approach. What I’m saying is no matter how we, domainers, use domains, we should at all times promote the idea of domains as a search tool, methodology.
4 Ed
May 28th, 2007 at 11:05 pm

Hi and thanks for the post.

Just wanted to say that the image is not visible on the page nor when it is clicked.

I really would like to see it.

—-ANSWER—-

Thanks for pointing this out. Fixed.
Cheers
Sahar