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What separates the heavyweights of the search engine rankings from everyone else? That’s a question every good SEO constantly asks themselves as they look to outrank sites that seem to dominate Google for every relevant keyword (like Wikipedia or WebMD).
Unsurprisingly, these sites have more than a few things in common. It’s not just their age or authority either—factors that other sites can’t hope to match. There are plenty of similar qualities that help top sites stand apart from their competitors that you can copy and improve today.
Let’s review five of the most important and surprising factors and explain what you can learn from them and how you can use that to improve your own site.
1. Backlinks Reign Supreme
Let’s get the least surprising commonality out of the way first. The top-ranked sites on Google all have a serious number of backlinks. As we all know, high-quality backlinks almost always mean high rankings.
Research from Backlinko finds the first result on Google has an average of 3.8 times as many backlinks as the rest of the results on the first page.
The big boys have it made when it comes to acquiring more backlinks, too. They continue to get more backlinks over time as a result of their position in Google.
Research by Ahrefs finds that the top three results generate more new referring domains than the rest of the pages on Google. Pages ranked first and second get significantly more new referring domains. Those pages ranking first get between backlinks at a faster rate of between five percent and 14.5 percent per month.
It’s not just a large number of backlinks that are important. They need to be high quality, too. What does a quality backlink look like? It comes from an authoritative domain, is placed within its content, and has topical relevance to your website.
Let’s say you have a car blog. A link from another high-ranking car blog carries more weight and is of higher quality than a link from a major health website because it’s much more relevant to your niche.
You shouldn’t discount internal links, either. The biggest websites (and news outlets in particular) almost always put a lot of effort into making sure every new piece of content links back to several previous posts.
Great internal linking makes it significantly easier for Google to crawl your website and index your information. The easier your site is to crawl, the more likely Google will find and rank your content. They may not have the same power as backlinks, but internal links can still result in higher rankings.
All this is to say that you need to build backlinks in a scalable way if you want your site to compete with the biggest brands in your industry.
2. Provide High-Quality Content
Most top-ranking websites are well known for the quality of their content. Okay, some major sites don’t publish high-quality content all of the time, but every high-ranking site does produce exceptional content, at least some of the time.
Don’t forget, high-quality content doesn’t necessarily mean it’s longer or more detailed than everyone else’s. It might contain unique research that other companies can’t hope to copy. Or it could break a story. Or it could be designed better. Or it could go viral. There are lots of ways to create amazing content.
Doing so matters when it comes to SEO because high-quality content helps boost several ranking factors. It’s a magnet for backlinks, it reduces your bounce rate, and it should result in a higher clickthrough rate (CTR).
The top-ranked sites don’t just rely on the objective quality of their content, though. They also take steps to optimize it to perform better in Google. That means including keywords in header tags, throughout the content, in the page title, and in the URL.
Creating high-quality content isn’t easy, especially when there’s no objective way to determine how good your content is. That’s the job of your users. That being said, there are still steps you can take to make it more likely your users think highly of your content.
The first is to make sure it’s written by an expert. This is a pretty simple task for some top-ranking sites like media outlets. Journalists, by default, are experts on certain topics. However, there’s nothing stopping you from writing about your expertise or hiring expert writers, either.
You could even use a strategy adopted by some health websites, where content is written by a professional writer and then fact-checked by a medical professional. Doing so has the double benefit of having content written by an excellent writer while also being medically accurate.
3. Focus on User Experience
Top-ranking sites on Google put a premium on the user experience and do everything they can to keep customers coming back. This means having a great design, high-quality content as discussed above, an intuitive layout, and a great browsing experience in general. Yes, some of the highest-ranking sites may serve up ads on their pages, but they don’t ruin your browsing experience with them or use intrusive popup ads, either.
A great user experience is one of the reasons these sites are top of Google, after all. Google announced that user experience metrics would be used to rank sites, beginning in 2021. How your site loads, what it looks like, and how users interact with it contribute to your rankings, along with other factors like HTTPS, safe browsing, mobile friendliness, and the presence of interstitials.
Google puts such a big emphasis on your site’s user experience because it aligns with its goal of giving customers the best possible browsing experience. The search giant finds over half (52 percent) of users will be less likely to engage with a brand after a bad mobile experience. So why would it rank you if you have a high bounce rate?
Improving your site’s user experience and aligning it with the experiences provided by the top-ranking sites won’t just improve your rankings; it also makes commercial sense. Ad network Ezoic generated a 186 percent increase in earnings per 1000 visitors by improving the UX of a publisher.
4. Make Sure Your Page Speed Is Competitive
You’ve never had to wait for the New York Times to load, have you? That’s because top-ranking sites know the importance of delivering content as fast as possible. Page load speed has been a ranking factor for desktop searches since 2010, and Google announced it was also a ranking factor for mobile searches back in 2018.
Say it with me: A slower site means lower rankings.
You need to optimize for page speed if you want to mix it with the highest-ranking sites. It’s not so much about getting the edge over your competitors and making your site 0.1 seconds faster, however. It’s about having a site that’s fast enough to not impact the user experience negatively.
Research by Google finds over half (53 percent) of visitors abandon a mobile site if it doesn’t load in three seconds.
If you have a slow site, you won’t just get penalized for a poor load time. You’ll also get penalized for having a high bounce rate as users get fed up with waiting and choose a different site instead.
The easiest way to check your page speed is by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. It will let you know how fast your site is, give it a score out of 100, and suggest improvements.
Have you noticed how some top-ranking sites have several pieces of content that all seem to approach the same topic from a slightly different angle? That’s because they understand the power of user intent and the value Google places on it.
Google wants to serve up the best and most appropriate content for each query. A big part of that is understanding what the user is trying to achieve from their search. Are they trying to learn something? Research a topic? Make a purchase? Google delivers different results for each intent.
For instance, Google shows e-commerce pages where it thinks the user is trying to make a purchase, but it serves up blog articles for information-related queries.
Knowing what type of content Google thinks users want to see is key to becoming a top-ranked site, because you’re much more likely to get ranked if you create content that matches the user intent for each target keyword. This is why so many top-ranking sites have similar content targeting the same topics: to catch every user intent.
It’s not simply a matter of informational vs. commercial, either. There are dozens of types of informative content that users may want to access. In some cases, it’s a listicle. For other queries, a video may be more appropriate.
Taking time to understand the user intent for each keyword or topic you’re targeting can yield serious results. Marketing SaaS CoSchedule saw a 594 percent increase in search traffic when they aligned content with user intent.
Top Ranked Sites: FAQs
What do the top-ranking sites have in common?
They all have a lot of high-quality backlinks, great content, an excellent user experience, a fast-loading website, and content that matches the user’s intent.
Why do the top sites have so many more backlinks?
This is partly because of the quality of content but also due to the fact that they sit at the top of Google. This makes them an easy target for people trying to link to an authoritative source.
How can better content improve my rankings?
Better content can improve your rankings in several ways. High-quality content attracts more backlinks, but Google also rewards in-depth content and results in users spending a long time on the page.
Why does user experience matter?
Google wants to provide the best experience to its users. Part of that means sending them to sites that are easy to browse. It’s why user experience factors are now ranking factors.
Google the keyword you want to rank for and look at the pages that appear in the results. If all of the content has the same format, that’s the type of content you should create.
Conclusion: What You Can Learn From the Top Ranked Sites
You can’t turn your website into a top-ranking site overnight. However, you can learn a lot from them and implement tactics they use to improve your site’s Google ranking. There are more than a few things they do in common, as you’ve learned.
Make sure you have a scalable system for generating backlinks, create high-quality content, focus on the user experience, ensure your site loads fast, and consider user intent when you create content.
Do these five things, and you could be well on your way to having a top-ranked site in the future.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
You want people to trust your site, and that requires a valid secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate.
SSL certificates are issued by a certificate authority (CA) and they build trust in two important ways:
The CA authenticates the identity of the organization that wants the certificate. This way, people know that they are in fact sending their information to PayPal, for example, and not someone who has set up a fake PayPal site.
The SSL certificate encrypts the data travelling between your website and visitors. This way, potential attackers can’t steal the information people share on your site, such as their username, password, or credit card number.
Today, all of the popular browsers like Google Chrome will warn users anytime they attempt to visit a site without an SSL certificate. It’ll say something like “This site is not secure,” or “Any information you share may be vulnerable to attackers.”
Would-be visitors are going to head to a different site where they feel comfortable entering their credit number. I know I would.
There are a lot of different CAs to choose from and they sell a range of SSL certificates designed to help companies establish their online identity and protect their customer’s privacy.
For some people, going with a free SSL certificate is going to be fine. All that’s required is a quick demonstration that you control a particular domain. These are known as DV (domain validated) SSL certificates.
But they are not enough to protect a major website or online store.
For companies that need to establish a greater level of trust, OV (organization validated) or EV (extended validation) SSL certificates involve real-world background checks on the organization making the request.
The rigorous authentication process isn’t free, but it conveys a much higher level of trust. Paid SSL certificate providers also make the process of obtaining and renewing certificates much easier through an intuitive online platform.
Choosing the right provider can seem tricky at first, given that they are all selling the same essential service. There are important differences, though, and you want to figure them out before you decide.
In this post, I’ve reviewed the top SSL certificate providers. These are big names with a long history of protecting websites. The reviews are followed by a short guide that will help you make sense of your options and ask the right questions moving forward.
#1 – SSL.com Review — The Best for Budget-Friendly SSL Certificates
SSL.com is perfectly suited for small and growing businesses that need to secure their sites, but can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars a year.
They are a mid-range product which works for companies that have outgrown their ability to use free SSL certificates, but don’t have especially complex security needs that justify the premium pricing of DigiCert or GlobalSign.
The best part about the budget prices is that the level of encryption is the same as you get with much more expensive SSL certificates.
You might think that the downside would be lower-quality customer service, but nothing could be further from the truth.
SSL.com offers 24/7 chat, email, and phone support. In review after review, happy customers have thanked their SSL.com customer service agent for walking them through installing their first SSL certificate or helping them handle a complex issue.
I think SSL.com has struck a good balance between price and customer service. It’s not dirt cheap, by any means, but it’s certainly less expensive than some of the enterprise-focused SSL certificate providers.
Along with affordable pricing, SSL.com offers a range of certificates flexible enough to accommodate the needs of many different businesses:
Basic SSL: starting at $36.75/year (domain validation)
Premium SSL: starting at $74.25/year (comes with three subdomains)
High Assurance SSL: starting at $48.40/year (organization validation)
Enterprise EV SSL: starting at $239.50/year
Wildcard SSL Certificate: starting at $224.25/year
Multi-domain UCC/SAN: starting at $141.60/year
Enterprise EV UCC/SAN SSL: $319.20/year
Like other SSL certificate providers, you have to sign a longer contract to get the lowest price. With SSL.com, however, the single-year pricing still comes in lower than competitors.
As you can see above, SSL.com has really low rates for wildcard and Subject Alternative Name (SAN) certificates. This can save a ton of money and streamline certificate management.
Wildcard certificates cover an unlimited number of subdomains. Instead of buying, installing, and renewing a separate certificate for neilpatel.com, info.neilpatel.com, and so on, I just need one Wildcard.
SAN Certificates protect multiple domains. The exact number depends on the SSL certificate provider. More domains covered with fewer certificates will make your life much easier.
Just for comparison, GlobalSign’s EV SSL certificate starts at $599 and it costs extra to add domains and subdomains from there.
With SSL.com, on the other hand, the Enterprise EV UCC/SAN SSL lets you secure up to 500 additional domains for a lot less money. And with GlobalSign, you are limited to 100 additional subdomains per SAN certificate.
Compared to Digicert, the difference is more pronounced as a multi-domain EV is nearly $3,000 per year.
If you think that SSL.com is coming in at the right price for you, give it a shot. The 30-day unconditional refund is not a marketing gimmick. If you are not happy, they will credit your account immediately. Get started now.
#2 – GlobalSign Review — The Best Managed SSL for Enterprise
GlobalSign is the SSL certificate provider of choice for large organizations with complex needs. They have some of the highest rates in the industry, but also some of the happiest customers because of the quality of their service.
If you just need a couple SSL certificates, I would go with something less expensive. On the other hand, if you need a lot of certificates, and managing so many of them is starting to cause problems, then GlobalSign is a wise choice.
Its best-in-breed certificate monitoring and inventory tool, combined with heavy discounts for volume licensing, reduces the total cost of ownership for complete SSL security.
Decrease the frequency of the costly problems associated with certificate expiry, regardless of how many you have to manage. You can even set policy preferences and receive reminders when certificates aren’t compliant, regardless of who issued the certificate.
No more having to track down certificates manually. Everything is available with a quick scan.
Think about it. If your staff saves an extra couple hours each month due to GlobalSign’s intuitive platform and concierge support, then the service has already paid for itself.
I highly recommend GlobalSign for businesses that can’t play the normal waiting game to get new certificates. After GlobalSign authenticates your business, they can issue certificates virtually on-demand because they have pre-vetted all domains.
The initial authentication process is fairly quick (between three and four business days for EV). Some people have reported being able to get certificates quicker due to emergency situations simply by calling up GlobalSign.
GlobalSign offers the full range of traditional SSL certificates:
DV SSL certificate: starting at $249/year
OV SSL certificate: starting at $349/year
EV SSL certificate: starting at $599/year
DV Wildcard SSL certificate: starting at $849/year
OV Wildcard SSL certificate: starting at $949/year
GlobalSign offers SAN SSL certificates for multiple domains at $199/year on top of the base certificate price. So, an OV SAN SSL from GlobalSign would run you $549/year. A single SAN certificate will cover up to 100 additional domains.
You can choose to add subdomains for an additional cost, as well, though a wildcard SSL certificate will be more cost effective if you need coverage for a lot.
The warranty for the GlobalSign EV tops out at $1.5 million. If your digital certificates don’t provide the protection promised, GlobalSign will foot the bill for damages.
This is half a million less than a comparable certificate from DigiCert. Ideally, you’ll never have to worry about the difference, but it’s something to be aware of.
Another nice aspect for enterprise customers is that GlobalSign supports document signing, code signing, digital signatures, and secure email. Being able to centralize all of these SSL security concerns in a single platform can make managing them much easier.
GlobalSign also offers intranet SSL for securing internal servers and applications. This means companies no longer have to run their own CA or use self-signed certificates.
For companies that provide cloud-based services, GlobalSign’s CloudSSL can help them meet the complex security requirements of these next-generation environments.
Not every company will realize the benefit from GlobalSign’s premium suite of managed SSL certificates and services. For simple websites, it’s overkill.
But for enterprises, especially companies with complex SSL security needs, going with GlobalSign is worth every penny.
Request a GlobalSign managed SSL demo today, and see the difference it makes.
#3 – DigiCert Review — The Best for Premium SSL Certificates
Digicert Group owns a handful of the most trusted CAs (GeoTrust, RapidSSL, Thawte, and Verisign) and has become one of the largest SSL certificate providers in the world.
It’s one of the more expensive options, for sure, but Digicert includes security features with its premium SSL certificates that can make a huge difference for the right businesses.
This includes automatic malware detection across all your sites, PCI (payment card industry) compliance scans, and blocklist checks, which ensure that your site isn’t under suspicion on any government or country-specific blocklist.
Importantly, most of these features only come with Digicert’s higher-tier plans. The provider breaks down its offerings into three tiers: Basic, Secure Site, and Secure Site Pro.
You can buy different types of certificates for each tier, but I don’t recommend going with Basic. It costs a lot more than comparable protection from other SSL certificate providers and you miss out on the extra security features that make Digicert’s premium pricing a good buy.
If you need the basic domain validation that comes with Digicert Basic, I’d go with SSL.com. On the other hand, if you are running an ecommerce website where users are entering financial information, Digicert offers a high level of protection that is very appealing.
At the Secure Site tier (which comes with organization validation), pricing breaks down as follows:
Secure Site SSL: starting at $399/year
Secure Site EV SSL: starting at $995/year
Secure Site Multi-domain SSL: starting at $1,296/year
Secure Site Multi-domain EV SSL: starting at $2,785/year
Secure Site Wildcard SSL: starting at $1,999/year
All Secure Site certificates are backed by a $1.75 million Netsure Protection Warranty for your businesses, and a $2 million aggregate Relying Party Warranty for your customers.
This is one of the most comprehensive warranties out there, and this isn’t even the premium DigiCert plan.
You also get priority support, which means that Digicert agents will respond to your concerns faster than they would if you went with the Basic tier. Another good reason to avoid that.
Of course people still run into issues, but Digicert customers with priority support constantly praise the company for their responsiveness and expert advice.
The company really does walk their customers through the installation process for free. They expect you to have questions and they are ready to help.
All of this and more comes with the SecureSitePro tier:
Secure Site Pro SSL: starting at $995/year
Secure Site Pro EV SSL: starting at $1,499/year
These plans are backed by a slightly better warranty, which covers your business up to $2 million. There’s also certificate transparency log monitoring that alerts businesses whenever an unauthorized certificate is assigned to one of their domains.
In addition to priority support Secure Site Pro also includes priority validation, which cuts down the time it takes to issue new certificates.
Not every company needs the extra security, but those that do will appreciate the totality of what Digicert offers with its Site Secure Pro certificates:
All Digicert certificates are managed via CertCentral, which is remarkably easy to use. CertCentral is designed to work at scale, so it doesn’t matter how many certificates you have—it’s going to be easy to manage.
Digicert backs all of their SSL certificates with a 30-day, money-back guarantee. No questions asked, no hassles.
What I Looked at to Find the Best SSL Certificate Provider
You want people to know, without a doubt, that your site is safe and trustworthy.
The exact range of SSL certificates and capabilities you need will depend on the type and number of websites your company operates.
Price is an important factor—especially when you look at long-term costs—but it can’t be the only thing you focus on. In a very real sense, you get what you pay for.
Some companies will be completely covered by the bargain SSL certificates. Others will be extremely grateful they went with a premium product that really delivers the security they need.
To find out which SSL certificate provider is going to work best for your specific situation, pay attention to the following X criteria as you evaluate your options.
Types of SSL Certificates
You want to get the right type of SSL certificates for your site. Understanding the basic differences between them will help you avoid buying more than you need, or not getting enough.
There are three types of SSL certificates you’ll encounter. They vary according to validation level:
Domain Validated (DV): DV certificates show that the certificate authority has validated that you are the owner of a particular domain. These are typically free, but since you don’t have to demonstrate anything beyond control over a domain, they have the lowest level of trust.
Organization Validated (OV): OV certificates show that the certificate authority has validated that your organization is real, has a known physical location, and controls the domain. These are not free and may take several days to acquire, as they require a real-world identity check. As such, OV certificates have a higher level of trust than DVs.
Extended Validation (EV): EV certificates have the most extensive validation process. In addition to checking everything required for an OV, an EV also requires the examination of corporate documents.
Generally speaking, different types of SSL certificates from the same provider will have the same level of encryption. It’s the authentication process that adds the extra level of trust.
The encryption that comes with DV certificates is key. But when encryption is tied to the rigorous identity check of and OV or EV certificates, it becomes much harder for bad actors to carry out phishing or man-in-the-middle attacks.
In some industries, like finance and healthcare, you may have to get an EV SSL certificate. This is just a bullet to bite. This is also true if you have a high-profile website that could be a juicy target for attackers.
Some choose to get OV or EV certificates for branding purposes. This was more important when browsers like Chrome showed a green padlock next to the site’s URL.
Google started phasing that out and now everyone gets the same gray padlock, regardless of the type of validation. Even PayPal doesn’t have a green lock in Chrome any more:
There is, of course, more information about the organization in the certificate details if you get an OV or EV, but who is checking that?
If you can avoid paying for OV or EV, I recommend doing that. Just check to make sure that it’s going to work for your industry and with any payment gateway software you use.
In terms of picking between different vendors, be sure you are making an apples-to-apples comparison.
For example, Secure Site SSL from Digicert is an OV certification, though it doesn’t say so by name, whereas a Single Domain OV certificate from Sectigo makes it more obvious.
Speaking of single domain certificates, there are two important subtypes of SSL certificates:
Wildcard SSL certificates cover an unlimited number of subdomains.
Subject Alternative Name (SAN) SSL certificates cover a certain number of additional domains. These may also be called “multi-domain” or UCC (unified communications certificate).
The exact limitations will vary from provider to provider. With GlobalSign, for example, you purchase the type of SSL certificate you want (DV, OV, or EV) and then pay an extra $199/year for every additional domain, and $99/year for each subdomain.
Alternatively, GlobalSign offers a Wildcard SSL that will secure an unlimited number of subdomains for $849/year.
If you need to secure multiple domains or lots of subdomains on a tight budget, I recommend SSL.com. They have Wildcards starting as low as $225 and SAN certificates that can secure up to 500 domains for $142/year.
One final note: it’s possible to use multiple certificate providers. Many company’s use free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt for everything they can, and use paid SSL certificates to cover everything else.
Speed to Issuance
How fast can you get the SSL certificates you need?
While DV SSL certificates can be issued more or less instantly, the OV and EV SSL certificates can take several days and possibly longer.
If you need one of these higher validation certificates badly, then definitely go with an SSL certificate provider who promises in the 1-3 day range, like DigiCert. Of course, you’ll want to check the reviews to see if they walk the walk when it comes to shipping certificates quickly.
SSL.com has some of the fastest turn-around-times, judging from reviews, so they can be a good choice if you need an SSL certificate yesterday.
For companies that develop software, Digicert and GlobalSign solve the problem of issuing certificates at the speed of DevOps.
They set up an enterprise account which lets you pre-validate domains. With Digicert and Globalsign, this is simple to manage, so you pre-validate as many domains as you think you might need, and certificates can then be issued on-demand.
Warranty Policy
One of the major benefits to going with a paid SSL certificate over a free one is that you are covered by a warranty. It’s like an insurance policy. If an incorrectly issued SSL certificate causes problems, you won’t be on the hook for making it right.
These warranties vary depending on which type of certificate you choose. DV SSL certificates are backed by warranties of around $10,000, whereas EV SSL certificates may cover more than $1 million.
DigiCert has one of the most comprehensive warranties. For their EV SSL certificate, your business is covered by a $2 million warranty and your customers are backed by a separate $2 million warranty.
Hopefully you will never need this, but if you do, it’s important to know which companies are backing you with a suitable warranty.
Customer Service
Whether you are purchasing a single SSL certificate or thousands a week, the quality of customer service matters a lot.
There can be a lot of steps to installing and renewing SSL certificates. It’s a little different for every host and type of server. Sometimes the “easy installation” process is going to be more difficult based on your specific hardware.
Being able to pick up the phone and talk to an expert who can walk you through the process is worth a lot. SSL.com has a great reputation, with hundreds of reviewers describing reassuring customer service throughout their first installation of an SSL certificate. The agents stay on the line, from start to finish, ensuring that everything is done right.
Let’s Encrypt is a great option for free SSL certificates, but are you saving money if it takes your paid employees several hours a month to finagle with an unfamiliar system?
This is why companies like GlobalSign and Digicert can charge a lot more for SSL certificates than others. You are paying for the on-demand, concierge customer service so that you don’t have to hire experts yourself.
Conclusion
If you can’t use the best free SSL certificates to protect your sites, it’s important to find the right paid option.
Much is going to depend on finding an SSL certificate provider who offers the range of certificates you need at a price that makes sense. My recommendations are a good place to get started:
SSL.com – Best for budget-friendly SSL certificates
For companies looking for affordable SSL certificates, make SSL.com your first and only stop. On top of their excellent prices, they have a great reputation for helping their customers. If you need a Wildcard or SAN certificate, going with SSL.com could save you thousands of dollars each year.
If you only need OV or EV certificates, and you want a serious warranty to back them up, Digicert is a great choice. There’s definitely a higher price tag, but the platform comes with many additional tools to maintain top-level SSL security across all of your sites.
GlobalSign is my recommendation for enterprise customers who want a provider that helps them manage their complex SSL needs. There is no more user-friendly certificate management system out there, and you can depend on their customer service agents to be there when you need them.
There are many, many more options out there for SSL certificates. These are my top three. They have stood the test of time, helped thousands of companies keep their sites secure, and continuously evolve their technology to stay on top.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
Bluehost enables you to get a website up and running in minutes. It’s a reputable web host used by millions to host their online projects, start businesses, and create something new.
What makes Bluehost so popular?
It’s easy to use, even for first-timers, and it’s a great price.
You get a free domain name upon signing up (usually $10-15 per year) and hosting costs as little as $2.95 per month. Bluehost also comes loaded with features to help you get set up quickly.
Find out more about what you get, and why I think Bluehost provides the best value for your money.
Bluehost Compared to the Best Web Hosting Services
Bluehost offers shared hosting plans at an entry-level price. If you’re creating a website as a first-timer, Bluehost is a safe and affordable option. Plus, as I mentioned before, you get a free domain name when you sign up. This is a nice perk that sets it apart from other budget options, along with its customer support options and affordable additional hosting tiers.
I couldn’t name Bluehost as the hosting provider that gives you the best value for your money without seeing how it measured up to other providers on the market.
To determine which hosting provider was genuinely worth your time, I compared dozens of competitors and narrowed it down to the top seven choices. See all of my top picks for cheap web hosting to get a more detailed overview of each one and a buying guide.
Who is Bluehost Best For?
Bluehost is ideal for beginners that are starting a website for the first or second time. Say you’re a blogger getting started in your niche, Bluehost enables you to get an easy start without sweating all the technical details.
Along with their customer support features and easy to navigate cPanel, Bluehost ensures your learning curve is as small as possible and gets your site publicly available to the world with plenty of uptime.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to start an ecommerce business with tons of products and need the best site speed and dedicated hosting, you might want to look at other options first.
Bluehost: The Pros and Cons
Pros
24/7 customer support: Not every company can boast 24/7 customer support, especially at such a low entry-level price. Bluehost’s customer support is there for you as you start your site, and anytime you need extra support troubleshooting site errors that are bound to happen.
One year of a free domain: Possibly one of Bluehost’s most appealing features is the free domain name you get for a whole year. This eliminates the extra step of going through a third-party domain seller or investing more money at your site’s beginning.
Free SSL certificate: An SSL certificate, otherwise known as Secure Sockets Layer certificate, makes sure to authenticate the identity of your website and encrypts important site information. In other words, it’s a must-have for any site you publish. Thankfully, Bluehost provides SSL certification for free.
Quick site setup: With Bluehost, you can easily get your site up and running in no time with their intuitive and guided step-by-step setup. And if you happen to run into any trouble, you can tap into their chat support feature in real-time.
Beginner-friendly: Bluehost is ideal for anyone venturing into creating and maintaining a website for the first time. This is because there isn’t a need for advanced web management knowledge or coding when you set up your site through it. To sweeten the deal, they’ve partnered with WordPress and ensured that installing WordPress is a seamless part of the process.
Cons
Charges for site migrations: Admittedly, when it comes to migration perks, Bluehost isn’t necessarily your best bet. If you want help migrating your site, Bluehost charges at least $149 to migrate your site to or from another platform.
Not the best fit for high traffic sites: If you’re wanting to scale an already high traffic site and need hosting to meet those specific needs, an entry-level Bluehost plan isn’t going to cut it. You can always upgrade to their more expensive managed WordPress tiers, which we’ll get into below.
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost offers several pricing tiers that are pretty clear cut. But after going through them here, you’re still unsure which one can work best for you, reach out to them for a free consultation.
It’s worth noting the price points for each shared hosting tier I review here are only if you purchase a 36-month hosting plan upfront. If you decide to go with a 12 or 24-month plan, the monthly amounts change accordingly.
Going with a month to month plan will also mean your monthly hosting fee will be a tad more expensive. Regardless, Bluehost still stands as the most affordable and value-filled plan you can choose, especially as a beginner.
Now, here’s how each shared hosting tier breaks down along with its value.
Shared Hosting
A shared hosting Bluehost plan is hands down one of the easiest ways to get started building your site. You can start with the Basic plan for $2.95, which is good to create one site with 50 GBs of space. That’s generous when you consider they also include free CDN and a free SSL certificate.
It doesn’t stop there. Are you running a few websites? Then you’ll want to try the Plus tier at $5.45 per month. It includes everything in the basic plan tier, plus the ability to host and manage an unlimited number of sites, and you’ll get access to Office 365 for 30 days. Not bad. It’s the most convenient tier if you want to reliably start more than one site from scratch without too much overhead cost.
Their most recommended tier, and the one that gets you the most bang for your buck under the shared hosting plan, is the Choice Plus tier at $5.45 per month with added security features.
You get everything in the first and second tier, plus free domain privacy and free automated backup for a whole year. Since internet security is a growing concern in the online world and the price for this tier is the same as the Plus option, this is the clear winner in my book as far as affordable shared hosting plans are concerned. Added security features can only ever be a plus.
Finally, if you’re looking for a bit more than that, consider the Pro tier, sitting at $13.95 a month. With this plan, you’ll get additional CPU resources as well as a free dedicated IP.
As you can see, Bluehost goes out of their way to personalize each tier, so they’re useful in covering what you need. I recommend you take some time to comprehensively look through each tier and its offerings to get the best deal according to your goals.
VPS Hosting
VPS, or virtual private server hosting, is when hosting is within a shared server but acts as a dedicated virtual space for your site. VPS hosting has become very popular, as it is less expensive than dedicated hosting but gives you better security and potentially better performance than shared hosting.
Guaranteed resources are the name of the game when it comes to Bluehost’s VPS Hosting options. They stack up against competitors well, as they charge you only $18.99 for the standard VPN feature. This includes 2 GB of RAM and an additional 1 TB of bandwidth.
Guaranteed resources are the name of the game when it comes to Bluehost’s VPS Hosting options. They stack up against competitors well, as they charge you only $18.99 for the standard VPN feature. This includes 2 GB of RAM and an additional 1 TB of bandwidth.
Looking through each Bluehost offering, it’s clear they’ve positioned themselves as a beginner-friendly web host, but they also burn the candle at both ends by offering affordable dedicated and VPS hosting. That’s a double win as far as hosting you can rely on if you ask me.
Dedicated Hosting
The standout benefits of dedicated hosting are security, privacy, and even more control all around. If you know you’ll want the best of the best to host your site for scale and reliability, then a Bluehost dedicated hosting plan is the way to go.
Is your site growing rapidly? Do you see more traffic coming in day after day? Here’s where you’ll want to look into dedicated hosting, yet another reliable Bluehost plan.
To illustrate the power of a dedicated hosting plan, they start you off at a whopping 500 GB of storage space, 4 GB of RAM, and 5 TB of bandwidth for only $79.99 a month. This puts Bluehost as a premium contender in the market, even for their pricier hosting tiers.
Managed WordPress Hosting
This is an all-in-one managed platform that scales to any demand your website has. All pricing plans for managed WordPress hosting through Bluehost include incredibly fast speeds, marketing tools, and multi-tiered security features.
The most dynamic hosting tier Bluehost offers is it’s managed WordPress option. You can either go with the Build, Grow, or Scale option. Each one offers a different hosting package to fit what you’re looking for. To make the best choice if you decide to go with a managed WordPress option, you’ll want to base your decision on the amount of traffic they’re each appropriate for.
Each plan comes equipped with plenty of helpful features built to help your site grow. This means storage space starting at 20 GBs, access to over 200 global servers, scheduled backups, staging environments, and free SSL certification, just to name a few.
What differentiates each managed tier is ultimately their traffic capacity. Here’s a quick overview:
Build – $19.95 a month, best for 50,000 monthly visitors
Grow – $29.95 a month, best for 150,000 monthly visitors
Scale – $49.95 a month, best for 500,000 monthly visitors
At this point, you’ve learned about Bluehost’s hosting pricing. But the fun doesn’t stop there. In addition to the hosting plans, Bluehost has other services.
Hosting
Unsurprisingly, shared hosting is Bluehost’s most popular hosting deal because it lets you get your foot in the door as far as getting your site up and running goes.
I’d say the number one reason Bluehost’s shared hosting stacks up high when you’re comparing it to other hosting providers is their free SSL certification and their free domain name deal. But as far as hosting your site on a server where you’ll share space with other sites like yours, it does its job.
Now, while shared hosting might be the best affordable hosting option for beginners, it won’t be what you want to stick with as your site grows.
That’s why there’s dedicated hosting and VPS hosting. Dedicated hosting is a more robust and reliable hosting option for powerful site performance, and VPS hosting offers increased power, flexibility, and control.
Online Stores
If you’ve already decided you’re going to start your online store with WordPress and WooCommerce, it can be as easy as choosing from the Standard or the Premium store hosting tiers to get started.
For a store with a robust payment processing system that comes equipped with plenty of analytics and the ability to create basic store backups, then go with the Standard deal at $15.95 a month.
Your store might be a bit more complex than a simple storefront with your product listings. If you’re going to capture subscriptions or online booking and appointment scheduling, you’re better off with the Premium tier as a very reliable ecommerce option.
I’d say this is my top pick for a multifaceted online store with a lot of moving parts. I’d rather pay a bit more for all the Premium features than need them and not have them for the sake of saving a few extra bucks.
Live WordPress Support
Bluehost offers Blue Sky, a service to teach users how to build, grow, and maintain any WordPress website through individual training and guidance. Live WordPress Support starts at $29 per month for on-demand ticket support and backup assistance and goes as high as $149 per month for SEO tools, help with content optimization and mobile optimization, and access to Constant Contact.
Professional Marketing Services
In addition to hosting services, Bluehost has an offering to assist your business with design and marketing strategies to give you more time to focus on revenue-generating activities and running your business.
The four primary services offered by Bluehost in this realm are:
Full-service website support with design, marketing, and content help
SEO services to optimize your website and target keywords
PPC services to assist with pay-per-click campaigns and best practices to get more customers
Website migration assistance, including one-on-one consultations to review your website before and after any migration
The cost for these services is not listed on the Bluehost website. You’ll need to contact them to discuss pricing and support options.
The Best Web Hosting Services
It’s never a good idea to make your decision based on only one piece of information. I recommend you check out my list of the top cheap web hosting providers to make sure you’re making the best choice for your specific needs. Here’s a quick overview of all my recommendations:
GreenGeeks — Best price for managed WooCommerce hosting
All in all, Bluehost is a reliable web hosting service that gives you the best value for your money. It offers a great entry-level shared hosting plan for as little as $2.75 a month, one free domain name for a year, as well as free SSL certification, and plenty of customer support you can tap into at a moment’s notice.
Any comments on Bluehost as a great hosting service for beginner websites? Let me know in the comments.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
You’re starting a new site. You Google the domain name to see if it’s available, but it’s already been snatched up by someone else. Bummer.
This happens more often than not, especially if you have a good name in mind.
What if you really want a domain name that has already been claimed? Or what if you’re sitting on a valuable domain and looking to sell?
I would hire the best domain broker to negotiate a fair deal on your behalf.
In this post, I’ll review the leading domain brokers you can hire right now. They’ll handle all the heavy lifting that goes into acquiring or selling a premium space of online real estate.
And if you are on the fence about whether or not you really need a domain broker, I’ve included some other options that might work as well.
#1 – Namecheap — The Best If You Can Afford to Be Flexible About Your Domain Name Extension
Are you wedded to getting that perfect .com domain name or are you a little more flexible about the exact wording and domain extension?
If you have a little wiggle room and you’re willing to be inventive, I suggest seeing what you can get on Namecheap. This is a domain registrar, not a broker, but you’re going to find an outrageous selection of available domain names for way less than you would be able to get through a broker.
You won’t get help negotiating—it’s totally DIY, whether you are buying or selling—but you won’t pay any upfront fees and there’s only a 10% commission fee on domains you sell through the marketplace platform.
And if you buy your new domain name directly from Namecheap, there’s no commission at all.
I think you’d be surprised about what you can find. There are domains on Namecheap available for $0.99 for the first year. You won’t get a .com or a .org for that price, but many of the new extensions like .store or .link are available. And .com names start at $8.88 for the first year.
The reason I recommend Namecheap to people considering a domain broker is that they don’t always know what’s out there. They may be twisting themselves into knots trying to get a five-star domain name when there is something perfectly serviceable out there for purchase right now.
If you can afford to be flexible, Namecheap will help you find something. The search tool is amazing. You can enter up to 5,000 keywords in the search tool’s Beast Mode. This will produce thousands of results for open domains with those keywords.
Beast Mode can also offer suggestions based on transforming your keywords. Say you are looking for hireme.com—Beast Mode will find hire.me, for example.
The marketplace on Namecheap is very easy to use. It’s peer-to-peer, the only catch is that any domains on there have been purchased through Namecheap already. So if you wanted to sell or resell a domain on Namecheap’s marketplace, it would have to be one you already bought through them. Just be aware that 10% comes out of your final sale as commission to Namecheap.
Namecheap takes care of all the backend transactional stuff, so you’re not drawing up purchase agreements with people you’re never going to talk to again.
Odds are you’ll be able to find something very affordable, especially if you are willing to go with a newer domain extension.
#2 – Domain.com — The Best for Buying .com Domains Without a Broker
It must be a good sign when a domain registrar itself owns the best domain name for its industry. Domain.com isn’t a true domain broker because you won’t be able to sell through them, but they are the premier destination for scooping up prime internet real estate on your own.
So, if you aren’t ready to shell out a commission fee for a broker, but you want a solid domain name with a .com extension, this is the first place you should look.
Namecheap is another good registrar for snagging domains yourself, but Domain.com has a more extensive selection of premium .com domain names.
Domain.com offers both a standard domain search and one for premium domains. As more and more common words and phrases have gotten claimed over the years, it’s become harder to get a .com that’s short and easy to remember.
With Domain.com’s premium domain search, though, you can grab one of these for your site.
Now, they won’t come cheap. A quick search will likely return some eye-popping price tags for domain names you had your heart set on.
But the helpful folks at Domain.com are available to help secure your dream URL at a price you can stomach. Their staff is available 24/7 via phone or live chat. In this way, Domain.com functions like a brokerage, because you have their assistance and guidance throughout the purchasing process if you need it.
It’s not going to be the white-glove service you get with a true domain broker, but you’re also not going to be paying 15-20% commission on top of the price of the domain.
And, even if the initial purchase is expensive, premium domains bought through Domain.com won’t renew at an exorbitant price. Instead, they will renew at the standard rates for the extension.
So, even if you buy a .com for several hundred dollars, it will renew at just $9.99 for one year, $19.98 for two, and so on.
And, as a registrar instead of a broker, Domain.com serves as a one-stop shop for everything you need. You can get web hosting, email, SSL certificates, and increased security for your new site. In short, you can purchase everything you need to protect and grow your investment.
If you aren’t ready to hire a broker, Domain.com is your best bet for securing a premium domain on your own.
I’m talking about two-word .com domains that are easy to remember. You can get less-coveted types of domain names and newer domain extensions on Domain.com, but Namecheap will probably be more affordable.
Domain.com is a great marriage of traditional domain registrar, detailed domain search, and brokerage-level support and assistance.If you want to stake your claim to a prime domain name, start searching through Domain.com today.
#3 – GoDaddy Domain Brokerage — The Best for Buying Domains Under $5,000
Tons of people use GoDaddy Domain Brokerage to buy a domain name that’s currently owned by someone else. Here’s why: it’s really straight-forward to use and there is virtually no work on your end.
Plus, GoDaddy brokers will go after any domain you want, regardless of the price.
I recommend it highly for people that don’t want to spend more than $5,000 on a domain. The truth is that this is a fairly low number in this space. A .com domain with words you’d find in a real dictionary is usually going to cost five to six figures—maybe a lot more.
You’ll find that GoDaddy has a higher commission rate (20%) than what you get by going with a smaller domain broker. The trouble is that those smaller firms don’t always agree to take on clients looking to buy small fish domains of less than $5,000.
GoDaddy doesn’t care about the cost. Once you connect with a broker, they will chase down any domain your heart desires. So if your budget tops out at a few thousand bucks, GoDaddy is a great place to start.
Simply reach out to GoDaddy and tell them the domain you want. You’ll get an email back asking you to name the price you are willing to pay.
From there, GoDaddy handles everything else. The broker spends up to 30 days tracking down the domain owner and trying to negotiate a price. If the broker is successful, the domain is yours. Simply follow the guided steps and you’ll be in control.
It’s not impossible to get a domain on your own, but GoDaddy takes out all the legwork. Plus, the company has a ton of name recognition. Instead of you reaching out as a private individual or company, the seller is dealing with one of the biggest names in the business. Both parties are going to feel more comfortable having a trusted broker handle the arrangements.
GoDaddy takes care of all the legal legwork, too, but you won’t provide the strategic guidance that other domain brokers offer. This is basically a simple point-and-shoot service.
An upfront fee of $119.99 is required to start and GoDaddy takes a 20% commission if the deal goes through. Do note that you won’t get the fee back if the sale doesn’t go through.
The higher-than-average commission rate and upfront fees are a reflection of the fact that GoDaddy will broker deals of any size. Other firms can afford lower commissions and waive upfront costs because they only take on deals above $5,000.
Essentially, the other brokers can afford to take a smaller slice because they are only ever going after a bigger pie.
$5,000 is not a hard and fast number. But if you are in this neighborhood, you may have difficulty finding a broker who’s not going to charge an upfront fee to make it worth their time.
GoDaddy won’t broker sales, but you can use the company’s auction site to sell a domain. There’s also a free domain appraisal tool, which can help you figure out where to start the bidding.
Not everyone is looking to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a domain name. They still want a broker to get things done fast and right the first time.
With GoDaddy Domain Brokerage, the transaction is as smooth and hands-off as possible. If you can spell the domain you want, GoDaddy will make a run at it for you.
#4 – VPN.com— The Best for Keeping Your Identity Under Wraps
VPN.com can help you broker the sale or acquisition of a domain if you want to stay anonymous.
The company specializes in strategic stealth acquisitions, working on behalf of Fortune 500 companies, founders, high-net-worth individuals, and other organizations that need to fly below the radar.
The truth is that people with resources are often forced to overspend to get domain names. I don’t want to speak ill of domain owners out there, but some have been known to turn the screws on potential buyers because they know they can.
VPN.com keeps this from happening. Masters of discretion, the company is a favorite for celebrities, athletes, politicians, and other people that have to be conscious about sharing their identity.
Think about it. What’s a domain owner going to charge when the seller hears that Oprah wants it?
These stealth acquisitions take finesse and experience to manage properly. The simple act of inquiring about a particular domain name gives a lot of information away. VPN.com knows just how to handle all of the communications to keep your name out of sight until the ink is dry.
Unlike a lot of the other top domain brokers, VPN.com offers a range of online services. As you might guess, the company handles virtual private networks (VPNs). Secure communications are not a problem.
For people that need to jump through the hoops of a stealth acquisition, VPN.com will help you protect your investment. The company has in-house legal counsel. You’ll know what to do if people are infringing on your domain and be able to register your brand in every country.
There are absolutely no upfront costs, though VPN.com typically works with buyers and sellers of domains worth more than $5,000.
I’m guessing the crowd interested in stealth acquisitions will be onboard with that, but I wanted to mention it. If your sale is successful, there is a 15% commission.
For those who require the utmost discretion, VPN.com is a domain broker you can work with. And if you have a premium domain to sell, and you are not sure what it’s worth, reach out to VPN.com for a free appraisal today.
#5 – Domain Booth— The Lowest Commission for a Top Domain Broker
In the future, I could see DomainBooth charging insane rates for their brokerage service. But for now, you can get one of the best domain brokers on the market for an exceptionally low 12.5% commission.
So, you’re still going to pay, but it’s 2.5% lower than other top-quality brokers. If you are negotiating a deal for a five- or six-figure domain, the savings can be significant.
DomainBooth is something of a recent arrival on the domain broker scene. In 2015, then-26 year old founder James Booth made quite a splash by brokering more than $5 million in domain names in his company’s first 12 months.
This was no flash in the pan, either. Today, DomainBooth is one of the top performing domain brokers, outpacing some of the established players in the game. Booth actually had the second highest domain sales of any broker in 2020, according to Escrow.com.
The firm specializes in extremely short domains–two letters, a number and a letter, three letters, and one-word domains for the most part. I would definitely talk further with DomainBooth if you are interested in something like this.
There’s just not another broker of this calibur charging such low commissions. The minimum fee for buying is $500 and for selling it’s $1,000, which is to say the company is focused on buying domains greater than $5,000 and selling those greater than $10,000.
You will not pay a dime unless DomainBooth is successful in negotiating the deal.
For as young a company as it is, DomainBooth has developed a rich network of buyers and sellers. You can list your domain for sale in the DomainBooth newsletter for $750. This puts it in front of a lot of interested buyers in different markets who you would be hard pressed to reach on your own.
By getting DomainBooth as your broker, you’re putting yourself in a good position to get the most value out of your purchase or sale. There’s still a commission, but it’s not going to be as high as it is for other brokers with similar performance.
#6 – Grit Brokerage— The Best If You Regularly Buy Premium Domains
Grit Brokerage is one of the recognized players in the space. The company has negotiated big-name deals and helped brands secure their position online.
I recommend them to businesses that are in the market for premium domains frequently. It may not be something you need all the time, but it’s also not enough for you to get a single solid domain for your company and be done with it.
If you have to work domain acquisition into your overall brand and marketing strategy, Grit Brokerage is an ideal broker to work with. It’s like having a domain expert in your office, except they’re not on the full-time payroll.
The company can walk you through the ins and outs of upgrading to a better domain in your industry, or branching out and capitalizing on a multiple domain SEO strategy.
Grit.org is the parent company of Grit Brokerage. The organization is focused on empowering people to build better companies and communities. If you work with Grit, its brokers will invest their time in helping you grow by acquiring the right domains at a fair price.
This is a challenge, even for companies with deep pockets and bright ideas. It took Elon Musk more than a decade and $11 million to get tesla.com. Until then, the company had settled for teslamotors.com and constantly took a hit in search rankings.
Not everyone’s battle to get the top domain is so brutal, but it’s never easy these days.
You’ll have to get in touch with Grit Brokerage for pricing, but it’s not hard to make contact. The founder and senior partners all have their cell phones listed on the website. Imagine the kind of service and availability they provide to paying clients.
#7 – MediaOptions— The Best for Domains Over $75,000
If you are going after that perfect domain name—maybe it’s an exact match to your business name or a major keyword in your industry—it’s not going to be cheap.
And it’s going to be ludicrously expensive if you don’t have a seasoned negotiator in your corner.
When you don’t have flexibility—you need that domain—it’s time to call up MediaOptions and get help from the most successful company in the business.
It was founded by Andrew Rosener, who has been the top domain broker in the world for the last three years according to Escrow.com. He’s the creator of the Rosener Equation, which people use to value domains, and has testified in court as an expert witness on domains.
Rosener’s knowledge of the space is a big part of MediaOptions’ continued success. The company has brokered hundreds of millions of dollars in domain deals over more than a decade in business.
I highly recommend this broker for businesses that need a prime piece of web real estate. MediaOptions has a lot of experience with stealth acquisitions as well as a track record of locating domain owners that don’t want to be found.
Essentially, MediaOptions has mastered every step of the domain acquisition process that trips people up. You won’t spin your tires trying to track down and convince a domain owner who doesn’t want to sell. The expert broker knows how to get the best outcome in that touchy conversation.
And, because MediaOptions knows how to play the game, your identity will remain hidden. So you won’t be over a barrel to get the exact domain you want.
I also recommend MediaOptions if you have a high value domain to sell. Over two decades, the company has crafted the most successful outbound sales process of any brokerage. This includes a rich network of buyers and sellers, the top domain newsletter in the industry, and timely press releases.
There is no better team to hire, and MediaOptions can afford to be choosy about their clientele. To qualify for premium domain brokerages services, the domain in question must have a sale value of $75,000 or higher.
Generally speaking, this is going to be domains that are one or two words with a meaningful volume of exact match search.
If that description sounds like what you are looking for, five or six figures (if not more) is very normal. Acquiring one of these domains will pay for itself very quickly by catapulting your sites to the top of Google’s page one search results.
Because these ultra-premium domains are so valuable, negotiating their sale or acquisition takes someone who knows what they are doing. You should anticipate that the party on the other end of your potential deal has an expert on their side. So should you.
MediaOptions is your best bet. The company’s results and reputation speaks for itself. The fact they charge 15% commission is another plus. I know it’s standard rate for the industry—but, given MediaOptions success, I feel like they could charge more.
If you need the best, and you are willing to spend to get it, having MediaOptions as your domain broker will give you the best chance at a good outcome. Get in touch today.
What I Looked At To Find The Best Domain Brokers
There are a few basic ground rules for choosing domain brokers because there is literally zero certification required.
Anyone can say they are a domain broker, but you should only consider ones that:
Have been around for a few years, at least
Maintain a spotless reputation
Use a recognized payment system, such as PayPal or Escrow.com
Handle all of the negotiations confidentially
If you are going to hire a broker, this is the bare minimum. There’s a lot of money changing hands online for domain names. The market attracts scammers you definitely want to avoid.
All my recommendations for domain brokers have you covered. They are well-known and respected in the industry, and they will be able to steer you clear of the people who aren’t.
Now, there’s a range of broker services out there. You can get help with the nuts and bolts of the deal, so you’re not drawing up purchase agreements or tracking down a domain owner.
Some domain brokers offer more of a consulting relationship. They help you with domain marketing, acquisitions, and strategy to establish and protect your brand over the long term.
There’s a ton to know about domains and it’s always changing. Getting a good domain broker means you don’t have to worry about any of it.
You really only have to focus on a few things in order to connect with the right one.
How Important Is the Exact Domain?
The significance you attach to a particular domain name determines the type of broker you should be looking for. Let me explain with two examples:
Example 1: You need a domain that’s short, easy to say and spell, and you want it right now. The exact name is not a huge deal. Ideally, the name is related to your business, but you’re flexible and willing to be inventive.
Example 2: You have trademarked your business, you know the exact domain name you want, and it can’t be anything else. You are willing to spend as much time and money as it’s going to take to get this exact domain name.
Both of these people could benefit from domain brokers, but they need very different types of service.
If the exact domain name isn’t the end of the world, you could start simply by seeing what’s out there. Namecheap and Domain.com make it very easy to be your own broker, even if you’ve never bought a domain before.
Alternatively, you could reach out to GoDaddy Domain Brokerage if you don’t want to deal with an auction or the back-and-forth of negotiations. Simply tell the broker what you want and how much you’re willing to pay, and GoDaddy will spend the next 30 days trying to make it happen.
Now, if you are going after a specific domain and can’t compromise, I highly recommend getting help from someone like VPN.com, Grit Brokerage, DomainBooth, or MediaOptions.
These folks know the space—which is crucial, because getting the exact domain you want at a fair price is really challenging.
Even just finding the person who owns the domain can be impossible. I’m serious. Sometimes the owners don’t want to be found. They bought the domain years ago for some pet project that didn’t take off, and now—out of inertia or spite—they won’t let go.
Whatever the reason, these domain owners are tired of being pestered by people. It’s not uncommon for them to set up dummy accounts, fake addresses in other countries, and a whole mess of obstacles to keep people away.
The really expert domain brokers know how to get around all these barriers and track people down like a sheriff on the frontier.
Here’s the other thing to think about if you are in the market for an exact name domain: everyone knows they are valuable. There’s no low-hanging fruit left.
Whoever owns the domain you want so badly is probably not some schlub. They might even sell domains for a living. If you approach that negotiation without someone on your side who knows as much as the seller does, things could go south quickly.
Upfront Costs and Commissions
Domain brokers all charge for their service a little differently. It’s important to understand exactly how this works. You may wind up paying fees even if you don’t get the domain you want.
Some brokers charge an upfront fee to get started and then take a commission based on a percentage of the sale.
Keep a close eye on this percentage, as premium domains are often five and six figures. Commissions will add a significant extra expense to the price of a domain, or cut into the profits of one you sell through a broker.
Even if you choose to be your own broker on Domain.com, there’s still a commission for using the platform to execute your trade.
You’ll find that some brokers work only on commission. There’s no upfront fee. These firms only see money if they get you what you want at a price you’re willing to pay.
If your budget is not that high, the commission-only brokers may not take you on as a client. They are not massive companies and can’t afford to spend their time negotiating deals with a small commission.
On the other hand, GoDaddy charges an upfront fee but its brokers will go after whatever you want. Just point and shoot.
A 10-20% commission fee is within the standard range. I know it’s going to be a chunk of change, but it can be totally worth it.
The best domain brokers are in business because they consistently help clients get a better deal than they could by themselves. They can help you acquire a domain for a fraction of what it would cost on the open market. If you are selling, they can get you max out the value of your sale.
At the end of the day, using a domain broker is a strategy, not a turnkey solution. You have to understand the pricing structure in order to pick an appropriate broker and avoid surprises down the line.
Stealth Acquisitions
What if you don’t want people to know you’re a buyer or a seller? Like it’s really important that your identity or the name of your business is kept totally under wraps?
All the brokers I looked at keep your identity shielded to some extent, but sometimes it requires a little more finesse. If anonymity is a must for you, you’ll want to find a broker that specializes in stealth acquisitions.
Here’s why it’s important.
If the person who owns a domain gets a call from a broker, they automatically know that there’s significant interest in their online property. Someone hired the broker, after all.
Put yourself in the seller’s shoes. They’re going to try and get as much money as they possibly can from the sale. Wouldn’t you?
The only thing stopping them from jacking up the price is what they believe you are willing to pay. So, if they can do a little research and find out that you are a company with deep pockets or a startup that just got funding, they’re going to aim for the top of your budget.
Just because you can spend six or seven figures for a domain doesn’t mean you want to.
Whatever your reason for staying anonymous, if it is a major concern, you want to pick one broker that knows how to execute stealth acquisitions. When you get in touch, ask them about war stories and some of the crazy maneuvers they’ve had to pull in order to get their clients their dream domain.
If they’re really good at this, the broker is going to have no shortage of ridiculous-sounding tales about the games they’ve played to broker touchy deals. That’s my experience, anyway. You have to work with someone who knows how to play the game.
VPN.com has a track record of negotiating domain acquisitions for politicians, celebrities, and organizations with really well-known brands. It’s a good place to start. MediaOptions and DomainBooth would also be worth shortlisting, if you need discretion.
Conclusion
An effective domain broker makes the process of acquiring or selling a domain a breeze.
Let’s face it, selling or buying a domain successfully can take a lot of upfront work. Once you’ve researched which domain name you want and made sure it’s already registered, the next step is to look into which domain broker fits your needs.
As they say, domain brokers aren’t all created equal. Here’s a quick rundown of the domain brokers I recommend and reviewed here:
Namecheap – The best if you can afford to be flexible about your domain name extension
Domain.com – The best for buying .com domains without a broker
Now I’d like to hear from you. Are there any domain brokers you’ve had a great experience with worth mentioning? Let me know in the comments. I’m all ears!
