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A good domain not only makes people more likely to visit your website, but also increases your web site’s ranking in search engine results. This is because search engine bots rank websites based on keywords found both in its content and domain. Yet, how does a webmaster know if their domain name is going to be profitable? Usually most don’t until they have bought the domain. Hence, there is the practice of domain name tasting.

So, what exactly is domain name tasting? Domain tasting is where you purchasea domain to see how much traffic it brings to your website during the domain’s grace period. If the domain name results in a lot of traffic, the webmaster will keep it. Otherwise, they will cancel the domain and get their money back.

Does this sound interesting to you? Before you decide to do domain name tasting, first consider the ethics of the practice. Domain registrars lose a lot of money every year due to domain name tasting. While some may not feel sympathy for them, if domain name tasting continues, domain name registrars may strike back by raising their prices. Such a consequence would also affect customers who intended on buying the domain name in good faith.

Another issue involved with domain tasting is the issue of good domains not being available for more serious customers. Some webmasters may feel that in a system of free capitalistic enterprise, domain name tasters have the right to access however many domain names they like. However, if they have no intention of buying the domain name for the long term, why shouldn’t these domains be available to other webmasters who would like them even more? Many people would argue it is better to sell a domain name to a person that is serious about using it as their domain than selling it to a person thinking they can use it to get quick traffic.

You should also remember that a good domain name is not a sole indicator of whether or not a web site is going to be successful. Domain tasters are foolish if they think their practice of domain tasting is what has made them successful with website traffic. Granted, an expired domain name might have a small amount of traffic associated with it, but to purchase a domain name that really is valuable, a person would have to pay a lot of money. Many domain name tasters wouldn’t have the money for such a domain name, so they instead focus on the cheaper domain names. Most of these cheaper domains probably do not have any traffic.

The type of website that gets a lot of traffic is one that has a decent domain name, keyword-enriched content and lots of inbound links. Even if one doesn’t see anything ethically wrong with domain name tasting, doing it may not accurately reflect whether or not a domain name is valid. In fact, if a person does domain name tasting and their website does not have the other elements that make for proper traffic-building, they could potentially be throwing away a domain name that could be valuable in the future.