Organic traffic and following keys to $49.7 million purchase.
I just finished listening to the Quinstreet conference call that discussed the acquisition of CarInsurance.com. As with the company’s previous media acquisitions, the company said the value comes primarily from the organic traffic the site receives and how that converts into leads.
Also like some previous acquisitions, CarInsurance.com was previously attached to an insurance agency. The agency will be stripped out; Quinstreet only cares about using the site for lead generation.
CarInsurance.com gets a lot of organic traffic from Google. I just searched for “Texas Car Insurance” and the first two results are for the site. The first three results for “Florida Car Insurance” lead to CarInsurance.com.
On the call, the company said the site has a “long history of building a good following among insurance consumers” and that this has been recognized by search engines.
So I would break this down into three types of organic traffic:
1. Direct search type-in
2. Repeat visitor type-in
3. Search engine traffic
The search engine traffic is the largest amount of traffic, but the non-search engine traffic is more valuable. It includes both direct search type-ins, which will convert very well for this type of site, as well as repeat visitors who have used the site in the past. The type-in’s don’t go away and don’t rely on Google’s algorithm for longevity.
Jeff Edelman says
Of course nobody is going to argue that this was a pure domain sale because it wasn’t. The domain by itself would certainly not go for 49.7 million dollars or anything close to that. But the key is that the domain is really the foundation for what was built, showing that the domain itself has enormous value. Another example of a big, successful business built on the foundation of a great domain name.
Alan says
Jeff
“Of course nobody is going to argue that this was a pure domain sale because it wasn’t”
Funny – Believe me there are fools out there that still claim insurance.com and insure.com were pure domain sales .. yes, people will claim this is a domain sale many times over till the day we die
but then again … most of them have domains to sell 🙂
Jonathan says
With or without domains to sell or seo arguments about exact match domains, it says what it does on the tin + the com brand. Linguistics are older than the net. The domain + quality content, perfect match.
Shane says
Some things never change. We bought our land for our business because it was a great location and it will always have value. The land will enhance the value of the business we build on it but the real value will be determined by the revenue generated by the business itself.
Chip Meade says
Huge number. With insurance, the brand name does lend credibility so this will need to be integrated into their regular advertising and they will not be able to abandond their primary brand. Think of this as an expensive lead generator.
Landon White says
$49.7 million purchase…
Must have had to buy it from one of those …
dam Cyber-Squawkers 🙂
M. Menius says
Those that keep complaining that it is not a “pure” domain name sell are sort of missing the point. A big part of the reason the site became successful in the first place was because it was constucted on a quality generic domain.
landofthelost says
What do you think a portfolio containing insurance.com, insure.com and carinsurance.com are worth? The folks at Quinstreet are making some well-though-out buys and they will likely rule this vertical within two years.
Jonathan says
I would not be so sure:
http://investor.quinstreet.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=950123-10-85682