Lots of people use the Overture Keyword Tool to estimate search volumes and get ideas for additional keywords to target.  I went there over the weekend to do a few domain searches.  I felt that it would be a good way to measure "brand strength" or get some idea of the number of type-ins a domain might be getting.

Some of the results that I found were staggering, others sobering, and some were rather funny.  I typed in the URLs for most of my sites and only one of them had a meaningful count - about 500.  

Then I decided to type in google.com and was blown away with one of the highest counts that I have ever seen - 8 million.  Then Yahoo returned almost 9 million... hmmm... what does that tell you?  

NPR is smart to own both the .org and the .com because the .com gets a lot of type in traffic. 

The IRS should have registered the .com because somebody else is probably making money hand over fist on that domain.  Hopefully it's a US company paying taxes.  I bet it fools a lot of visitors with the patriotic banner.  Also the hotdog stand at treasury.com looks like you could buy a bond there.  (Don't run out and try to register the .com for a bunch of government agencies.  I already looked and even the most obscure were taken years ago and have a big block of ads on them.  Some do a pretty good job of spoofing the government.)

The most interesting find was to see that fafsa.gov gets massive type-ins to a dead URL... Those guys need a redirect on that URL.  The .com gets a lot of traffic too and is occupied by a site that looks like a stoggy old .gov and probably fools lots of parents and students.

I was talking with Rand about this and he says.... "One thing to note is that the search box has become the primary method of navigation for many users - they use it instead of the  actual URL box on their browser. Some even have the browser URL hidden, so the only way they can navigate is via search engines.  They know exactly where they want to go and use the search box to get there."  Surprise to me.  I guess I am too old to type a URL anywhere but in an address box.  lol

OK.... I hate to tell you this Rand, but nobody is looking for RandFish.com. nobody is searching for egol.com.. and nobody is looking for MattCutts.com either.  I thought that all of the Cuttlets would have cranked it up to five digits at least.  More people are looking for BlackHat.com than are looking for MattCutts.com.  Honest, go look for yourself.

If you have read this far you either have time on your hands, find this topic interesting or are procrastinating an important job..... So, go on over to the Overture Keyword Tool, type in a few of your favorite URLs and let us know if you find anything interesting.  Maybe you can see how many type-ins your competitor is getting.  Warning... don't type in anything naughty because you might pass out when you see how many people are looking for that stuff.