Regular readers will know how valuable generic domain names can be in the insurance sector.
Super premium domains in the finance sector have sold for six figures in the past, and we decided to have a look at who owns the super premium insurance domains and what they’re doing with them.
For each domain we have used the whois records to reveal the owner and have also looked at how the domain is being utilised.
We’ve also provided valuations on each domain name with assistance from some of the experts at DNtrade. The valuations are based on the domain name only, and not the associated website.
Insurance.com.au
Owner: Insurance Consulting Services Pty Ltd
Value: $200,000 – $250,000
Usage: Stand-alone website which offers quotes for life insurance products and referrals for general insurance products.
Comments: The most generic of all insurance domains is surprisingly not owned by one of the major insurers, and is instead owned by a financial planning company. It’s not a bad looking website, but is fairly light on information.
LifeInsurance.com.au
Owner: iSelect
Value: $150,000 – $250,000
Usage: Redirects to the life insurance page on the main iSelect website.
Comments: With online life insurance being a red-hot sector, this would be one of the most sought after domain names out there. By using the domain as a redirect iSelect would not be getting an major SEO benefit, but given that they already rank number 1 in Google for ‘life insurance’ I don’t think they’ll be too concerned.
CarInsurance.com.au
Owner: Luke Donnelley
Value: $150,000 – $200,000
Usage: A very basic one page website with no ability to request a quote or contact them.
Comments: It’s almost unbelievable that such a premium domain has remained in private hands and is still so underutilised. No doubt the owner is fully aware of its value and has received countless offers over the years.
HomeInsurance.com.au
Owner: REA (realestate.com.au)
Value: $30,000 – $50,000
Usage: Redirects to the realestate.com.au website.
Comments: It’s not a huge surprise to see this domain used by the owners of realestate.com.au, but it is surprising to see that it is very underutilised. There is an insurance section on the website, but this domain does not redirect to that area. I should add that I believe ‘realestate.com.au’ is the best use of ANY premium generic domain name in Australia.
IncomeProtection.com.au
Owner: Income Protection Pty Ltd
Value: $50,000 – $100,000
Usage: Main website for the business of the same name.
Comments: Out of all the premium insurance domains, this would be the best utilised. In this case an entire business has been built around the domain name, and having met the original owner who started the business around 15 years ago, it has been quite successful.
TPDInsurance.com.au
Owner: iSelect
Value: $5,000 – $10,000
Usage: None.
Comments: This is the second entry for iSelect, but unlike lifeinsurance.com.au which redirects to the relevant page of the iSelect website, tpdinsurance.com.au simply returns an error message. This certainly seems to be a lost oportunity, however iSelect already rank #2 for the term in Google and would probably get limited benefit from using this domain any differently.
TraumaInsurance.com.au
Owner: iSelect
Value: $5,000 – $10,000
Usage: None.
Comments: iSelect have scooped the trifecta with lifeinsurance.com.au, tpdinsurance.com.au and traumainsurance.com.au. Unfortunately this one also returns a nil result, but iSelect won’t be too upset since they also rank #1 for this term.
IncomeProtectionInsurance.com.au
Owner: iSelect
Value: $20,000 – $50,000
Usage: None.
Comments: Ordinarily a domain name with three words would no be considered as ‘super premium, but this particular domain would be one of the rare exceptions. Unsurprisingly this domain is also owned by iSelect, and as with their TPD and trauma domains it simply returns an error message when you attempt to visit the site.
TravelInsurance.com.au
Owner: TIOTN Pty Ltd
Value: $150,000 – $250,000
Usage: Travel insurance business of the same name.
Comments: Finally we have a second premium domain name which is being properly utilised. Travelinsurance.com.au is a fully branded website offering travel insurance as a fully fledged business. Unfortunately for the owners of this website it does not rank very well in Google at all, which is a little unusual for a well used premium domain.
BusinessInsurance.com.au
Owner: H and N (Nominees) Pty Limited
Value: $20,000 – $50,000
Usage: Insurance brokerage of the same name.
Comments: The last domain we’ll look at is businessinsurance.com.au, and it’s pleasing to see that this is another very well utilised domain. The website is owned by an AFSL holder and contains plenty of great information about business insurance and about their company.
Small Business v Big Business
It’s interesting to see that other than those owned by iSelect and REA, many of the super premium domain names are not owned by big corporates.
It’s also clear that the smaller sized owners are utilising their domains in a far better fashion than the big corporates.
The reason for this may be that the big corporates can afford to buy up valuable domains and sit on them, whilst smaller businesses really need to generate a return on what will have been a fairly large investment in most cases.
iSelect
Going back to iSelect, they own four of the best insurance domains available, being lifeinsurance.com.au, tpdinsurance.com.au, traumainsurance.com.au and incomeprotectioninsurance.com.au.
These four domains have a combined value of anywhere between $200,000 and $400,000 depending on who you ask, and potentially even up to one million dollars.
But each of the domains are completely underutilised, and there is probably little need for iSelect to develop the domains since they already rank #1 or #2 in Google for each term.
So why would they spend up big on buying them? One possible reason is to simply stop anyone else from getting them and doing something more substantial with the domains which could compete with iSelect’s main website.
To Be Continued
In part 2 of this article we will be asking some of the owners of these websites why they decided to invest in a premium domain name.
We hope to get some interesting answers to share over the next few months.
More evidence of the big institutions taking over the distribution of insurance.
Hi David, thanks for contributing.
I disagree about the institutions, as none of the domain names listed in the article are owned by institutions.
My personal opinion is that the insurers would like to take over some distribution (as evidenced by the insurers buying up dealer groups over the years, and the recent acquisition of Lifebroker by TAL) but they certainly don’t appear to be doing it by investing in domain names.
These are savvy forward thinking companies who understand the riches that come from owning premium generic domain names. iSelect will become the biggest insurance company in Australia the way they are investing in online assets.
iselect are not even an insurance company, so your comment makes no sense. They are just a comparison service.
These websites should be run by independent companies that allow consumers to research the insurance types and then be put in touch with a local financial adviser who can give them personal advice and assistance.
The current way that comparison websites are run make consumers feel that they are doing the right thing by researching their insurance and going DIY to save money, but in reality the consumers are simply missing out on professional advice.
If someone goes to one of the websites listed above seeking quotes on $100,000 life insurance, will they have a chance to speak with a professional adviser who analyses their needs and lets them know $100,000 may be insufficient?
Make no mistake, these developments will lead to poor insurance outcomes for Australians.
I was recently informed that iSelect have also purchased Life.com.au.
Whilst this isn’t strictly an insurance product name like the others listed in the article, it is still a super premium domain name.
And surprise surprise, when you type in the domain you just get an error page!
iSelect also owns some other big ones like healthinsurance.com.au & insurancecomparison.com.au
Who made up the price guides for these domains? You can multiply each of them by ten and they would still be conservative. Lifeinsurance.com.au is a MINIMUM million dollar domain any day of the week.
I actually agree with you to some extent, especially in light of the recent sale of carloan.com.au for $200k+. I’m not sure that you could multiply each of the figures by 10, but I do agree that lifeinsurance.com.au could potentially be a $1 million domain for the right buyer with deep pockets and big plans.
Wow if you could get your hands on one of these domains (such as insurance.com.au) you could easily be the next ‘realestate.com.au’, ‘carsales.com.au’ or ‘seek.com.au’ of the insurance world. Who’s up to the challenge?
I agree Gerry. It would take an awful lot of marketing dollars though, not to mention the cost of acquiring the domain in the first place.
Thanks for providing such a valuable service. I own the domain name myrefinance.com.au What do you guys think about that domain name? I tried to look for good developed website with the word “refinance” in it and could not find many. As you all might agree that Refinance is also very important part of home loan/mortgage industry, this domain might worth a good amount as its easy to remember and very easy to be branded for a bank/broker/mortgage company to capture Refinance leads!!