Bodis sent an update to customers yesterday about recent performance impacts related to pay per click parking revenue. The company attributed the decline to a major change implemented by Google, which was announced earlier this year.
Google is now automatically opting out advertising on parked domain names. The result of the change is less PPC parking revenue for customers who use parking services like Bodis and its competitors.
Here’s the announcement from Bodis:
Google has operated its search engine on many different domain names. Of course, Google.com is the company’s primary domain name and the one that is most commonly referenced. Google also operates its search platform on many different local domain names throughout the world. Canadians might visit Google.ca, French citizens might navigate to Google.fr, and Danish citizens might find themselves on Google.dk.
These individual ccTLD domain names that Google operates may be some of the most well known and highly trafficked websites in their respective countries. In fact, each time someone visits Google.ccTLD, it has been a tacit reminder of ccTLD identity for citizens of those countries.
Jen Sale of Evergreen.com posted an email Google sent to its Google Ads advertisers. It looks like Google Ads will automatically opting-out new advertisers from advertising on parked domain names:
Interesting 🤔#domains @DInvesting @DomainNameWire @DNJournal @DomainSherpa pic.twitter.com/5FkyjeJfcG
— jen (@JenSale) September 4, 2024
Domain name parking revenue has been on the decline for quite some time. I have never earned much revenue from PPC advertising on my domain names, but I know quite a few people who made a living from parking back in the day.
Recently, Google announced the launch of its generative AI chatbot called Bard. Despite the likely trademark implications of registering domain names with “Bard” in them, some domain investors and others spent money on registrations and aftermarket purchases. Unfortunately for people hoping to cash in on Bard-related domain names, Google is changing its branding from Bard to Gemini, as Adam Maysonet shared earlier:
Google announced that Bard is officially being rebranded to Gemini. Bad news for anyone who spent money on Bard domains hoping to cash in. pic.twitter.com/V2d7T6YJzK
— Adam Maysonet (@synozeer) February 5, 2024
A few months ago, I sold a domain name via Squadhelp. Based on how the sale was made, I was pretty sure the domain name was not acquired by an existing brand. When I went to check to see if the domain name was being used using Safari, I was forwarded to another website. I was surprised to see that it forwarded me to an existing website.
A Whois search did not reveal any additional information, so I explored further. I visited the domain name on a Chrome browser, and I was taken to a default GoDaddy landing page. This perplexed me. A bit of additional researched showed me what happened.
The other day, Adam Strong shared a similar story about being redirected on Safari:
I received a press release this afternoon with some interesting domain industry news – Google is selling off its domain registrar business. According to the press release, “Squarespace will acquire the assets associated with the Google Domains business, which will be winding down following a transition period.”
This is surprising news to me. Google has become a top 5 domain registrar, and selling domain names to its vast base of customers seems like a pretty solid cross-sell opportunity. That said, domain names have a very low margin and it might be a high touchpoint business requiring considerable customer support.
