Millions of dollars are spent each year acquiring expired and expiring domain names at auctions. Domain name registrants let their domain names expire, and people – including domain investors – will bid on them when they are offered for sale via auction or drop catching platform.
There is a segment of domain name buyers who seek out expired domain names for SEO purposes. They may either try to build a website on an expired domain name to capitalize on traffic from inbound links, or they may choose to redirect the domain name to another website for the “SEO juice” given off by these expired domain names.
A policy change from Google that was announced today in its Search blog, The Keyword, may have an impact on the domain name expiry auction market. Here’s an excerpt from the article about domain names:
“Occasionally, expired domains are purchased and repurposed with the primary intention of boosting search ranking of low-quality or unoriginal content. This can mislead users into thinking the new content is part of the older site, which may not be the case. Expired domains that are purchased and repurposed with the intention of boosting the search ranking of low-quality content are now considered spam.”
I wish Google offered a bit more clarity on this. If BostonDogWalkingService.com (unregistered example) was once owned and used by a Boston dog walking service that went out of business and the domain name expired, what happens if an investor buys it for resale purposes? Will a subsequent buyer who has a dog walking service in Boston be penalized?
It seems that Google’s intent is to penalize the domain name if someone builds a spammy website or forwards it to another existing website specifically for SEO purposes. However, I am curious what will happen if the domain name is subsequently bought by another user in good faith for a new business.
Although this seems a bit unclear at the moment, my guess is Google doesn’t want people to buy domain names for SEO purposes only, and they will penalize those who do. If that begins happening and these SEO-types of domain names lose value, I suspect it will hurt the expiry auction market. There have been numerous times I’ve come across a random domain name auction with extraordinarily high bids because of the SEO value rather than the inherent domain name value. These kinds of domain names may become worth less.
Thank you for keeping me up to date on things Elliot Silver. It really helps.
They gave this example:
“For example, someone might purchase a domain previously used by a medical site and repurpose that to host low quality casino-related content, hoping to be successful in Search based on the domain’s reputation from a previous ownership.”
So I don’t think you have anything to worry about in your scenario.
That’s a good point.
I do think this will impact the expiry auction market where seemingly nonsensical domain names have sold for large amounts solely due to their historical usage and the perceived SEO value.
I’ve never bought domains solely based on SEO. Always knew the music would stop eventually and it has.
Couldn’t really care what some A$#ss holes companies or people having an opinion on the domains.
Just hand reg or buy it and move along
This is not life or death situation
Hi, Domaining is already dead?
Why there’s no bids on $1 Dynadot auctions for
Cheapest.Homes – new gtld
Anaesthetised.com – Medical dental dictionary one word domain
Why would anyone even want those? I wouldn’t pay $1 for them.
You have to pay me to get rid of your junk
Godaddy is a registrar, not a business dictator. Why do they think they have the authority to tell anyone how to run their business? (Note: I don’t enage in these practices, but I never thought it was my business to tell anybody else how to do business, barring criminal activities.) Google on the other hand has their own algorithms that will eventually penalize ranking of those who aren’t providing content, without any of Godaddy’s involvement at all. Further, acquiring a domain name and placing thin content at first, based on the timing of the new domain holder is up to that business alone; they can add quality content as they are able. How will Godaddy police new buyers? How will they judge the best use, and the proper timing of content development on a newly acquired property? How will they police themselves for the things for which they accuse others, among domains that they sell? How are they going to accurately read people’s minds on their intent? If Godaddy would focus on being a better registrar, they would serve the business community in a far better way, than meddling in things that have nothing to do with being a registrar. In this case, Godaddy is doing this from the perspective of aftermarket auctions, but isn’t this one of the ways that Godaddy makes their money… with domains that escalate in price? How are they going to police themselves? Are they not going to sell those domains, or are they going to reach in AFTER a sale, to tell the new owner what they can and cannot do with the new domain. Does Godaddy just want to keep all those expired domains with their existing traffic from years of good content under the prior owner, to redirect to Godaddy, because Godaddy is worried that they will be used for “spam” sites? Search engine optimization takes care of improving sites to rank better, but it doesn’t always happen all at once, and Google penalizes poor content sites, without any unequipped stepping in by Godaddy. How would this “spam” label translate into actual activities, and how would this be implemented fairly and without cherry picking who gets the “spam” label, for valuable traffic sites. Is someone pressuring Godaddy to do this, and if so, who is pressuring them and by what motives? This just opens a whole can of worms.
I wish Godaddy would do basics at the registrar, like let me delete domains I don’t want without insisting they sit there in “my” portfolio for weeks after I wanted them out of my portfolio. I wish they would let me sort by portfolio by folders. I wish the interface between Afternic and Godaddy actually worked. Etc. I wish Godaddy would focus energies on registrar fundamentals, instead of policing the internet.
Google is the one talking. Not GoDaddy as you’ll have it.
Anybody Hiring?