Zero Click Landers Can Hurt Sales

I believe that some parking companies use zero click landing pages to generate revenue for the domain owner. As an Internet user, I dislike zero click landers because they seem to land on some sort of shady page that suggests a download or they take me somewhere I don’t want to go. As a domain owner, I think a zero click landing page can hamper a sale.

This morning, I visited a domain name that is listed for sale. Before making an offer on this domain name, I wanted to see what effort the owner is making to sell the domain name. Obviously if there is a huge notice that the domain name is for sale, it means everyone else that has been interested in the domain name has seen the for sale message. When I visited the domain name, I noticed it was using a zero click lander that took me elsewhere. I think this could be hurting the sale potential of the domain name.

I can’t speculate about whether the domain owner knows (or cares) that there is a zero click landing page, but because of this type of parking, there is no “for sale” or “make offer” banner at the top. A prospective buyer interested in the domain name who wants to see how it is being used will not know that the domain name is for sale simply by visiting the landing page. I receive offers and inquiries regularly from people who click the inquiry link, and this is not happening for that domain owner.

Aside from this, a prospective buyer may take the domain name’s usage into account when considering a purchase. If a zero click landing page ended up on some sketchy website, a prospective buyer may be concerned that there would be residual negative impact on the domain name in the future. If Google, for instance, internally marked the domain name as sketchy or put it on some sort of blacklist, it could impact the future usage of the domain name.

As far as domain name sales go, I think zero click landing pages can be harmful. They may earn more PPC revenue (no idea about this), but I can’t see a way that they would help sell a domain name.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

5 COMMENTS

  1. Zero click is definitely harmful for most of premium domains. But what I am not confident is whether a PPC lander with “Buy This Domain” banner doesn’t limit sales. Based large portfolios which I’ve managed (25k domains) I have contradictory examples. For example:
    1. For sale lander (no PPC), simple, increases number of leads. But even huge number of leads doesn’t mean that most of them want to buy a domain name. Even with filters, the old inquiry form at DomainNameSales (recently added back also at Uniregistry) generates a lot of leads but most of them aren’t interested in domains. In contrary, complicated way of submission (let’s say Sedo, even in option without PPC) may limit even real leads from making an inquiry.
    2. PPC plus banner. If you tested at Parkingcrew, you may see how many people factually clicks for sale link. Not so many. So if somebody clicks finally and inquiries, it likely a genuine inquiry, not a spam.
    But whether PPC links don’t distract potential genuine leads from seeing “for sale”? – It’s difficult to measure this.
    On the one hand I’d say that a qualified buyer looks for “for sale banner”. If he wants to find it, he is able to find. Otherwise such a lead probably doesn’t intend to buy a domain.
    To mix the view on this aspect more, I have had sales on each of lander options. This would make me keen to say that if somebody truly wants to pay something for a domain, he will inquire. Buyers truly determined to pay a lot for good domains will find contact via whois even for unresolving domains.

    Overall, zero click is one thing. But PPC links is something else too. And although each option may determine number of leads, I would say that it doesn’t matter overall.

    Still I’m always curious to know opinions of others.

    Thanks,
    ~AW

  2. Would be an interesting experiment to know how PPC landers would affect number of sales in portfolios like DomainMarket. On the other hand MostWantedDomains was using PPC and still was selling a lot and for high price.

    Another aspect. As Elliot suggested, zero click may bring bad appearance for a domain. How about PPC links vs noPPC? One may think that of there are adds on a domain, the domain “is in demand” (whatever it may mean for a buyer). But other person may feel confused by adds and may not notice “for sale banner”.
    Again, every case can be different.
    Certainly, good domains for which there is motivated buyer will not have these problems. And vice versa – for bad names you can do everything and it won’t help… Your opinions guys?

  3. I requested Sedo to disable Zero Click Laner a few years ago. If you have domains parking with Sedo, you can request its support to disable it.

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