AdSense plug is pulled, Next could be keyword.com search advantage

[NetOctave]

Rick's blog URGENT! Is Google Adsense closing up Minisites and others? NO NOTICE! BEWARE! on adsense closing minisites.

Soon I'm sure google will remove the "exact keyword sites".com minisites from their search results.
Type-in advantage has vanished long before for long name keywords . Now the only advantage of a keyword.com name is the preference google gives them in their search result. Most of the developed keyword.com names come in the top couple of results and hence the value for them.

So if google touches this area also, minisites on a keyword.com name will be gone and so does the value of keyword.com names. Without search visitors, there will be less ways for monetizing it.

I don't think a single word keyword.com could be affected much, nor will be a well developed site on a good keyword name. But a long keyword.com with a quick seup minisite could go down the drain and so will be the resale values of most keyword.com names.

What do you think ?

 

[HappyBunny]

Soon I'm sure google will remove the "exact keyword sites".com minisites from their search results.

The article talks about Rick's having his AdSense account closed without warning/explanation. It doesn't mention anything about Google search ranking/placement. So... What's the correlation between that article and your statement above? What does the article have to do with ranking? What's your reasoning?

 

[mobigod]

Rick had his account cancelled thats all, it doesnt mean anything hes just having a tizzy fit and looking too deep
who uses all that crap on your sites now anyway? promote your own sites on your sites and take paid advertising for the best sites. forget yahoo publishing, adsense etc and all that crap imo

the whole minisite thing is ridiculous anyway, noone is ever finding the site, its got basic/uselss info on
better concentrating on fewer quality sites

google do this everyday to thousands. suspend account just before being paid out. keep the cash, give no reason, and it may be smething like you dont have a disclaimer or ptivacy policy link in footer or something. left scratching your head
google commit mass fraud daily imho. just 'google it' :hehe:

 

[NetOctave]

The article talks about Rick's having his AdSense account closed without warning/explanation. It doesn't mention anything about Google search ranking/placement. So... What's the correlation between that article and your statement above? What does the article have to do with ranking? What's your reasoning?

He doesn't say that. I'm the one saying that.

If google continue like this, soon the search placement advantage for keyword domain would be gone if the site is a minisite.

 

[enlytend]

Isn't it very possible that some of that group of sites were in violation of some Adsense program policy? They do shut down entire accounts for that and they don't send warnings. I feel bad for Rick, but spending thousands of dollars on development is unfortunately still no guarantee that everything's going to be done right... or properly retrofitted when the program policies change (as they often do).

There's at least one big player in minisite development who is/was building sites w/o a privacy policy, just to name one possibility. I'd be interested to know the status of his sites in that respect. Now that the DoubleClick exchange (the acquisition of which was the reason Google started requiring language about the DoubleClick DART cookie in privacy policies a while back) is going to be integrated with the Google ad network, it makes sense that they might start cracking down on sites without them.

Just speculating ...

As forthis:

Soon I'm sure google will remove the "exact keyword sites".com minisites from their search results.

"KID" (Keyword In Domain) SEO is a useful tool but it's also a one-trick pony. Use it to kick-start a site, but if you don't have anything behind it to back it up you're putting all your eggs in one basket and totally at the mercy of an algo change.

 

[Jaco]

Unproductive domaining is so, SO 2003.
The future is in meaningful development, lads. Not "develop as lightly as possible for SE advantage and hope people click..." It's in MEANINGFUL development. Doing something innovative. The kind of development that takes work.. The kind that costs money. The kind that creates an actual user experience...

It doesn't take a chess player to figure out that search engines- whose sole goal is to deliver quality content to their users- are going to take measures to quash garbage content (ala clicky pages, trash content minisites, etc) and very likely, start hitting SEO hard, too.

 

[Premiere]

Just keep in mind that meaningful development, even development targeted solely with the goal in mind of NOT monetizing, will eventually be banned by Adsense if you later decide to monetize. I have an adsense account for 7 years and had it closed for god knows what reason, just as soon as my rates started to soar.

And oddly enough, Google makes it clear that adsense accounts get a trust level and higher payouts over time. So you are taking more of the pie with an older account, and subsequently, more of a risk to Google's bottom line (money) the older your account gets. Of course you can easily win your $$ back but never your account. But you have to sue them in Santa Clara County California. How many people can afford to fly to CA for their $1,000 check? Google doesn't even contest these disputes because they don't want the world to know their 'secrets'. There aren't any secrets! Google's mantra of "do no harm", is actually "do no harm to Google's pockets".

They are so off their rockers it's insane. Class action lawsuits and more monopoly charges are certain to come in the future. Controlling the internet and the advertising and creating your own monetiziation platform and parking platform and de-indexing people for no reason and the newfeeds problem and so many other things just make Google many many times worse than Microsoft ever was. Even if Bill gates was off his rocker, he was just another crazy with power clown. Google is several hundred Bill Gates' who all think they're Mahatma Gandhi.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Class action lawsuits and more monopoly charges are certain to come in the future.

There are two things that the US FTC needs to look at.

1. Google's policy that you can't run other ad networks if you are using AdSense.

2. Their policy of penalizing or banning you from the search engine if you sell links to other sites.

My interpretation is that they want to control traffic on the internet, and how that traffic is monetized (preferably through them). They are going to continue pushing the limits until the FTC puts the hammer down on them.

 

[HFear]

There are two things that the US FTC needs to look at.

1. Google's policy that you can't run other ad networks if you are using AdSense.

2. Their policy of penalizing or banning you from the search engine if you sell links to other sites.

My interpretation is that they want to control traffic on the internet, and how that traffic is monetized (preferably through them). They are going to continue pushing the limits until the FTC puts the hammer down on them.

Actually Google does allow you to use other ad networks, but you need to make sure that the ads are not similar to Adsense.

 

[enlytend]

2. Their policy of penalizing or banning you from the search engine if you sell links to other sites.

You can buy and sell links for advertising, they have absolutely no problem with that. What they don't like is buying and selling links just for page rank. It's the "attempting to manipulate the search results" part that they object to. Even then, they're not likely to ban your site unless you link out to a "bad neighborhood".

 

[lincolndsp]

google pros are starting a war on minisites from what I personally see. at least they banned my adsense account because of the site quality issues several days ago...

 

[labrocca]

Unproductive domaining is so, SO 2003.
The future is in meaningful development, lads. Not "develop as lightly as possible for SE advantage and hope people click..." It's in MEANINGFUL development. Doing something innovative. The kind of development that takes work.. The kind that costs money. The kind that creates an actual user experience...

It doesn't take a chess player to figure out that search engines- whose sole goal is to deliver quality content to their users- are going to take measures to quash garbage content (ala clicky pages, trash content minisites, etc) and very likely, start hitting SEO hard, too.

I agree. We all know that Rick doesn't do meaningful development. I gotta say it was nice of him though to inform users of this potential risk. If G starts nailing minisites hard they might go after parking even harder. The fact is these are just one-page minisites. Well below the criteria that Adsense requires.

 

[WordWalker]

Provided there is meaningful development with original, relevant content it would make little sense for Google to pull the plug on giving a search result preference for keyword based domain names.

It seems to me that so long as you are not trying to game the system, there is be no better threshold qualifier for a match than when the domain name exactly matches the search inquiry.

Yes, the underlying content may be more thoroughly scrutinized, but for Google's algorithm not to offer a search result preference for a perfect match of search inquiry and domain name is to throw out the baby with the bath water!:imho:

 

[Corey]

interesting read on development and g

Cheers
Corey

 

[Dean]

Well if google are going against minisites I congratulate them and its finally time they started to get rid of these spam sites.

 

[larryharlow]

I think Its all B.S.

 

[mdamin76]

The post from Rick does not scare me. It already happened long time ago, because google has the right to close any account if they feel they have to.