Parked pages are back on Google!?

[dedekind]

I could almost not believe my eyes! Most of my parked pages (~75%) are displayed by Google, mostly very high, on the first page of search results. I search for the keyword, dropping the extension. They are parked at Sedo, NameDrive, Fabulous and BigJumbo.

Is this a change in Google policy towards parked pages, of which I was not aware?

 

[enlytend]

I noticed it a couple of weeks ago when my parking stats on Fabulous started to look like the good ol' days again.

Whatever the explanation, it corresponds to the rollout of an infrastructure change on G's part, affecting the way they crawl and index pages. Whether the inclusion is intentional, an oversight or an experiment remains to be seen.

Even if the pages stay indexed, no guarantee they'll keep decent rankings - that could just be a short-lived honeymoon.

In any case, enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[Robin]

I saw that for some parked sites. Interesting.

 

[globegenius]

I'm trying out google parking as well. The A and C records are still updating for some. I'll see how they rank. Also I am experimenting with parking and hosting a webpage at the same time. I'll give you an example. Notice the different url's in each name.

seasonar.com <<< "naked" domain that is parked at hostnhub (Not linked it as its a parked page.)

www.seasonar.com <<< domain alias with website

seasonar <<< where I built the web page at google. I checked my lynx viewer and the search engines can see them all. No masking as a masked domain will not be indexed by google.

Search engines see seasonar.com and www(dot)seasonar.com as 2 different sites.
I thought I would try this out. You can also redirect both sites to just one url. Some claim that it enhances seo for the domain.

I kind of like parking and displaying a website for the domain at the same time. I had to map the www domain at google before I could add a new alias at my c-panel C and A records. I'm going to do this for other web sites I built at google.

example of parked page with google uavbase.us

:wave:

Edit. I unlinked the google and hostnhub parked page as the mods might come down on me for spamming. I'm just trying to show the different things you can do and help out people that were unaware.

 

[enlytend]

Actually, we were talking about parked pages being included in Google's search index. A while back, it threw (almost) all of them out. Now some of them at least seem to be back in.

Search engines see seasonar.com and www(dot)seasonar.com as 2 different sites.
I thought I would try this out. You can also redirect both sites to just one url. Some claim that it enhances seo for the domain.

It doesn't "enhance seo", what it does is prevent canonical issues from creating a duplicate content scenario or splitting the value of inbound links.

 

[globegenius]

Yes I realize that but since google was mentioned and the post heading is

"Parking & Traffic Monetization Discussion about domain parking and other methods of earning income from domain traffic."

I thought I would mention a way of gaining possibly more revenue from a domain name. From using parking on the "naked" domain and using adsense on the other website. For the users that only register domains, this is probably too advanced for them. Google actually allows up to 5 sites to be added to their site name, so I do not see where the duplicate content would be a problem with them.

I could be wrong though. It would not be the first time. Google also states you are supposed to receive 100% of ad revenue so I thought I would try out their parking as well. Yes it will split your back links but if you have a good name that should be no big deal either. I'll have to wait and see how they rank in the long run.

 

[dtagr]

This is very frustrating.

I developed a keyword dot org as a blog,worked it from nothing to #6 with over 13 million competitive sites. Started contacting endusers extolling the virtues of keyword domains and natural ranking.

Overnight Google dumped my site down to 250th and simultaneously dropped the PARKED keyword dot com in 4th spot. I expect the .com to be sold to MY endusers momentarily.

I can only hope that some of my parked dot coms become indexed to balance out the equation.

 

[SpareDomains]

I normally see some of my yahoo domains ranked well as yahoo allows title, keyword, description tags but recently I am seeing domains parked on google feeds that don't allow that also ranking well, even domains at sedo are starting to rank, maybe the slight advantage a keyword domain holds is turning into a larger advantage, no idea if this will last but my parking income is doing good lately across the board at Sedo & Smartname who I'm currently using. Weird thing is I keep finding Sedo domains on the front page which is odd because I would consider them the least likely to rank but when I hit cache to see what the page was that got indexed it was a plain jane lite sedo template.

 

[mjbenterprises]

If this is a permanent change, then this will be a major development for the value of keyword domains...I checked my SEDO domains, and a large portion of them are on page one on google... I've never seen any of my sedo domains ranked on google at all before....I hope this isn't some temporary glitch, this is quite a major story if the change is permanent...

As a previous poster said, .com keword domains seem to be heavily favored in the rankings....

 

[SpareDomains]

I keep looking up more and more of my keyword domains and I keep seeing front page listings and when I check the cache version of what got indexed Sedo is the majority in my case, every time I check stats I keep seeing more dollars so I guess I'll leave them at Sedo and ride it while it lasts, my parking revenue the last few weeks on the domains at Sedo has been increased so I guess the boost in rankings is the cause, reminds ya of the good old days. I had an ad running in google for a domain I wanted to sell and now I see the sedo parked page on the front page of google so might not even need to run the ad as the parked page is ranked on top.

 

[mjbenterprises]

If this holds up, this is a major, major development... It efffectively means that the domain name itself is the most important factor in rankings, even more important than content...

It means that even if you have a large SEO campaign, and invest thousands or perhaps millions of dollars, the exact keyword .com domain will still outrank you...That, to me, would be mindblowing, but I am thinking this must be a temporary glitch, I can't imagine the situation staying like this for long, but if it does, the owners of exact keyword domains will be richly rewarded....

 

[SpareDomains]

If this holds up, this is a major, major development... It efffectively means that the domain name itself is the most important factor in rankings, even more important than content...

It means that even if you have a large SEO campaign, and invest thousands or perhaps millions of dollars, the exact keyword .com domain will still outrank you...That, to me, would be mindblowing, but I am thinking this must be a temporary glitch, I can't imagine the situation staying like this for long, but if it does, the owners of exact keyword domains will be richly rewarded....

Keyword domains have a slight advantage and when you take a keyword domain with good development and SEO it's tough to beat but I never expected to find parked domains ranking so well especially at Sedo. I'm not sure it will last either probably just a fluke but just the last few weeks of increased parking income and those front page listings can definitely drive end users to your sales pages, even if it lasts only a few more weeks that is still pretty good as most of my domains are all .com keywords and even the long tails I checked are seeing front page listings so I consider this Christmas in February but I'm open to Christmas year round if it continues. I was checking parking stats once a day but now once an hour shows increases.

 

[sienna]

... Google also states you are supposed to receive 100% of ad revenue ...

you mean after Google takes *it's* cut ... no?

 

[globegenius]

you mean after Google takes *it's* cut ... no?

Yes. I had this program confused with another one. They do not disclose what percent they pay. They state as much or more as traditional parking companies. I am trying several parking companies besides my own. So far my own has paid the most. 80% they claim. I have parked 47 domains with google. So far 14 are active and 3 have been dis-allowed. 29 pending. The rest are still verifying which can take 24-48 hours.
I just started the google parked pages yesterday so its too early to have results. I might wind up scrapping the plan and use my parking only. Just going with the ole "don't put all your eggs in one basket". I'll report back later on the google parked pages. They do allow 4 keywords and you can adjust the page colors. ie:

Header Background

Header Text

Header Query

Search Bar Background

Search Bar Border

Section Border

Section Header Text

Link

Ad Description Text

They do not allow picture uploads at this time. example taxexec (dot) com

I know there is other parking companies that have much fancier pages. I do like working with the "big boys" though.


Edit: I scratched the plan on running 2 different web sites for seasonar. I have been discussing this with a top google webmaster. Now I'm forwarding the "naked" seasonar.com domain to the www.seasonar.com that is mapped with the google site. Lynw viewer can read both urls content. I'll have to see now if google will index the site.

 

[Datalife]

This seems to be happening only with Sedo domains. Why so? Did Sedo iron out some special deal with Google? My domains elsewhere are not getting this treatment.

 

[SpareDomains]

This seems to be happening only with Sedo domains. Why so? Did Sedo iron out some special deal with Google? My domains elsewhere are not getting this treatment.

I am only using Sedo currently on the google end and on the yahoo end I'm using smartname, I do see some of both getting good rank but the majority of mine on the front page are Sedo. You have domains at other google providers not seeing as good of a rank as Sedo or are they on a yahoo feed? In a way you would think Google would favor google feed parked pages as any clicks make them money where yahoo pages don't and that would be 1 blow to microsoft stepping up to help yahoo by not indexing their pages as good. Whatever the reason the last 2 weeks have been nice and had it not been for this thread I probably wouldn't have googled 40-50 and found them on the front page, would check the rest but it would take too long and 40-50 is enough for me to say something definitely changed as my stats remind me of a few years ago.

 

[enlytend]

If this holds up, this is a major, major development... It efffectively means that the domain name itself is the most important factor in rankings, even more important than content...

That's not the case now, and it's never, EVER gonna happen.

As an example: I have a 2-3 yr old developed site on a particular topic which ranks well for many different keywords, including those in it's domain. I also own a parked domain which is an exact match on one of those "other" keywords (a 2-word phrase). My site is #1 for that "other" keyword, the parked domain is indexed but nowhere in the first 5 pages (though an additional page from my developed site is on p3).

Content is still king.

Getting in the index is one thing, getting and keeping high rankings is another altogether. The parked domains of mine that are making pages 1/2 are niche terms which are not being effectively targeted otherwise (which is why I registered them in the first place). Also, google tries a lot of new sites with good placements short-term. If you get good visitor interaction for a particular keyword, you'll tend to keep rankings. If not, you'll tank. Visitor interaction is becoming more and more important in search.

If you're consistently seeing your own sites or parked domains in the top results, make sure you have personalized search turned off. Personalized search is now the default on Google for everyone, regardless or whether or not you are logged into a Google account.

 

[SpareDomains]

That's not the case now, and it's never, EVER gonna happen.

As an example: I have a 2-3 yr old developed site on a particular topic which ranks well for many different keywords, including those in it's domain. I also own a parked domain which is an exact match on one of those "other" keywords (a 2-word phrase). My site is #1 for that "other" keyword, the parked domain is indexed but nowhere in the first 5 pages (though an additional page from my developed site is on p3).

Content is still king.

Getting in the index is one thing, getting and keeping high rankings is another altogether. The parked domains of mine that are making pages 1/2 are niche terms which are not being effectively targeted otherwise (which is why I registered them in the first place). Also, google tries a lot of new sites with good placements short-term. If you get good visitor interaction for a particular keyword, you'll tend to keep rankings. If not, you'll tank. Visitor interaction is becoming more and more important in search.

If you're consistently seeing your own sites or parked domains in the top results, make sure you have personalized search turned off. Personalized search is now the default on Google for everyone, regardless or whether or not you are logged into a Google account.

While I agree unique content is definitely king, some type of shuffle has definitely occurred as I googled about 40-50 of my keyword domains with personalized search off and they are all on the front page. These are not niche terms that are easy to compete on they are highly searched terms with thousands of searches a month for them and a lot of competition. Will it last probably not but for a few weeks now my parking income has definitely confirmed I'm not the only one finding them on the front page. Not sure how long it has been doing this as I just moved a batch back to Sedo from Smartname 2 weeks ago and the whole time I have seen an huge increase in traffic/earnings. If it ends tomorrow no sweat as the increase in earnings over the last few weeks was a good enough bonus. I am seeing my parked pages rank above or right below the major companies that provide the product the domain describes. I'll take it while it lasts.

 

[dedekind]

Just to add some oil to the fire...

Perhaps only anecdotal, never mind...

DN Journal has reported a comment of the Google's delegate at the 2009 Round Table in Washington last June

2009 Domain Roundtable Provides Rousing Conclusion to the Amazing Conference Race

in following terms:

"Today, due to the precipitous decline in parking revenue over the past year, a major trend is domain owners looking for new ways to monetize their assets. Many consider the standard parking page to be passe now, however Google's Bailey said he wouldn't write them off just yet.

Bailey told the story of how a friend who wanted to go to Spain told him about how excited she was to find a great website about the country. She even used it to book her hotel room. When Bailey checked out the "site" he was surprised to see it was a parking page with links his friend had used to find the services she was looking for."

Not a usual Google-speak!

 

[Datalife]

Perhaps only anecdotal, never mind...

DN Journal has reported a comment of the Google's delegate at the 2009 Round Table in Washington last June

2009 Domain Roundtable Provides Rousing Conclusion to the Amazing Conference Race

in following terms:

"Today, due to the precipitous decline in parking revenue over the past year, a major trend is domain owners looking for new ways to monetize their assets. Many consider the standard parking page to be passe now, however Google's Bailey said he wouldn't write them off just yet.

Bailey told the story of how a friend who wanted to go to Spain told him about how excited she was to find a great website about the country. She even used it to book her hotel room. When Bailey checked out the "site" he was surprised to see it was a parking page with links his friend had used to find the services she was looking for."

Not a usual Google-speak!

Haha, that's funny. I think Google are just getting desperate.

I have not seen this front page ranking for domains of mine other than those at Sedo, even Namedrive domains (Google feed) are not getting this treatment, so I think I'm going to move some domains over to Sedo. If Sedo and Google had something worked out, I'm sure their plan is working nice now that many domainers would be doing the same thing!