Sedo, one of the most popular domain parking services in the industry, announced today that they would no longer pay out parking revenue for any domain parked using URL forwarding starting in January 2012. This comes on the heels of Google’s announcement stating that they would no longer pay out ad revenue for url forwarded domains. Because Google is Sedo’s largest advertising partner, the changes were inevitable. In order to continue monetizing domains with Sedo, anyone using URL forwarding must now switch their domains to DNS parking.
Rumors say that the changes have to do with tighter control and increased transparency for parked domains, as well as technical changes to how parked ads are served. According to Sedo, though, the changes are beneficial to domainers. The company states that DNS parked domains:
- Are more secure and less susceptible to downtime.
- Load more quickly, resulting in higher click through rates (CTR) and thus more revenue for domain owners.
- Allow domain owners to make quick changes as DNS settings can often be changed in bulk.
An even bigger issue, however, lies in the fact that Google has stated that they would begin removing parked domains from their search results. The company posted the following in their new monthly series [1] on algorithm changes :
This makes the new DNS changes for parked domains even more significant as it makes it easier for Google to identify and filter out parked domain names.
What do you think of the changes and how do you think it will affect the domaining industry?