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Why Would BANS Sites On INFO Domains Be Deindexed?

In the last post "Why were My BANS Sites Deindexed By Google" I wrote about how several BANS sites that I recently built on INFO TLDs had been deindexed. In that post I outlined some of the potential reasons for their deindexing. In this post I want to look at the possibility of these sites having been deindexed because they were on an INFO TLD.

At first I was hesitant to build a web site on an INFO domain. Although, up until this point, I had only built about ten web sites, they had all been on COM domains. With COM domains I have never had any problems being indexed. Moreover, none of the sites had ever been deindexed. I wanted to make sure that the INFO TLD would not be a major issue. After a little research I was convinced that the Google algorithm does not treat domain TLDs differently. But, like so many other things having to do with search engines, and Google in particular, things change. On May 1st Google took steps to purge its index of many of the INFO domains.

Domain Tasting And Google Index Spam

To understand why Google would potentially purge its index of INFO domains you have to understand that Google is constantly fighting to get rid of spam in its index. One of the biggest sources of spam in Google’s index was due to a practice known as domain tasting. In January of this year Google took steps to end the practice by not allowing Adsense to be placed on domains less than 5 days old.

Domain tasting is when a domain is registered and then returned to the domain registrar prior to the end of a five day grace period. The grace period was originally intended to enable market testing of a domain name. But, over time the practice of domain tasting became abused. Instead of testing the marketability of a domain domain tasters began monetizing the domains with no intention of keeping them. They would make money off the domain for five days and then return the site to the registrar prior to the five day grace period ending.

Some domain tasters would take the practice even further through a process known as domain kiting. Domain kiting follows the same premise of domain tasting but with a twist. With domain kiting the domain taster would return the domain to the registrar before the five day grace period was up and then immediately reregister the domain. This would enable the domain taster to lockup a good paying domain without ever having to pay a dime for it.

The practice of domain tasting was basically free money. Individuals and companies would register thousands of domain names at the same time. Domain tasters reaped the benefits of having the domain without having to pay a dime. There was a lot of money made by domain tasters. Let’s say you picked up 10,000 domains and only made .25 cents per day per site. That is still $2500 dollars per day or $12,500 for five days.

So, why would Google care about the abuse of domain tasting? There are two big reasons Google would care. First, the practice became so wide spread that it started to clog the SERPs (search engine response pages) with low quality web sites that did not fulfill the needs of search users.

Second, domain tasting sites would normally be monetized with Google Adsense. This meant that Google advertisers were getting charged for low quality exposure. In essence the practice of domain tasting degraded both Google’s search results and its ability to funnel quality traffic to its advertisers.

In January of this year Google stopped allowing Google Adsense on domains that were less than five days old. this policy change by Google effectively ended the practice of domain tasting. Or, did it?

Domain Tasting And INFO Domains

Recently, several domain registrars most notably GoDaddy.com and DomainSheriff.com have been registering INFO domains for a measly .99 cents. At .99 cents INFO domains aren’t free and are a little more risky for domain tasters but they are still profitable. And now they have a full year to make a profit before having to return the domain to the registrar, if they decide to.

Take the same 10,000 domains at .25 cents per day and multiply by 365 and you have a potential return of about $913,000. That is a lot of incentive. By purging most INFO domains from its indexes Google was protecting itself from a potential huge influx of spam. By continuing to hold INFO domains to higher scrutiny Google is protecting its algorithm and advertisers from the potential spam abuse caused by INFO domains being so cheap.

BANS, INFO Domains And Spam

Google is constantly fighting to rid its index of spam. And spammers are constantly finding ways to get spam into Google’s index. If in Google’s view the INFO TLD is the domain TLD of choice for domain tasters then Google will be putting the INFO domain TLD under greater scrutiny. INFO domains have always been cheaper than other domain TLDs. And, so have had a reputation of having a larger majority of the spam type sites. If you put together the INFO domain TLD’s reputation for spam content, a new demand from domain tasters for a source of domains, and the rock bottom price of .99 cents for the INFO TLD, you have a recipe for greater scrutiny from Google.

Now this is just a speculation on my part, but the purge of INFO domains was an attempt to put in new counter measures to find spam and filter it from Google’s index.

So what does this have to do with BANS? BANS in essence is an affiliate script that pulls data directly from eBay. When a store page on a BANS store is indexed much of the content could be considered duplicate to the content of that found on Ebay. Is the amount and type of content pulled from eBay be considered enough to get a duplicate content penalty. Under normal circumstances on a COM domain or on a site with a little authority or an aged domain, I wouldn’t think so. But, with a new INFO domain in an environment of greater scrutiny from Google, there is a good possibility that the site will get greater scrutiny.

The Googlebot may now be looking at more factors to try and lower the likeliness that spam gets into the index. For instance, if you have 20 or 30 pictures on a BANS store page all being pulled from eBay the Googlebot may perceive this as some form of spam and kick the site for human review. The human reviewer looks at the site and sees the generic site template, and sees little content on the page, or little content at the top of the page then the product pictures and a lot content at the bottom and the person doing the inspection may decide your site is spam and you are deindexed.

What Does It All Mean For BANS Built on INFO Domains

Before I draw my conclusions let me first say that I am not an SEO expert. I am not good buddies with Matt Cutts and have insider information. my conclusions are simple logical deductions. Which can be flawed. I am just presenting a theory as to why BANS sites on INFO domains are being deindexed.

Does this mean that if you build a BANS store on an INFO domain Google will deindex the site. I don’t think so. There are plenty of BANS stores out there on INFO domains. Just search for "Powered by Build a Niche Store" inurl:".info" at Google — leave the quotes in. There will be little over 12,000 sties returned. That is by no means all of the BANS sites on INFO domains; just the ones that left the BANS affiliate link in the footer.

What it does mean is that BANS sites on INFO domains will be kicked by GoogleBot for greater scrutiny more often than a BANS site on a COM domain on a domain wit more authority. This means that if you are going to build a BANS site on an INFO domain you will need to set it up so that it will pass a visual inspection by a human. Getting indexed is not a problem staying indexed is.

In my next post I’ll look at the characteristics of BANS sites built on INFO domains that have not been removed from Google’s index.

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