Sedo Keyword Problem

[audubon]

Cross-check your keywords vs. the ads!

On at least one of my domains parked at sedo, the keyword shown as the active keyword using the optimization tool does not match the keyword being used to select the ads.

In fact, the text at the top of the page that states "For <selected keyword> try these sponsored results" shows my chosen keyword; the ads, however, are obviously for a different keyword.

I emailed sedo last week about this; waiting for a response.

[Gerry]

Cross-check your keywords vs. the ads!

On at least one of my domains parked at sedo, the keyword shown as the active keyword using the optimization tool does not match the keyword being used to select the ads.

In fact, the text at the top of the page that states "For <selected keyword> try these sponsored results" shows my chosen keyword; the ads, however, are obviously for a different keyword.

I emailed sedo last week about this; waiting for a response.

This has been a huge ongoing problem and I have been raising hell about this for weeks. I am told it is out of their control.

WRONG! It is totally and 100% in their control.

They are getting upset with me publishing their emails and BS rationale but I think I may continue to do it.

Dear Gerry,

There are many elements that you have highlighted here that are beyond my control, especially when dealing with the transfer of domains, personnel issues, or dynamic changes with our upstream advertising partners.

If it is out of their control, then they have lost control of their own company and need to relinquish it to someone that can control their own business model.

Because of what you have described, my revenue for March as well as CTR is down by as much as 75-80%.

My stats for the day at the very time of this posting? $4.61 with a CTR of 6.15%

Not only are keyword monitization being ignored to create the irrelevant landing pages, they are also ignoring languages set to point to specific languages like spanish or chinese.

Again, Sedo, if this is part of your features and added value service to the customer yet you totally ignore it, how is this "OUT OF OUR CONTROL"?

[Acro]

I think sedo meant to say "Things are out of control".

I emailed sedo last week about this; waiting for a response.

Good luck with that.

[audubon]

In the case of this particular keyword problem, "out of their control" would appear to be rubbish, and I'll tell you why. Let's say the domain name is ABCD.com. Regardless of the desired keyword, which is completely unrelated to "ABCD," the ads that show up are in fact all related to "ABCD," as though that was how the keyword had been set. Is there any other explanation? Is is possible that for some domains the ads are selected based on domain name and not keyword? (And is it a coincidence that this is one of my top domains?)

[Gerry]

In the case of this particular keyword problem, "out of their control" would appear to be rubbish, and I'll tell you why. Let's say the domain name is ABCD.com. Regardless of the desired keyword, which is completely unrelated to "ABCD," the ads that show up are in fact all related to "ABCD," as though that was how the keyword had been set. Is there any other explanation? Is is possible that for some domains the ads are selected based on domain name and not keyword? (And is it a coincidence that this is one of my top domains?)

BleacherMob.com...7 year old Sacramento Kings fan website. High traffic.

Purchased on the drop. Parked at sedo.

Keywords: NBA BASKETBALL SACRAMENTO KINGS

Ads Appearing: BLEACHERS, PORTABLE BLEACHERS, BLEACH, MOB, MOB CONTROL, ANTI THEFT DEVICES

Domain pulled from sedo.

Total irrelevance to the keyword optimization entered. OUT OF OUR CONTROL.

太極圖.com IDN domain. Language specified: Chinese.

Only Chinese appearing? The domain name. All else in English. OUT OF OUR CONTROL.

3/8/07 stats: $6.07 CTR 6.98%
Revenue down by nearly 75%, CTR down nearly 60% since the beginning of march. Again, OUT OF OUR CONTROL.

This is exactly what happens when totally irrelevant ads appear on the domain landing page. This is from typed in traffic which represents something specific that someone is looking for. If the pages contain no feeds that are relevant to the keyword or the search, then there will be no CTR, there will be no PPC.

OUT OF OUR CONTROL.

Screw that! Time for me to take control. I will take control and not subject myself and my portfolio to lame ass excuses and take pennies for my effort along with having my time and energies spend on optimizing my portfolio completely brushed aside as if I don't know what the hell I am doing or talking about.

Yes, Acroplex. It appears Sedo is out of control and have lost all control of their core business and focusing in on auctions.

I will take my porfolio out of their control.

[biggedon]

This is not a defense for any personal business issues, that you have with sedo.

However, I don't know why you guys are having issues with keyword optimizing, unless you are trying to "force" ads on domains, which have no "search relevance" to your domain.

A good gauge for checking your domain, is to type the name in google, without the extension. see if any "paid advertisements" are listed with that search.

one thing i know is, that these ppc services are starting to reward "keyword enriched" domains over those that are less distinctive.


sedo may not be the best place to park your domain, but until you have tried them all....then what can you compare it to?

[Gerry]

However, I don't know why you guys are having issues with keyword optimizing, unless you are trying to "force" ads on domains, which have no "search relevance" to your domain.

The example of BleacherMob.com and the keywords were from Google seach as well as OVT. The whole fascination with keyword optimization is exactly that...a fascination. Bleach, bleacher, mob. Not what the Sacramento Kings Fans are used to finding on that site. My fault for not immediately taking it to create a new site.

one thing i know is, that these ppc services are starting to reward "keyword enriched" domains over those that are less distinctive.

My number one domain at sedo is now 80% down in revenue and down from 45% CTR to less than 11%. No explaination whatsoever.

sedo may not be the best place to park your domain, but until you have tried them all....then what can you compare it to?

In the process of doing that now with Parked, NameDrive, and Dopa as well as Moniker Traffic Club. It is not so much the sole issue of revenue, PPC, and CTR being down at Sedo but add in the severe decline in customer service and support lately and there is clearly something wrong going on.

I can't say the others are any better or worse until I try them out. That will be my focus in the upcoming weeks and months.

[biggedon]

I can't say the others are any better or worse until I try them out. That will be my focus in the upcoming weeks and months.

yeah, after trying the same domains with at least 2 other services, then come back and report.

[Acro]

Yes, I can confirm this kind of thoughtless, literal, automatic but yet failed "optimization" occurs with many such conjuction domains when parked at sedo. Their parsing algorithm is simply not good enough. I tested the same domain with NameDrive and their then automatic (now manual, 1-hour turnaround) process was on the money.

[domainah]

I have a lot of domains for which even simple keywords that are 100% ok for this domain fail to produce relevant ads. This is the case when lets say you have a domain that used to be a site for games but from the name you would think it is travel related or something like that, you can set the keyword to games all you want the system at least thinks its a travel domain..

[audubon]

However, I don't know why you guys are having issues with keyword optimizing, unless you are trying to "force" ads on domains, which have no "search relevance" to your domain.

The issue is that after suggesting a keyword through the optimizer and finding that the keyword has been "approved" by sedo, as indicated in the optimizer interface, the keyword is subsequently ignored, and a hidden keyword is substituted behind-the-scenes.