Parked pages were de-indexed...and I had no idea! Advice needed.

[pixel42]

I had about 25 domains that I'd bought in 2008, that I wasn't ready to develop, so I parked them at Namedrive. I wasn't doing it for the revenue (a few of the better names generated clicks, but nothing to write home about), it was more so the domains could be on some sort of "life support" (as opposed to languishing without Hosting) in the meantime while I figured out what to do with them.

Lo and behold, I just decided to move them to my new host and start developing some of them, but it turns out they've been de-indexed by Google. An exact search doesn't turn up any of the URLs, which is bad news.

Based on what I've read on other forums, this is happening to a lot of sites on WhyPark, Parked, Namedrive, and similar establishments. The reason this post isn't in the PPC forum is because I want do know if it's possible, by moving these domains to my (real) host and slowly developing organic content, to get them re-indexed in Google.

Some of these are 5-L, pronounceable names that have good branding potential, and that I'd hoped I might be able to sell one day. Sadly, I also just paid for the renewals on most of these names, without knowing what happened. It's not like I'd uploaded bad content or had any malicious intent - I was just parking the pages, and now I don't want the domains to suffer because of it.

Here's my main question: If parking can get you de-indexed, then what IS safe? Keeping a domain offline until you develop it? I recently acquired some names, and I don't want to repeat this mistake.

[stock_post]

Yes but will take time, google is slow to re-index.
once you develop you can ask google to re-consider.

[JB Lions]

Yep, you can get them reindexed. There are a lot of domains that are parked/not indexed that people buy to develop. They develop them, get some content up, get links in etc and get indexed again.

[pixel42]

Is there any alternative, halfway between keeping it offline and fully developing? For instance, if I have a newly acquired domain and it's at GD, it will be on their nameservers (with a default parked page) until I do something with it. Are these GoDaddy parked pages at risk, too? I don't see how you can have a domain with NO nameservers, so I'm not sure what to do.

Edited to add: And why do people still recommend parking as an option? It seems like something to be avoided, if this is the result. I know people are singling out Noomle and WhyPark as some of the better options, but it looks like Google's eventually going to wipe them out, too (it's already started with WhyPark sites).

[JB Lions]

"Edited to add: And why do people still recommend parking as an option? It seems like something to be avoided, if this is the result. I know people are singling out Noomle and WhyPark as some of the better options, but it looks like Google's eventually going to wipe them out, too (it's already started with WhyPark sites)."

As I'm pretty new to domaining but not making money online, I've been wondering that myself lately. Right now, I just automatically park my domains at sedo, since I have them for sale there also and it's really not bringing in much money. I think it's mainly how quick and easy it is to park and for that service, you split any money earned with parking companies. I was thinking of just cutting the middleman out and make my own parked typed pages. Not only will I cut the middleman out, they'll be indexed and I can put my own tracking and ads on the pages. I have an old Homestead account that I still have since I didn't know how to make webpages back in the day, that I'm not doing much with. Still have a couple of sites that make good money, so I keep it. And I'm thinking of just using that and making some quick parked pages but better than what's out there already.

[Gerry]

Static content and non-relevant content will get pages dropped in a hurry.

Including parked pages.

---------- Post added at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 PM ----------

As I'm pretty new to domaining but not making money online, I've been wondering that myself lately. Right now, I just automatically park my domains at sedo, since I have them for sale there also and it's really not bringing in much money. I think it's mainly how quick and easy it is to park and for that service, you split any money earned with parking companies. I was thinking of just cutting the middleman out and make my own parked typed pages. Not only will I cut the middleman out, they'll be indexed and I can put my own tracking and ads on the pages. I have an old Homestead account that I still have since I didn't know how to make webpages back in the day, that I'm not doing much with. Still have a couple of sites that make good money, so I keep it. And I'm thinking of just using that and making some quick parked pages but better than what's out there already.

Members creating their own sites with fresh relevant content and then swapping links would create a massive network.

[pixel42]

Static content and non-relevant content will get pages dropped in a hurry.

Including parked pages.

Agreed. But what do you do with your domains that you can't develop immediately? People say it's not realistic to try to develop them all at once, and to pick 2-3 of the ones with the most promise and focus on those. So for the rest of the domains, where do you point them? I'm logged into GoDaddy right now so I can switch these freaking nameservers from NameDrive.

[JB Lions]

"Static content and non-relevant"

If you mean in combination, likely. But static alone can work, depends.

"Members creating their own sites with fresh relevant content and then swapping links would create a massive network."

What do you mean by that? Meaning, what members, do you think it's good or bad, what kind of network etc.

[Gerry]

"Static content and non-relevant"

"Members creating their own sites with fresh relevant content and then swapping links would create a massive network."

With the ever changing google algorithms, static content is a quick way to get knocked way down.

I think members who create their own sites and then link to one another (if content is similar) is a great way to establish backlinks as well as creating an interconnected network of sites working together.

However, seems like most members are just looking to flip a domain for a buck or two rather than put effort (or time)(or money) into making a site.

---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------

Agreed. But what do you do with your domains that you can't develop immediately? People say it's not realistic to try to develop them all at once, and to pick 2-3 of the ones with the most promise and focus on those. So for the rest of the domains, where do you point them? I'm logged into GoDaddy right now so I can switch these freaking nameservers from NameDrive.

I use sedo and bodis.

Bodis is very good for non english and non dot com names (although I am have great success with dot coms).

Parking anywhere and make a few bucks is better than not having them pointed anywhere.


Ok, gotta hit the books for class tonight.

[JB Lions]

With the ever changing google algorithms, static content is a quick way to get knocked way down.

I think members who create their own sites and then link to one another (if content is similar) is a great way to establish backlinks as well as creating an interconnected network of sites working together.

However, seems like most members are just looking to flip a domain for a buck or two rather than put effort (or time)(or money) into making a site.

---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------

I use sedo and bodis.

Bodis is very good for non english and non dot com names (although I am have great success with dot coms).

Parking anywhere and make a few bucks is better than not having them pointed anywhere.


Ok, gotta hit the books for class tonight.

With the static content, I agree with you for the most part but it can depend on what type of site you have, the topic. As an example, last year I had an idea for a site and noticed somebody else had kind of the same idea but it could be better. They were ranking on page 1 in Google/Bing/Yahoo for pretty much every page on their site. The site hasn't been updated in 3 years. It's more kind of niche and a topic where there just isn't any fresh news. Even with authority type sites/pages that haven't been updated in awhile, a lot of them still rank well. Could be they still get some fresh links in or something, besides being authority type sites or niche. But fresh content does help with most sites, no doubt.

As far as linking, I would be careful with that scenario. Google is pretty good at catching that kind of linking/networking and if it's more I'll link to you, you link to me, reciprocal linking. That used to work great back in the day but no so much today. Back then you could easily link exchange your way to page 1. You can link with others but set it up in a more indirect linking kind of way, so it looks like and is 1 way incoming links. Those are the best.

[keyser]

With the static content, I agree with you for the most part but it can depend on what type of site you have, the topic. As an example, last year I had an idea for a site and noticed somebody else had kind of the same idea but it could be better. They were ranking on page 1 in Google/Bing/Yahoo for pretty much every page on their site. The site hasn't been updated in 3 years. It's more kind of niche and a topic where there just isn't any fresh news. Even with authority type sites/pages that haven't been updated in awhile, a lot of them still rank well. Could be they still get some fresh links in or something, besides being authority type sites or niche. But fresh content does help with most sites, no doubt.

Absolutely correct. Static pages do work, even if adding more fresh content is a always a good idea.

[pixel42]

Parking anywhere and make a few bucks is better than not having them pointed anywhere.

Ok, thanks for the input. But for these domains that went "poof" after I parked them on Namedrive, simply re-parking them at GoDaddy or sedo isn't going to make them reappear in the index, right? I need fresh, organic content for that?

I wasn't planning on developing some of the 5-L.com domains, just holding onto them for a while, and then selling. But it seems like development is a must in order to get them out of the Google black hole, because nobody is going to want a domain that can't be found in big G.

Edit: Thanks for the pointers about sedo and Bodis. I have nearly all .com's, so it sounds like maybe Sedo is the best choice.

[JB Lions]

"because nobody is going to want a domain that can't be found in big G."

"There are a lot of domains that are parked/not indexed that people buy to develop. They develop them, get some content up, get links in etc and get indexed again."

[Acro]

There is no single answer to the question. However, I have parked domains that are PR6, parked domains that are on #1 spot in Yahoo, parked domains that appear in the first page of Google, developed sites with "static" content that again are #1 or first page in Google etc. In other words, there is a reason these domains of yours dropped off the index: they had no traffic, no particular matching to anything searched for on the Internet etc. Yahoo recently has also been rating domains with an arbitrary and authoritarian system. I call it "nazi".

[whitebark]

A simple solution to your problem is put up a single page with a paragraph or two of information related to the domain name. You can include a contact name and number as well - do that and you can even sell your domains while waiting to get around to develop. I can bang these out in less than five minutes each. You won't get beautiful pages - but you will keep your domains in the index all the same.

[cerno]

I have hundreds of domains on a few parking systems I created myself and watching the traffic and how the domains are indexed as I move them around I see a pattern

Simply moving the sites to a new ip address is going to get you some attention by crawlers that monitor domain changes happening at GoDaddy and I assume other registrars. I keep the domains on godadddy dns servers, just pointing the domain at my server ip addresses

It seems the reports of these crawlers are crawled by google regularly and trigger google crawlers to come check on your website, that gets you indexed

As far as public parking systems, I think google just recognizes the profile after a while and ignores anything matching that profile. Even a virtually blank site is "real" when google doesn't recognize it so they get indexed. I rarely come across parked pages when surfing nowadays but even my basically blank websites show up in search results I believe because they don't seem "parked" at a popular platform.