SEO, Services

SEO Professionals Buy Domains Regardless of Panda

If you've spent any amount of time looking at developing your company's SEO strategy, you may have noticed Google has thrown a couple of hostile animals into the mix. It first started in February 2011 with the Google Panda update, and then (as if one cute fluffy animal wasn't enough,) Google tossed the Penguin update our way, — not just once, but three times, during 2012.

The SEO landscape has dramatically changed, and so have the strategies needed to stay on the Big G's and B's favorable side. This isn't the first time, and you can rest assured it won't be the last time, Google injects a surprising twist into the world of SEO. Here's why SEO professionals buy domains regardless of what Google engineers are doing behind the scenes:

Domains Are Merely Phone Numbers, Sort Of

Eliminating cheaters, domain squatters and other maligned marketing practices was high on Google's algorithmic update wish list. Consumers searching for pizza joints were finding useless drivel related to shopping ‘aggregators'; businesses engaging in honest marketing campaigns were being cheated as well. Since domains are merely website identifiers, Google and other search giants are expounding their efforts where needed most - content. What you name yourself domain-wise may have impacted your search rankings several years ago, yet in today's highly competitive content marketplace, what you say means more than how you decorate it.

1400+ TLD's Can't Be Wrong

.COM's used to cost nearly $100 per year - you know, back when exclusivity meant something. Today, we're bracing ourselves for domain name frenzies never before attempted, literally turning your common extensions into index-worthy categories which Google will, of course, use for ranking purposes. Search engines have always wanted relevancy, never meaning to destroy thousands of businesses along the way. With these newer domain rollouts, entrepreneurial interest will heighten while allowing everyone with a pulse to buy domains without fear of having to compete with .COM's for clout. SEO gurus could really care less what domains are introduced as long as payday is still Friday.

Domains Make Interesting Relics

Someone, someday, with some gumption or wave of boredom will decide to archive old domains, sort of like Barry Bonds' record-breaking home run ball. Sure, they'll still get used; like everything that ‘used to be'; however, domains will eventually lose their luster and step aside for more useful methods of connecting individuals with goods offered. Archaic TLD's aren't quite waving their white flags yet, and serious domainers know this. Stockpiling .COM's today offers bargaining chips tomorrow, meaning newcomers to business will eventually get whatever domain name they want, whether they outright buy domains or simply bargain with portfolio owners.

‘Realists' Buy Domains

In an ideal marketing environment, all the plans that a business puts into practice for their future and growth would come into fruition. Occasionally, as most of us experienced with Pandas and Penguins, marketing plans don’t always go according to whatever devices we've conceived. SEO realists - the individuals that know Panda is Google's attempt at digital content control, and nothing more - buy domains simply because they can take these properties and develop something wonderful. Entrepreneurs won't let animals control their domain development goals; archivists love having something which could potentially become obsolete, and businesses just want visibility.

Published on behalf of Roger Klawinski, a freelance writer and seasoned domainer from Indiana who follows the trends in domains and search engine results.

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