How To Kill A Domain Name
Doctor, doctor I think this domain has been shot! It’s another case of a domain murder, but who can truly admit that they’ve killed there own creation? I for one never hesitate at the chance to admit when I am wrong. In this case, I literally killed a great domain name.
It all started a few months ago. I had a domain name, one which carries a very select niche product and appeals to a great demographic. Everything sounds amazing! I started to think in advance, I wanted to make sure that this website was ready to go for the Christmas season! Keep in mind, the domain name was able to rank itself.
The blogging platform and a few eBay partner network items teamed up as a dynamic force. This force lead me to be ranked within the top 5 entries on Google. None of this content was original. I created the site solely to benefit from affiliate marketing relationships. Up to this point everything worked just fine. I was receiving organic traffic from Google and it looked like visitors were actually interested in the products I had listed.
My main problem with the site is I felt that listing eBay auctions was not the route to go. I had an issue with listing products which would expire after a few days, this did not reflect well on the site. In order for the site to be effective, the products would have to be continually updated either manually or automatically with a script. Now this is where I was wrong, I focused on what needed to be changed with the site instead of concentrating on making small updates to the site without drastically changing the way the content was delivered or displayed.
To put it simply, I proceeded forward to change the entire look of the site along with the products which were offered for sale and noticed a dramatic shift in visitors within two to three days. This small increment of time drastically changed my traffic patterns. I went from receiving a handful of unique visitors a day to receiving absolutely nothing! The big ZERO has been displayed since those wonderful changes. Google has completely taken me out of the first 5 listings and has left me without any sort of statistical rank when it comes to search engine results.
Now I am actively building a plan to revive my bewildered domain name. One which will give my domain name substance and the ability to trump its competitors. My whole issue with this is I am going to be spending time on a domain name which already ranked well. I am recreating the wheel in this case.
I plan on documenting the revival of the domain name, but before any of this is done I want to leave you with these wise words: “Some things are better left untouched.” Those are words I now live by…
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December 30, 2009 11:34 pm
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December 31, 2009 12:33 am
Hi, What changes made your SERP to drop exactly ? I am really interested in knowing what things actually had a negative impact on your Rankings . I think we all would love to know and avoid making those mistakes.
Thanks
[Reply]
Jason Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hello Suneedh,
A few of the changes I made were the theme, the way the products from my affiliate programs were displayed and the deletion of text. The combination of changes really effected my overall ranking in the search engines.
I plan on changing from Wordpress to flat HTML files to see what kind of response I get back from Google. This should be an interesting process to say the least.
[Reply]
December 31, 2009 1:48 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by dnpimping: Just Posted! How To Kill A Domain Name http://su.pr/2hkBQ6…
January 13, 2010 6:12 pm
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[...] What are the chances of survival? On December 30th I submitted a blog entry entitled, “How To Kill A Domain Name.” Who in there right mind writes about there downfalls? I write about my downfalls! In [...]
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[...] What are the chances of survival? On December 30th I submitted a blog entry entitled, “How To Kill A Domain Name.” Who in there right mind writes about there downfalls? I write about my downfalls! In [...]
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