So unless you have been hiding under a giant iceberg somewhere down in Antarctica where most of the real penguins reside you will now know that late last week (Friday 17th October 2014)  Google released their long-awaited and highly anticipated Penguin 3.0. This is the third iteration of the infamous algorithm that was first launched in 2012 and targets spammy backlinks in particular.

The first outing of this algorithm back in 2012 caused a huge storm in the SEO and domaining worlds, it turned what most people perceived to be a proven recipe for success in making your domain a valuable asset completely on its head.. For so long the art of link building and creating an intricate web of interwoven backlinks from your domain to others was touted as the my successful strategy for Google recognition. Indeed even expired domains with hundreds of existing backlinks on average tended to sell for a premium over those that had less, and to most people it didn’t matter where these backlinks  came from, before Penguin 1.0 quantity really did win over quality.

Of course we all know what happened next hundreds and indeed thousands of domains tumbled from the top of Google search and saw their site traffic literally evaporate overnight. Penguin 1.0 sure made an impact across the SEO world, one that still makes it presence known today. So is that why the 3rd outing of the wingless bird algorithm was so eagerly anticipated and now it is upon us has so many questioning was this really a Penguin update or just damp squib?

The “roll” out begun on 17th October 2014 and according to Google’s Pierre Farr it will spread world-wide over the next few weeks. Additionally this newest version of the backlink targeting algorithm has been termed by Google as a “refresh” giving rise to claims that Penguin 2.1 would be a more accurate name for this latest update. So what does this “refresh” actually translate to? Well according to Google if you own a domain that previously was penalized due to spammy/broken or bad backlinks and you have subsequently fixed the issues, Penguin 3.0 should now recognize this and you will see an improvement in your SERP.

Essentially this update is just re running the existing algorithm to continue to consolidate on the two Penguins that came before, evolution in this case has been small without the big fanfare that was expected but builds on the concept of filtering spam and promoting positive link building. So if you looking to buy expired, expiring or a dropped domain how should Penguin 3.0 impact your decision-making process?

1) Be mindful of domains with hundreds of backlinks – do your research on the history of the domain before buying it. It is very difficult to remove spammy backlinks and with the Penguin algorithm being traditionally run once a year you actually only have a small window to fix a domain that may be targeted.

2) If you plan on adding or already have content on your site remove exact match keyword rich anchor text, once seen as a positive addition to your website, these are perceived to be the calling card for a black hat technique that Google no longer tolerates.

3) Easier said than done but try to control the backlinks to your site, as a rule only allow domains that have a higher or equal PageRank to link to your site.

Only time will tell how big a change and impact Penguin 3.0 will have on the SERP for our domains, there is simply not enough data at this point to ascertain if particular industries, keywords or even TLD’s were targeted, but with a reported 1% of all websites so far impacted we are all still holding our breath in anticipation as to what the real impact of the slowly evolving Penguin algorithm will be.

Oh and don’t forget to check out our expired domains search engine, completely free and updated everyday with all the expired, expiring pre release dropped domains in the industry. www.expired-domains.co

Ok so maybe I am mad – surely this is career suicide to dare write a blog with such an inflammatory title but to be honest I just couldn’t resist, it is a question that has been nagging me for some time and one that I truly have no right or wrong answer for.

I am pretty new to the “domaining community” and from the outside looking in to all extent and purpose it appears to be a pretty impenetrable prestigious group with the biggest  accolades being that most of its members were buying domains way back when before most of us had not even heard of the world-wide web. Strategic foresight is a valuable skill and one that is not easily learnt and has definitely paid off for these guys but the internet is a completely different place to what it was 20 years ago, no longer is it the new frontier, it is a densely populated competitive marketplace where the name of your domain really can be the difference between boom and bust for your business ? So how does the legacy of domain investing impact the everyday small business owner who wants to buy the perfect domain for their startup but can’t as it is sitting in someone’s portfolio somewhere gathering dust?

The domain market is often referred to as the Real Estate market of the internet, or the modern-day Wall Street and yes the parallels between both are quite obvious but with more and more small business’s setting up their “store front” on the web before splashing out on a brick and mortar premises it is actually becoming harder and harder for these guys to purchase a relevant domain name at a reasonable price. Unlike in the Real Estate world where if the land or building you wish to purchase/lease is unavailable it is relatively easy to find the owner/landlord and negotiate a deal yourself or find a similar premises with their being minimal impact on your business’s success. In the world of the internet though this is not always the case, your domain name is extremely important and will be directly linked to your online success.

The rise of the likes of Godaddy has lulled the general public into a false sense of ease in this area, I see time and time again in many of the small business forums that I  am a member in that it is felt picking your domain and buying it is a far easier job than choosing a logo – but beware this is far from the truth. Honestly unless you are happy to pick some obscure name with an even obscurer TLD, the truth be told the domain you have picked for your business will not be available and if you have your heart set on it be prepared to have to pay a lot of money for it. Now the investor who owns your targeted domain as part of their portfolio knows you want it and will up the price to sometimes even beyond its general market value as they know YOU particularly want it. Even more frustratingly these domains are not even being used and are at best being parked somewhere covered in the equivalent of online bill boards.

To the domain novice, terminology such as SEO, Domain Authority, Page Rank, backlinks, and Alexa Rank can be completely daunting and alien concepts and yes there are many experts out there who will help you for a small fee navigate your way around these concepts too, so this leads me to ask has the seemingly simple task of buying a suitable domain for your business become unreachable for the masses? It could be argued that ICANN thought so hence the unprecedented release this year of hundreds of additional TLD’S, it was and is still hoped that these will open the web to premium and relevant domains that so far have been unavailable and more importantly unattainable to most.

With the slogan “.com is king why drive a Toyota when you can have a Ferrari” prevalent across many domaining blogs it appears that investors are still keeping hold of their valuable .com domains and have a healthy dose of skepticism for the new TLDS . There has been much talk and discussion about how these will impact the value of existing portfolios – will they drag the price up or down? Maybe neither – domain investors can continue to trade these so-called premium domains amongst themselves and large blue chip clients and in the mean time a new group can form – domain mortals, those of us who just want a name to fit and to grow and expand our business’s from..

My part in all of this? – well going back to the Real Estate analogy our site offers everyone the opportunity to see easily the domains that are expiring and have expired e without having to pay for the privilege or have a degree in computer science to mine the data. Think the www.realtor.com of the expired domain world, the more people who have access to these domains, the more competition which is probably a good thing for everyone – investor and mortal alike..!

Check out our expired domains search engine on our Home Page we have millions of domains in our database.

My top pending delete domain of the day is abcbabymilk.com. Originally registered in 2000 with a flurry of other www.abc…. domains which are also available today this one has a nice ring to it and I could easily see it being marketed as part of a breastfeeding or baby formula campaign, definitely worth a look at.

Those domains that are currently out for Pre Release Namejet auction today that caught my eye are:

bean.org – a nice, clean, simple domain, that is easily remembered and pretty transposable to any market/initiative/industry.

adavancedfitness.com – this one appealed to the inner fitness addict in me, current bidding is only at $69 and it is a fairly easy .com.

moneywarehouse.com – again a recognizable .com domain that could be put to get use for anyone in the financial services industry.

To check out these and the other 127,232 domains that we have expiring on our website today go to our Home page and start using our free domain search engine today.

Yes we finally succumbed and decided to conform to the masses and moved our blog and news site to WordPress. What started as an SEO initiative to  increase traffic to our expired domains search engine www.expired-domains.co has now grown into a fully fledged entity in its own right and therefore rightfully deserved a little bit of a facelift.

As I mentioned on a previous blog we were using a CMS called Magnolia as we were able to integrate relatively easily all the different aspects of our website,  the blogging functionality on the version we were using was limited so we took the plunge and I am very pleased with the decision and of course the results!  Definitely worth all the hard work and for any of you considering switching to WordPress it is pretty intuitive to use once you get used to navigating your way around the multitude of menus and options it offers you.

We will continue to focus on what we do best – providing thousands of expired domains to our users daily, we literally have over 18 million currently in our database but we believe quantity is not always quality if you don’t have the correct tools to find what you are looking for. That is why we have been consistently refining our Search and Filter functionality over the past few months to enable our customers to find quickly and easily the domain or domains they are looking for.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal customers for returning to our site time and time again we really do appreciate you taking the time to visit us. This site is built by you for you so any feedback, upgrade requests is always welcomed. As always I am proud to say our search engine is free and will always be free no subscription/membership requirements necessarily and all our domains are updated everyday.