I noticed that EVO Landing was up for 'Developer of the Year' for the 2008 TRAFFIC awards (which I'm looking forward to attending by the way). So I did a little digging on them to see what sites they've developed. I went to their web site and clicked on Network in the navigation bar. Wow, some impressive names. So I visited a few of the domains featured there and quickly realized they were obviously using some out-of-the-box techniques to develop these domains... as many of them have a similar look.
I personally browse with my Google Toolbar's Page Rank finder activated. If you're not familiar, it basically just gives you the Page Rank of the page you're currently looking at. I noticed that none of the domains had a rank. Seemed odd, so I figured I'd do a little Google searching about a couple of the domains to see what I could find. I personally own Spoons.net, so naturally Spoons.com sparked my interest. So I figured I'd check that one first. You use this query to find all of the pages Google has indexed for a given domain:
site:givendomainname.com
So I did a query for site:spoons.com. Uh oh. I got this dreaded response:
Your search - site:spoons.com - did not match any documents.
That's a Google banned domain ladies and gentlemen! So I couldn't help by try a few more...
site:beef.com
site:findjobs.com
site:congas.com
site:motionpictures.com
site:motorcycling.com
All those and more - banned by Google. Then I checked out their blog and started running the same searches for some of the domains names they list for sale on the right-hand side of that area. Guess what - same result on many of them.
Why is this happening to them?
My guess is due to duplicate content. The sites they're creating with these tools of theirs are full of non-original content. Google doesn't really care much for that. Sure, you can have some duplicate content on your site and stay in good standing with Google, but a web site that's 100% non-unique is a red flag to them... and they will ban your domain.
Now what's that domain worth?
As a developer that's been through the nightmare of getting unbanned and watching the after effects, it becomes a whole lot less valuable. Many of the non-domainers who are spending top-dollar on domains are doing so in an effort to develop them properly and reap the benefits that a premium name can offer. One major benefit is that domains ability to naturally rank higher in search engines given that its name is (or at leas should be) related to the topic it covers. And given the fact that Google dominates the search space, the potential traffic on a banned domain has plummeted. That means extra work to get Google to unban the site... and then extra time to wait for them to trust your content again. I've seen it. It's not a pretty process, nor is it a quick one.
Anyhow, think long and hard before you decide that your portfolio is ready to be rapidly developed using solutions like these.
Comments
I don't think that DC is the only reason that the evo-portfolio is penalized by google. If you have a look at their hosting IP you will find always the same. Not that this would be a reason to get penalized in general, but it is a super easy way to detect the whole network.
I would have to agree that IP plays a major role in many sites "falling in line" with the ban. But something had to trigger it... meaning there must be some underlying problem. Although my research on the subject was somewhat limited, it certainly seemed that the dup content was the cause. Thanks for your thoughts.