Just about everything above-the-fold is ads.
For all of Google’s talk about how website owners need to provide good content above the fold, not just ads, Google.com has become a bunch of ads. Today I was searching for “domain name” (no quotes) and this is what I saw above the fold:
There are four ads on top. The only organic content is from Wikipedia. It’s no wonder that registrars (including Google itself) are paying to advertise for the term.
As for rankings, here’s what I currently see on the first page of results (I was not logged in to Google when searching):
1. Name.com
2. Domain.com
3. Wikipedia
4. Network Solutions
5. Google Domains
6. BlueHost
7. Verisign
8. Namecheap
9. GoDaddy
Consistent trend for retail/product searches going back 10 years. Every year more and more “free” SEO goes away and paid SEM takes it’s place.
Many domain owners don’t seem to have a lot of real world experience with SEM. Exact match domains huge advantage, always has been. The higher your CTR the lower CPC you pay vs competition. SEO benefits secondary.
You are right
Google isn’t paying!
Yes Google displays the ad above the fold and you can see the organic search results below that only
Competition is tight, no surprise. Moreover in the domain industry, where your potential customer is anyone and any company out there. Cost per acquisition is so high you must be sure you’re converting your visitors as much as possible and try to upsell other services on top of the domain, otherwise you can’t survive.
Source: domainsbot.com/sell-more-domains
It’s amazing search result. Google isn’t paying!
Google’s whole don’t be evil philosophy went to the birds a decade ago. All money now, 2 cents. Someday people and webmaster’s will catch on.
i remember the good old days when we moved to google.com because it was a white page with text only and no ads…….
Well written. I agree with you article.