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Toys.com Loses Google Ranking

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Toys ‘R’ Us loses search traffic from Toys.com domain name.

As I predicted a couple weeks ago, Toys.com has been de-indexed by Google because the domain is forwarded to ToysRUs.com. Now the value of Toys ‘R’ Us’ $5.1M purchase of Toys.com has been relegated to type-in traffic and potentially some of the inbound links to Toys.com.

The type-in traffic is valuable, but now the company doesn’t hold a lock on the #1, #2, and #4 positions in Google for the term “toys”. Its competitors, including Amazon.com, have a chance to creep up. Toys ‘R’ Us could have used 301 forwards on specific pages of the Toys.com web site to enhance its long tail product search.

It also appears the toy company could use some help managing its domain names. For example, it owns the typo ToyRUs.com (no ‘s’ on end of “toys”), but it doesn’t resolve or forward to the company’s web site toysrus.com. According to Compete.com, this simple typo gets over 60,000 unique visitors per month.

Although Toys ‘R’ Us registers its domains with Mark Monitor, it appears to not use its typosquatting services, as evidenced by the many typos of ToysRUs.com owned by unrelated parties.

Will Toys ‘R’ Us Flub $5.1M Toys.com Purchase?

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Domain is merely forwarding to ToysRUs.com.

Toys ‘R’ Us’ $5.1M purchase of Toys.com has been approved by the court. The domain has not been transferred according to whois, but the domain name is now forwarding to ToysRUs.com.

Big mistake.

Toys.com is extremely valuable for both its direct navigation traffic (people typing the domain name into their browser) as well as search rankings. For example, Toys.com is currently #4 in Google for the search term “toys”.

ToysRUs.com is ranked #1 for the same term. But you better believe that owning spots #1 and #4 is more valuable than just #1.

With Toys ‘R’ Us’ purchase of eToys, currently ranked #3, the company could lock up the top four spots save for WalMart.com at #3. Toys ‘R’ Us plans to keep eToys a separate site, which is smart.

But the company could lose Toys.com’s ranking for not only the toys term but many thousands of other terms by merely forwarding the domain to the company’s web site. That could help arch rival Amazon.com creep up the rankings.

Quick. Call a search engine optimization expert.

Court Approves Toys.com Sale

by — Domain Sales 4 Comments

Bankruptcy court approves landmark domain name sale.

Judge Brendan Shannon of the United States Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware has approved Toys ‘R’ Us purchase of the toys.com domain name for $5.1M.

The domain name was auctioned last Friday as a continuation of an auction held the first week of February. In the original auction Faculty Lounge Partners bought the domain for $1.25M. As part of the sale to Toys ‘R’ Us (bidding as Eagle, LLC), Faculty Lounge Partners will pick up a $37,500 break up fee (3% of its stalking horse bid) and legal fee reimbursement.

Interestingly, Toys ‘R’ Us was at the first auction but wouldn’t top the $1.25M Faculty Lounge Partners bid. Instead, the toy company bought certain assets of eToys including eToys.com and customer lists.

The domains were auctioned off after The Parent Company, parent company of eToys, filed for bankruptcy in December. Other domains auctioned off in the initial auction included hobbies.com, birthdays.com, and pinata.com.

Stupid Domain Name Press Release of the Week

by — Domain Sales 3 Comments

Here come the toys.com sale riders.

After Toys ‘R’ Us bought Toys.com for $5.1 million, I joked that we’d start seeing forum postings for mycrappytoy.com domain names.

“I’m only asking $100,000. Toys.com sold for $5.1M, so this is worth it!”

This week’s stupid press release isn’t actually a press release. It’s an article at ToyNewsMag.com about a toy company that will “consider” selling you its toy domain names:

[Flying Toys] owns the rights to www.flyingtoys.com, www.flyingtoys.co.uk and www.flyingtoys.eu and would consider selling all three if it received a genuine offer, according to Flying Toys boss David Rawlings.

“All these Flying Toys domain names are currently linked to the Flying Toys Ltd website. As we have no plans to discontinue selling ‘Flying Toys’ in the foreseeable future, we would only consider a really serious offer of around £1m.

Indeed, a really serious offer.

“It just seems remarkable that in light of Toys R Us recent purchase, selling a company’s domain name can be more profitable than selling products in the present climate.”

Don’t worry, David. Selling your domain names will not be more profitable than selling your toys. Unless you’re losing money.

Toys ‘R’ Us Buys Toys.com Domain Name for $5.1M

by — Domain Sales 26 Comments

Reauction of Toys.com goes for $5.1M.

It’s not over yet (subject to court approval), but it looks like Toys ‘R’ Us will be purchasing the Toys.com domain name for $5.1M. The company outbid National A-1 Advertising in an auction that was live blogged on DirectNavigation.com. (DirectNavigation.com is written by Larry Fischer, who attended the teleconference auction in his role with Faculty Lounge Partners.)

The domain originally sold for $1.25M in an auction that Toys ‘R’ Us participated in. So it begs the question, why four times as much now?

Sources tell Domain Name Wire that there was some horse trading in the initial auction. Faculty Lounge Partners bought Toys.com and Toys ‘R’ Us bought eToys. We’ll see what kind of horse trading went on when we see the original auction’s transcript next month.

The eToys estate isn’t the only winner today. Faculty Lounge Partners will get a break-up fee of about $150,000 $37,500 plus legal fees. $37,500 is 3% of Faculty Lounge’s bid of $1.25M.

I bet eToys (The Parent Company) creditors will be wondering how the law firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP blew the initial auction. [Update 2-28-09: It has come to my attention that the law firm may not be on the hook for the results. They were there to collect offers and run the auction, but a separate party was supposed to get buyers. I’ll get more details and update this story.] If Toys.com sold for 4 times what it did in the original auction, were the other domains sold below value? All the law firm had to do was send a press release about the original auction and the results would have been drastically different.

Here’s a time line of the Toys.com saga:

February 5, 2009: Domain Name Wire first reports about the closely held auction for domains from The Parent Company, owner of eToys.

February 6, 2009: Based on tips from multiple sources, DNW suggests that the buyer of eToys.com and related properties is Toys ‘R’ Us, which attended the auction as “Eagle LLC”.

February 6, 2009: Domain Name Wire learns that at least one company that wasn’t at the original auction intends to challenge the Toys.com sale.

February 12, 2009: After receiving court approval, Toys ‘R’ Us announces it was the buyer of eToys.com.

February 18, 2009: DNW learns that Toys.com will be auctioned again and the previous auction winner, Faculty Lounge Partners, will be the stalking horse bidder.

February 26, 2009: All bidders complete asset purchase agreements, Toys ‘R’ Us, National A-1, and Frank Schilling among the bidders.

February 27, 2009: Toys.com sells for staggering $5.1M.