Ranking Revolution

Doug: Hey, in this episode, I talked
to Alex Drew from ODYS Global.

I've known him for a few years and always
have a blast chatting with him as normal.

In this interview, I've
divided it into two sections.

So the first part we focus on premium
age domains and the second part,

which is a separate episode, we're
going to talk about in person events.

And I love in person events, so
I always kind of geek out on it.

And I.

I actually didn't go to any events for
about five years and then the first

conference that I went to It didn't really
Inspire me to go to more conferences.

So it was a few more years before
I actually started to attend more

in person events So anyway, we get
into those details and i'm going

to send it to part one right now

hey, what's going on?

Welcome to the ranking revolution
podcast, your go to source for strategies

and ideas for SEO, organic growth,
content creation, and online business.

Today, I'm chatting with Alex Drew to
talk about premium age domains generally

in this episode, but we're also going
to talk about Live events, in person

events, and those connections that you
can make, as well as just the feeling on

the, on the street at these conferences
after the March core update, and that'll

be part two of the discussion, Alex
is the CEO and founder of ODYS global.

ODYS is the worlds leading market
place for thoroughly vetted domains

and websites with SEO value.

And.

If I remember this right, so Alex,
you got started building websites

and online business in like 2001 and
you kept iterating over the years.

Is that right?

Alex: Yeah, that's one thing I was
actually meditating today, earlier today

on the subject of discipline and I was
trying to figure it out because you

can cannot really keep doing this thing
for so many years without discipline.

And at some point I figured
that discipline is basically the

ability to keep going regardless
of what life throws at you.

And to put this in terms of recent
events, like Google threw this

update towards all the webmasters
and site builders out there.

And those who couldn't, you know,
take it, aren't disciplined because

Discipline is basically just moving
forward regardless what life throws at it.

So yeah, it's been a very long
run for me, but I think this

philosophy and this attitude towards
I just need to get shit done.

That's it.

So regardless what happens,
it's been a very long run.

I tend to forget when was the first,
when was the first site built ever,

but that doesn't matter anymore.

It's been a very long run.

Doug: Yeah, it's 20 plus years.

I could barely remember a few weeks ago.

So I'm right there with you for ODYS.

You guys have been running
since roughly like 2017.

Can you just talk a little bit
about the origin before we get

started with the main topics?

Alex: Usually when I meet people in
person and I'm going to talk about this,

I just showed them my Skype because Skype
was it was a medium of communication.

I ended up picking like almost.

seven, eight years ago for all my domain
buying and selling and trading contacts.

So it's in the, I think thousands.

I think right now it's more than like
more than 5, 000 contacts in Skype.

And at some point, 2017, I'm buying and
selling and trading domains and people

end up reaching and recommending me.

So I'm making money.

And then, long story short, two
years later, 2019 I'm making seven

figures plus a year already and it's
like money is not a problem anymore.

But I discover my wife is pregnant
and I say, I don't think I'll be able

to do this any longer or not exactly.

I want to be able to spend
more time with my daughter.

So I say like all these money that I've
made, I'd rather redeploy in a full

fledged company and brand and actually
build something that at some point

might be able to operate without me.

Did it work?

Not really.

Was it worth it?

Definitely.

Doug: All right.

That's pretty cool.

And I hear that a lot.

I don't have kids myself, but when you
have kids, it changes your perspective.

And I see where, you know,
you were talking meditation,

talking about discipline.

Now we're talking about different life
stuff, but I don't want to go too far

on a lifestyle podcast tangent here.

I think we could probably
talk for a few hours, Alex.

Thanks.

Bye.

But let's shift a little bit
and get into the nuts and bolts.

So we talked about age domains,
but what is the goal with ODYS?

Like what.

Sort of transformation.

Do you want to have for your
customers and your clients and

the overall mission for ODYS?

Alex: The like the end game, like we don't
have an end game in terms of exiting.

We just want to build a great business
with the emphasis on due diligence,

when the emphasis on being able to
separate all the good aftermarket.

Inventory beat domains or websites from
all this spam and the bad stuff out there.

So that's sort of like the vision and as
of recently we've started, we've moved

in the direction of a real marketplace
where we connect buyers and sellers.

So the value is in being able to provide
that due diligence so that buyers can

safely find Assets, digital assets with
SEO value that they can use, that's

one thing, and that's really important.

We're not really interested, and I've
been talking to some of our competitors

who, given our new positioning,
aren't really competitive anymore.

They could be suppliers, and I'm
like, so if you focus on scale, if

you want to buy, have a shop with 100,
000 domains, we don't really compete

because our goal is not necessarily to
have all the inventory in the world.

We want to have the right inventory in
the right place at the right time and

of the right quality for the buyer.

So the vision ends up revolving
around quality, so to speak.

Doug: And for us in the industry and many
of the listeners and viewers out there,

we understand the difference between
an expired domain in an aged domain and

the quality that you're talking about.

However, there's a lot of, there's a
lot of preconceived notions from years

of just different vocabulary, different
people, using these different terms.

So if an agency runner, whether they're
sort of solo or they have a team, how

can they present the premium age domain
concept to a client to ensure that they

understand why there's value behind it?

Alex: The easiest way to be would
be, Growth through acquisitions or in

a combination of real world mergers
that will allow you to grow through

acquisitions, but from an SEO perspective.

So buy more of what you need.

And we view domains and websites that
have been around for a while as assets

that can get you those benefits.

Let's say it can get you those links,
can get you that type of trickle

traffic, regardless if it's trickled,
might be worth a lot that you would

otherwise pay Google AdWords for that
you would otherwise try to buy elsewhere.

So if you're able to find great
website or domain matches as close as

possible to your business, it makes
all the sense in the world to own them.

Because if you don't own them.

Someone else will.

So in our case, for instance, we would
get any domains related domains we

can because if one of those domains
can end up in a good lead partnership

or sale, it pays off right away.

Doug: When someone is choosing whether
it's a, let's say there's a marketing

director at a company and they kind of
handled in house, SEO, or it is an agency

who is working on behalf of a company.

What are the.

the key pieces that they should be looking
at when they're selecting a domain?

Let's say they are going to your
marketplace over at ODYS and

they see maybe a few options.

What's the best way for them to whittle it
down to the right domain for that client?

Alex: It really depends on the goals.

That's why sometimes when we're
talking about clients that don't

necessarily just Go to the marketplace,
add a domain to cart and buy.

They want a strategy call.

They need onboarding.

They need help.

They want to pick our brains.

The one of the first question we ask
is, what are you trying to achieve?

What the, what are the objectives?

Like, are you, what, what, why
do you, why do you think you

need domain in the first place?

Because some, some might not.

So for, for something that
has been working, in fact real

brick and mortar businesses.

E commerce and any legitimate
businesses can make an absolutely

great use of aged domains because
they're legitimate businesses.

Now those who had experience in using
domains for other type of websites

might not necessarily experience the
same, but we'll get that in a moment.

So when these people go to the
marketplace, they should be

looking for a domain as relevant to
whatever they're trying to build.

So, one.

One of the great case studies that
we have is a UK, UK online pharmacy.

So we've helped 301 redirect a former
encyclopedia of medication, if I reckon.

So that encyclopedia had thousands
of referring domains, lots of pages,

unique pages talking about very specific
drugs, and they bought the domain.

We helped them with the 301 redirect.

We worked on the redirect
for about two years.

for two and a half weeks, I think, since
we ended up basically mapping every

single former inner URL to the new site.

So we ended up creating this 301 redirect
funnels, where if someone was looking for

information in regards to a specific drug,
they would end up on the pharmacy site.

And that may even lead up to
conversions at some point.

So beyond getting SEO value, link value,
authority, increasing DR, Potential

traffic, it may also end up generating
leads, conversions, partnerships.

So the match you're able, it's
sort of like a dating match, right,

between the business and whatever
asset you can find on the web.

And if you're doing it right,
it can bring tremendous value.

So this e commerce online UK pharmacy
project that we have, in fact,

it's one of the best case studies.

And actually it's it's something that's
been shared around conferences sometimes.

Okay.

Thanks.

It's something that we're really proud of
because that's a great match and that's

exactly what they should be looking.

Another example is we have a
famous lawyer from New York

ended up buying a domain from us.

And that domain ended by
ended up being nylawyer.

com and it was an age domain that's
been around and he's a lawyer

which has obviously he's, he's
doing business in New York and

that's the perfect domain for him.

And he ended up buying nylawyer.

com and he ended up redirecting it
to his site because he's actually

taking business from New York.

He's accepting business from you.

So why wouldn't you own this site?

It has traffic.

It has great links from directories
that would be very difficult.

To get it, to get those links
from in the first place.

So these type of matches are the matches
that you should be looking forward.

Like the perfect ones, in my opinion.

Doug: Those are awesome examples.

I'm curious if you have any mistakes that
you could share where someone, you know,

they, they took the answer that you just
gave, they're thinking, Hey, I want it

to be as closely related as possible, but
they missed a little something, maybe the.

initial website or maybe the backlinks,
the, in air quotes, the search

intent was a little bit different.

So are there any examples that you can
give where someone did follow the spirit

of what you described, but then they made
a little mistake and it didn't match up?

And this question could go
nowhere, but I'm just curious

about those kind of little nuances.

Alex: It's a very good question.

In fact, there are two
cases when it doesn't work.

The first one is when people don't take
any question, any, any, any action.

So unfortunately we have this phenomenon.

People buy domains and
then they get distracted.

It's this shiny object syndrome.

The domain they bought could
be a 10, 000 domain, a 5, 000

domain, and they get distracted
by other things in the business.

That's why we've launched.

Like the basics, 301 redirected the
service, we charge us 500 for it,

but come on, we will do it for you.

Don't just let this
valuable investment sink.

That's first case.

The second case is most likely, and it
has to do with the quality of the website

you're using it for or redirecting.

Unfortunately, and that's something
that has been going on for a while,

it's the legitimacy of the business.

That your website operates
basically, which ends up the

factor that determines the result.

Will you be getting results or not?

For instance, we are almost able to get
a 90 percent plus success rate by 301

redirecting legitimate, relevant, powerful
domains to e commerce businesses, for

instance, whereas with content websites.

That is a much lower rate.

And the reason for that is because there
is very little trust in content website.

There is no skin in the game.

And that's something
that's beyond our control.

So people have been following my
advice, but they have been applying

the exact same tactics to business
with businesses and business model,

which Google doesn't necessarily like.

So if you have a content part
of the business on your blog on

illegitimate business, you That
will work tremendously well.

If your entire site is informational
websites, and you are not corporate owned,

Google cannot verify your credential,
there is no about page, all the authors

are fake, there is no address, there is
no phone, there is no, like, there is very

little skin in the game as we call them.

As we call it, like Dan,
like, chances are like 50, 50.

It might work, but most likely it
won't work or it won't work long term.

And there is usually the problem
with these sites is the following.

Google can easily figure it out.

If.

Most of your traffic comes
from their search engine.

And this is something that legitimate
businesses, like, it's, it's completely

different for legitimate businesses.

In fact, for ODYS, as a business,
I think no more than 50 percent of

the traffic comes from, from Google.

Like, the other 50 percent
comes from YouTube.

It, it comes from social from social,
um, from our social accounts, from

from also, even like from, from direct
type in, like people are searching

for brand there, they type in the
website URL in the browser directly.

So it's type in traffic and,
and our best keywords are ODYS,

ODYS global, ODYS domains.

And these are brand keywords.

So Google does understand
it's a legitimate business and

it's here for the long run.

Whereas with these type of
websites that Google doesn't

really like, the problem is.

Most of the traffic comes
from their search engine.

So they see it as a parasite type
of behavior for the business.

And regardless of the tactics
you use, they might not work.

And this refers to everything from
traditional link building, digital

PR, age domains, or whatever you're
doing, like even scaling content.

Doug: So when you come back to
the content website stuff in a

second and talk a little bit about
Google, I do want to highlight the

301 service that you guys offer.

So again, to emphasize, it can get
complicated, especially if you're

doing a sort of a nearly one to one
URL remapping, and it's a Big old site.

And sometimes, you know, a smaller agency
may not have the skills in house for the

scope of how complicated it might get.

So can you talk about the
service that you offer and then

who it's available to as well?

Alex: Sure.

So you, you'll get an dedicated account
manager and usually we tend to strategize.

If we're, you're an introvert, we
will just go back and forth via email.

Otherwise we prefer an onboarding call.

This particular dedicated account
manager will help you with the

entire thing, so you just need to
provide access to whatever server or

website and they'll do it for you.

We have a couple of methods.

The most common one is the marriage or an
acquisition where we will take, we will.

Build up the website or the domain
that has to be redirected, usually

announcing the the 3 0 1 redirect or the
acquisition of the domain on the homepage.

And then we'll simply migrate this
page to a one page page, uh, a

newly created page on your blog.

And we'll just 3 0 1 redirect,
because it doesn't really

make sense to take any domain.

Regardless how relevant and 3 0 1
redirected to your homepage, it confuses.

Google on an anchor text level.

So we try to, we, 301 re erected
to a 100 percent relevant page.

That's the first thing we do,
but there are other use cases.

For instance, you just want to rebrand and
you have a website that has 1500 pages.

And you're kind of scared
you're going to mess thing up.

You might mess up your SEO rankings.

You might mess up.

So that's something
that we handle as well.

Another one is you're simply trying
to, um, let's say, bypass a penalty.

By the way, this works really well.

Rebranding with the goal
of bypassing a penalty.

Now the problem is if you take the exact
same old website and you deploy it to

another domain, On the exact server,
things may not last forever, right?

So you will end up getting in
trouble sooner or later during

the next Google algo update.

Now, what works is rebranding, but
reconsidering some of your business

practices in regards to content, building
links, and operating a website in general.

Another one is simply building
up a MVP flagship website with a

specific topic cluster in mind.

So let me give you an example.

a famous standing desk
company from Australia.

They hired us to build them a
standing desk related cluster on

a standing desk related domain.

So we ended up building
a website for them.

And then they simply merged that
website with their main corporate

website into the blog, into a
separate category, standing desks.

And obviously that helped a lot because
you're merging two content entities.

You're not just merging a
domain into another website.

So there are quite a few, let's say.

less known details about 301 redirects.

And that's been our
focus for the time being.

In fact, it's one of our
best sold services so far.

So that's more or less to it.

And, uh, it has to be done
right to, to work properly.

Doug: And there's a lot of little
mistakes that someone could make

if they haven't done it before.

And you know, like many things,
each one of the steps is fairly

straightforward, but when you have
to get it in the right order and

you might have to multiply it by.

a thousand times, it's really easy to
make a small mistake that can cascade

and kind of goof the whole thing up with
that site to the standing desk site.

How long did it, did you guys
spend building the other site?

Did it like get established
before the merger with a different

category within their site?

Alex: The longer it's around
indexed and sometimes we even

allow it, there is no rush.

If the client, the customer is not in a
rush, we will let it pick up rankings.

Naturally, we prefer
merging a real website.

So ideally, if there is a real website
we can buy on behalf of the buyer,

we will, and we will merge that one.

We, we don't have a website
we will build on, right?

So usually if they're in a rush, if they
have a customer who's not patient at

all, once resolves yesterday, then we
wait for those pages to get, get indexed.

And then we merge.

Otherwise we'll let them get
indexed and maybe just let

them be for a couple of weeks.

Ideally, wait for them to
pick some rankings first.

Doug: Makes sense.

So like anything, if you, if you're not in
a rush, it's probably a little bit better.

Okay.

Yes.

So hopping back to the content website.

So as many of us know.

The March core and spam updates
from Google really shook up the

authority site and niche site space.

And you mentioned that the success
rate is, well, at this point it's

probably a little bit unknown
because we don't have enough data as

we're recording this in late April.

But from where you sit,
like, How do you see this?

A very open question, but I think a
lot of us knew that there was going

to be another major update after HCU
in the fall of 2023, but we didn't

know how major it was going to be.

So I'm looking forward to some
of your overall insights, Alex.

Alex: So content marketing
is definitely not dead.

I mean, look at Ahrefs,
look at empireflippers.

com.

These guys get most of their traffic
from SEO and they're ranking for some

great terms, but they're a brand like
Google doesn't have a problem with

you getting free traffic from their
search and using your SEO efforts, but

they want a real company behind that.

So there has been speculation around
Twitter and from generally speaking,

talking around with people that.

If there, if you're, if the entire
purpose of your website is just to funnel

traffic from one click to another, from
a sub click to an affiliate click, from

a sub click to a display ads banner,
then you're not fulfilling, like

your website doesn't solve a problem.

There is no checkout experience.

There is no book a call experience.

There is no servicing experience.

You don't end up, like, filling any
details, signing up for anything.

So Google can, at some point, see
that if you're using analytics,

if you have Google Search Console.

Obviously, if you're bouncing back to
the SERPs and haven't found anything.

So that's the main problem
with content websites.

Though, in a way or another,
they're bridge websites.

Their final websites, their thin
websites, regardless how big they are.

Now, in regards to the business
model itself, obviously there has

been lots of collateral damage.

And what I mean by that is.

Let's take travel bloggers
have extraordinary website.

They're actually investing their own
money, reinvesting the money they

make from SEO and traveling, buying
tickets, going places, taking pictures.

That's original content, but they
end up ended up being hit as well.

Well, the algo is not perfect.

I end up giving.

This example, the example of protests
and, and basically the riot police.

So if you're just, if there
is something going on, right?

Let's take the let's take
the, what happened in U.

S.

like a couple of years back.

So if you're just standing there
and watching these people trying to

attack the, you know, the White House.

And the riot police comes.

They can't really know if you're
there support, supporting those

guys or you're one of them.

So they will try to go
after everyone, right?

And this is exactly what
happened with Google.

They can't really differentiate
between a legitimate website.

Which has a content, the content
marketing as a business model and a thin

affiliate website with a thousand pages.

So the algo obviously
had collateral damage.

Now the problem is there has been
a lot of disappointment and I

understand those folks who've been
pivoting to Facebook, Pinterest,

and other sources to get traffic.

But the problem is what they forget is
These platforms have an algo on their

own and at some point there will be
updates like it happened with Facebook

in the past organic rich is dead.

So you have to be really
sophisticated and know what you're

doing to get some traction there.

And yeah, I think that generally speaking,
content affiliate marketers and those

making money from search traffic.

Thought that this business model can last
forever and nothing lasts forever and

they were wrong and not and I think that
at some point in time, Google will solve

the informational curies through SGE and
just leave the buying wants to e commerce

stores and obviously local businesses
for local stuff, but that's more or less.

I don't think that affiliate
websites Solve a problem, really.

And that's a reputation
management game for Google mostly.

And if we will end up discussing
the expired domain abuse, which

they have announced, that's again
a reputation management thing.

It doesn't have to do with the
actual reality of aged domains.

Doug: Okay.

And I'll, uh, we will
definitely come back to that.

So great example with the travel
bloggers where they are often creating

a hundred percent original content,
because there's so many different

geographies or so many different
experiences that they can personally have.

Maybe it's a specific food tour
package at a specific place and

it's just not covered, right?

It's not covered anywhere else.

And I am curious and.

I don't know how Google is going to deal
with this, but I, I don't spend much

time on Twitter, but I did see a thread
that someone sent over and it was someone

who was a travel blogger that created
a, whatever, a five day itinerary for

a specific location, priceless, right?

That's super valuable.

And they, they blogged it.

They had a lot of photos, original
photos, and then they went to Google

and they asked for a five day itinerary
and none of it made sense, right?

Because SGE is not sophisticated enough.

Currently to actually create an
itinerary that truly makes sense.

And it was saying, Hey, you
know, just drive over here really

quick, do this other thing.

But it was an eight hour drive
to get to this other location.

So it does not fit in the itinerary
and it doesn't make sense.

So.

My thought is there's no question
here, by the way, I'm just

pontificating on this idea.

But the, the main idea is Google
needs the source material from

somewhere to actually come up with it.

So we have a chicken and the egg situation
where if Google's not giving traffic

and people are not going to play ball,
if they're thinking, Hey, we're just

not going to write anything for Google
because they're not giving us any traffic.

I'm not sure where that source information
comes from because there's some.

Some of this stuff, recipe sites are
another valuable sort of original content

piece of the puzzle that I think a
lot of those sites were impacted too.

So if you have any comments, feel free
to share here, but no pure question.

Alex: Collateral damage is sad.

It's really hard.

And I imagine working as an engineer
at Google and trying to solve a

problem, trying to solve the problem
of actual low quality websites.

And I think those are like smart folks.

They don't want to
destroy anyone's business.

But they are trying to solve a
very very complicated problem.

So there will be collateral damage.

As an analogy, I think around
2012 2013 there has been around

20 billion Of dollars laundered
from Russia through Estonia.

So the problem we had with Estonian
companies is that the government

said, we're not going to allow
banks to use us dollars anymore.

So it's been euros for close to seven
and 10 years, seven, seven to 10 years.

And only recently they started allowing
Estonian companies to operate dollars,

obviously whatever the bad actors were,
they kind of limited those, but there

were hundreds and thousands of businesses.

That couldn't operate properly, had to
switch to Euro just because of that event.

So I think when it comes to Google again,
they're trying to solve a problem, but

there will be lots of collateral damage.

And on the, and, and there is an
actual conflict because on one

hand, they do need the content.

Now in the age of AI, they
need the content to actually

train the models, right?

So they actually need that data.

On the other hand, They kill the data.

So that happens with big corporations,
too many teams, conflicts of interest.

One team wants to train the AI, the other
team wants to solve the spam problem.

So these are obviously ongoing conflicts
and problems within big corporations.

And there is no easy way out.

Like I do understand marketers
because I've been one myself

for a very long period of time.

But I do understand Google.

At some point as well.

And being corporation this big, they can
not just openly talk about these things.

These are like corporate secrets.

So they can not just openly express
their feelings in regards to killing

so many legitimate businesses.

So it gets complicated.

These are cases where
there is no easy way out.

Doug: And one quick anecdote, and
then we'll move on to the recent

phrasing in the updates and some of the
communication about age domains and abuse.

Okay.

I was chatting with Spencer Hawes at Niche
Pursuits, and he mentioned that there

was a successful website feature over
on Google, and it was presented by, I

believe, maybe like the AdSense team, but
essentially they were saying, Hey, these

folks are making it's Full time income.

Here's all these success stories.

And there's, uh, I think dozens or
hundreds of these different websites

and different categories international.

So this is put on by a specific team.

Like you said, over at Google, if
you go and look, cause some of these

stories are a couple of years old.

If you go and look, many
of them were hit by HCU.

Many of them were hit in
this last update in March.

So obviously, you know, one team is
saying these are success stories.

You can learn some stuff from them.

They're doing a great job.

Meanwhile, the spam team hit those sites
and not not all of them, by the way.

It looked to be maybe like 30 to
50 percent were hit, which is still

a high number for someone that
actually got featured on Google.

Someone on the team had
an interview with them.

Like, I mean, it was a big deal.

So I'm going to do a video
on that at some point.

Just because it is, it's a little
bit alarming when you, when you

have a, you know, a company, you
know, for us, it's just like, it's

Google, but it's a huge company.

You know, so much is going on that
said in March, in the updates, Google

released a lot more documentation and
some guidelines, and there was a mention

of age domain or expired domain abuse.

So can you talk a little bit
about what the guidance is and

maybe some of the misconceptions?

The people have after these updates.

Alex: Sure.

So obviously operating a domain in company
that sells aftermarket inventory, it

did somehow concern us, however, not
to an alarming extent, mainly because.

Nothing really changed.

And I can publicly state that.

We're seeing very high level
black hat abuse using age domains.

And that's unfortunate because someone
would buy an excellent domain that

would be a great use for, let's say, a
toys website, someone launching a toys

e commerce website, and they use it.

abusively for anything from
gambling to very high, high

level black hat stuff, right?

So that's, that's pity actually, because
it could have been a great domain for,

for a legitimate e commerce business.

So that still happens
and that still works.

So nothing really changed in my
opinion, that what Google did

was necessary to some extent.

Because they sent a signal.

We don't like when our
reputation is damaged.

Now, the entire expired domain reputation
expired domain abuse announcement,

I think revolves around a couple
of events and one of them was this

Really I'd call them smart SEOs.

I think they're from Pakistan.

I said, I believe I actually
got the chance to meet them

in, in Saigon, in Vietnam last,
uh, last week or two weeks ago.

So what they did is they randomly bought.

An age domain from Google,
GoDaddy auction, and they started

aggressively scraping Amazon.

So at some point they were posting
like 6, 000 posts a day and they

end up monetizing and those were
actual reviews and testimonials.

If I remember correctly.

So they ended up making, so the
website kept going up and up and up

and they ended up making 800, 000.

So almost a million dollars in two months.

Now at some point the domain gets the
index, the whole website gets the index.

They manage to index
it again, keep posting.

Make a little bit more money
until it starts going public.

Everyone's talking about it.

Obviously they completely
ban it from, from Google.

Now, I think that these type of events is
what's triggered their overall position

on, and just statement towards expired
domain abuse, because the domain was the

former domain of a resort somewhere from.

Florida, I think, just some random,
let's categorize it as a travel website.

And it ended up like posting content
on everything under the sun, like all

sorts of projects and just funneling
millions of views and hits towards Amazon.

And by the way, they managed to get
the money, Amazon wired them the funds

and they, it ended up happily for them.

But that's not something, now think
about it, how influential it is.

And I believe it was featured on.

Search engine round table.

I think it was Matt Diggity who
actually interviews these fellas.

So it added up spreading and trust me,
like Google employees read this stuff

and they end up, they end up actually
talking to their management about this.

Like we can not possibly
allow this to happen.

At least we should react to it.

Now, the problem is not this one event.

The problem is that you had.

Tens of thousands of other SEOs
saying, well, I don't mind buying

an age domain, configuring a scraper
and potentially making 1 million

or 500, 000 a month for two months.

Like that's like, that's some serious
money for the average SEO out there.

So I think the level of
influence that happens from

those events is what triggered.

And I've been working with thousands of
other people to actually replicate this.

Now, when someone goes to our marketplace
and organically buys a domain, I have no

idea what they're going to use it for.

They might use it for something similar.

So I think Google wants
to prevent this behavior.

And what usually they do is they use
these scare tactics, which this is

something that all corporations do.

It happened in politics, in business.

So they said, we're
going after this website.

They announced this, and then from the
5th of March, when that announcement

came live to this very day today,
we're still seeing lots of aggressively

repurposed websites that rank.

In fact, I could privately
share with you some SERPs that

are dominated by repurposed U.

S.

government agency domains.

org.

net.

com, whatever, and completely repurposed
to very, very, very black hat stuff.

And that's a pity, in my opinion,
because each one of those domains

could be used legitimately by an
agency for their clients, by a real

business, something that we've discussed
at the beginning of the podcast.

So, in a way, it kind of breaks my
heart, but, I mean, money is money, and

GoDaddy, we take it, we will take it.

I do not advocate it, I do not
recommend anyone to repurpose

websites, use them legitimately, use
them to grow your business, but it

is what it is, so In fact, there is
one last thing that I want to add.

Even Google themselves, they do understand
that like even big corporations do acquire

sort of like age domains to rebrand or
domains to build a website from, and

sometimes they come from the aftermarket.

So at the end of the expired domains abuse
announcement, they actually said it's

completely fine to build a new website
on an old domain as long as the intent

is to serve people first or users first.

So a legitimate project and
there is nothing wrong with that.

They're after the abuse.

So don't abuse and build a legitimate
business with the right trust signals

in place, and I believe you'll be fine.

Doug: In a quick note, I didn't realize
there was that little caveat at the

end, because it was in the, the longer
guidelines versus the press release.

So there were, there were
two versions out there.

So I think if you're listening to
this, you're probably nerdy enough

that you read the longer version.

But when we exchanged some emails
you sent over like, Hey, you know,

there's this line in here that
basically covers the acquisition

portion, which is a normal Business
activity that happens all the time.

So it shouldn't be a weird thing.

Very good.

All right.

Well, let's start shifting gears.

Before we do, is there anything else
with age domains that you want to mention

before we start talking about in person
events, conferences, and the feeling on

the street with recent Google updates?

Alex: Not really, I think on March 5th
there were some accounts on Twitter

that actually tagged our company and
said our, um, like, rest in peace, ODYS

global, this is gonna kill your business
that's it, x5 means are dead, like.

And I, I, I really felt like weird that
being that, that happening at that point,

because those people had no idea about
the aftermarket and big it is and how many

different use cases beyond Google actually
exist when you're in the, in a business

of buying and selling domain names.

So, um, if anyone watching this.

Actually saw that or there might be
even those guys and those accounts

like the business of buying and selling
domains and aftermarket domains and

Asian domains is in fact flourishing.

Like we're seeing more demand
now that we've seen before.

Now it has slightly shifted
from content marketers to real

businesses and some other markets.

But I, I'm, I'm seeing lots of
demand from real businesses.

So it's not going anywhere.

It's just a part of
the internet ecosystem.

It cannot disappear, like, a domain
has a, has a life cycle and at

some point someone else can use it.

That's it.

Doug: Thanks a lot to Alex, and
we'll put a link so that you

can check out ODYS Global if you
want to dig a little bit deeper.

He's very approachable, and if you
catch him online, that's great.

If you happen to see him in
person, very cool as well.

Don't be afraid to walk up to
Alex and start chatting with him.

Of course, in part two, a
separate episode, we're going

to get into in person event.

So hopefully you'll see Alex at
some live event coming up soon.