Domain Tasting – In All But Name
Domain tasting is the practice of registering an expired domain on release into the available domain pool in order to monitor its natural traffic. In cases of poor traffic the domain is released before the invoice is due to be paid. The domain has been ‘tasted’. It’s prevalent in the .com community.
Relatively recently Nominet put procedures in place – quite correctly – to counter this within the .uk namespace by restricting the number of domains that could be released pre-invoice after being ‘registered in error’ during the monthly invoice cycle.
The big registrars in the UK have got around this it seems by using a known part of the UK domain registration cycle. Where a client has a hosting account that overlaps the renewal date of the domain, or where the renewal date superceding the hosting expiration, they have started to place a ‘holding page’ on the account esentially removing any site content. It’s a dodgy practice. Not only are they potentially depriving a client of PAID FOR hosting, they are both profiting from any existing seo’d traffic via contextual/google ads, and they are also able to monitor the traffic & CTR for that page up until it expires – in the case of a client not renewing their domain.
Where previously a registrar would have DETAGGED the domain, or surrendered it for SUSPENSION they are now profiteering from the above practices and monitoring the potential traffic to a domain and once released they are attempting to register the domain to themselved or partnered companies. The money that can be made from multiple instances of this is not insubstantial.
