
NameCheap Overtakes Go Daddy In Google - tnd
http://www.elliotsblog.com/namecheap-overtakes-go-daddy-0675
======
OzzyB
_1,019 people +1'd this_

That's what I see under the NameCheap listing, which is number 2, Wikipedia is
#1, with GoDaddy at #3.

The GoDaddy listing doesn't seem to have any _+1s_ under it.

Could this be the effect of Google using G+ data to influence its search
results? Thus, by giving more weight to G+, plus, GoDaddy's sinking popularity
"socially", equals, a drop in its rank.

~~~
gabaix
"name" is also in the URL of namecheap. It is very hard to counter legit sites
with the exact keyword match in their URL, even if you have many more quality
links going to you.

Try "hosting" and you'll see what I am talking about.

~~~
nfriedly
Not knocking your point, but
[https://www.google.com/search?q=domain+registration&pws=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=domain+registration&pws=0)
also shows NameCheap above Go Daddy

~~~
TillE
See how it bolds "domain names", though? Google is now notorious for this; it
will search for what it thinks you meant, rather than exactly what you typed.
It's silently adding "name" to your query for you.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
It's quite handy though, it looks for close synonyms where it expects they
will return superior results.

For instance, if I search for "how to learn Castillian", it might replace that
with Spanish since that also describes what I'm looking for and will get more
results.

~~~
keeperofdakeys
As soon as you try searching anything related to programming or computing,
where you need exact matches, you start to loathe it (of course, there is
always verbatim mode). I've also had a case where it included the antonym of
one of my search terms in its "auto terms". Of course, since this is google,
all of these associations are probably auto-generated at some level. So
weeding out bugs would probably be rather hard.

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ComputerGuru
Does NameCheap let you do (I forget what it's called) your own nameserver on
your own domain for free?

i.e. having registered example.com with NC, can you set up ns1.example.com to
be the nameserver for example.com free of charge? Many registrars charge a fee
for this (when they really shouldn't)

EDIT

Seriously? Downvotes? It's just a question. There WAS a company that does
that, it was mentioned here on HN during the great GoDaddy exodus, but I
cannot recall which.

~~~
ccbean
They refer to it as 'private nameservers', and it should be free.

[http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...](http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/207/32/how-
to-create-private-nameservers)

~~~
srhngpr
yes, they offer this ONLY if you have "a Reseller, VPS or Dedicated server"
service with them. In other words, if you just use them for domain names, then
chances are you don't get this.

Name.com offers this service for free to domain registrations:
<http://www.name.com/faq/create-my-own-name-servers>

EDIT: I stand corrected, please see:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3869727>

~~~
d503
I just tried registering my own nameservers on my NameCheap-hosted domain and
it does appear to work even with a plain domain subscription.

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RegEx
To verify search results with no personal settings, append &pws=0:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=domain+name&pws=0](https://www.google.com/search?q=domain+name&pws=0)

------
trevin
Google has been testing some pretty major algorithm changes in the last 5 or
so days. Everything has been extremely volatile and major SERPs are changing
every few hours.

Several prominent, white hat companies have even went missing in the Google's
rankings for their [brand name] this week:
[https://plus.google.com/111294201325870406922/posts/NhssnKgf...](https://plus.google.com/111294201325870406922/posts/NhssnKgfefy)

Not buying this as a long lasting rankings change until it sticks around for
several weeks.

~~~
ollerac
Do you have some kind of article or source to back up your first comment? I'm
interested in reading it.

~~~
trevin
Distilled, one of the more well-known and reputable SEO agencies have a good
post on what they've been seeing: <http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/google-
updates-april-2012/>

I also work with a larger number of sites and have seen all kinds of crazy
things in a number of different industries the last few weeks. Fllow SEOs at
other agencies are seeing the same fluctuations.

------
jwarzech
I actually was just in the middle of buying a domain name, decided that while
I'd like to get away from GoDaddy I can't really afford to transfer all of my
domain names right now and would like them all with the same register.

Well at checkout for some reason the PayPal button was missing and I didn't
feel like typing in my CC (I know thats pretty lazy) so I decided to check and
see NameCheap's price and with private registration (which was free) it was
going to be $8 cheaper than GoDaddy. Needless to say I'm going to start moving
my domains over.

~~~
kijin
Coupon code when transferring: SWITCH2NC

IIRC you get 2 years of private registration for free when you transfer to
NameCheap, but it won't stay free after that period. When your privacy service
runs out, renewal costs around $2 per domain per year. But then again, you can
use the WGSPECIAL coupon to make that 99 cents. Those two coupons always work.

------
chrisguitarguy
NameCheap overtook Go Daddy for the author. Search results change based on
location, your preferences, search patterns, and just about everything else.
One search does not a ranking change make.

~~~
joelrunyon
If you log out or search in Incognito Mode (basically stripping out that
personalization data), NameCheap does show up first for the term "domain
name."

~~~
streptomycin
I tried that, and Wikipedia was #1 for me, which is probably a better result
than any particular registrar.

~~~
joelrunyon
Sorry, I meant #1 as far as actual domain name registrars go.

Namecheap was #2 and GoDaddy was #3. I think the author was referring to the
fact that while Wikipedia has always been #1, GoDaddy & NameCheap had switched
spots.

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LyleK
Crud. There goes my hipster cred. Been using NameCheap for years, now they are
too mainstream.

~~~
ollerac
Don't worry: you salvaged some of it with that comment ;)

------
nextparadigms
I figured this will affect GoDaddy in the long term much more than it did in
the short term, when people said "after all the fuss, it seems GoDaddy didn't
lose that many users".

The point was that people wrote a ton of negative articles about GoDaddy then,
and since that day forward virtually no one will recommend GoDaddy anymore,
and instead will (probably) recommend NameCheap or someone else. I would
expect the GoDaddy exodus to continue in the next few years.

~~~
vaksel
yes...but all those stories would have boosted GoDaddy by quite a bit in
rankings in Google

My guess is that this change is temporary and that someone at GoDaddy is
calling their Google rep...and we'll see a fix shortly.

GoDaddy actually uses Adwords(and they rank #1...so they spend the
most)...NameCheap doesn't appear to be(at least for the domain name search
term). And they have a valid claim for being the biggest domain registrar...so
Google loses nothing by playing the game and getting them to rank higher

~~~
OstiaAntica
Google is not permitted to allow the AdWord spend influence their search
results.

~~~
brokentone
Is not permitted, or does not? Serious question

~~~
OstiaAntica
I think US anti-trust law, and various promises that Google has made to the
authorities in the past as part of M & A deals, prohibit them from crossing
the line.

------
moe
Between their recent multi-day nameserver outage and their lack of auto-pay
and their clumsy interface I'm growing increasingly tired of namecheap...

------
ccbean
Go Daddy was catching some flack[0] when it was discovered that they were
appending their link to the bottom of web pages built with their web page
builder tool called Website Tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if Google caught
on and devalued a lot of their links with similar anchor text.

[0] <http://yoast.com/godaddy-link-building/>

------
bizodo
Now some of the aggregators need to send traffic to them also I.e.
leandomainsearch.com and domaintyper.com which I love promote godaddy.

~~~
jorgem
I send traffic to Godaddy too, even though I use NameCheap.

The reason? If you're trying to make a commission for referrals, then Godaddy
still whoops NameCheap. Far more domain buyers will use Godaddy, so more
chance for commission.

~~~
tocomment
You should stop doing that because they supported SOPA. Don't sell out.

~~~
cmelbye
If we stopped frequenting all businesses that make political decisions we
disagree with, we'd have no businesses left. That's sort of the reality of it.
I still shop at Target despite donations to a republican candidate for
governor in Minnesota, I still eat at Chick-fil-A despite donations to groups
against gay marriage.

Are you boycotting every company that supported SOPA, including many many book
publishers, Nike, Ford, Nintendo, Disney, and Wal-Mart? Do you refuse to watch
movies produced by members of the MPAA? Have you stopped purchasing music from
record company members of the RIAA? If not, then "don't sell out," and more
importantly, don't tell the grandparent commenter what to do.

~~~
pessimizer
You really find Chick-fil-a appetizing and support gay rights at the same
time? I'm jealous of you - I once loved it, and now the idea of eating there
makes me slightly ill.

It's your own personal decision about what you want to support in this world,
but everybody gets to have an opinion about it esp. if you announce it on the
internet.

Inertia because inertia is not an argument, it's just what inertia is. When
you shop at companies that do things that are morally reprehensible to you,
while avoiding a million other options, that just sounds like apathy.

------
detay
Namecheap does not seize your expired domain and does not try to sell it back
to you overpriced. Namecheap does not have a bloated disfunctional website.
Namecheap does not have hidden costs. Namecheap is developer friendly, has an
API and a sandbox. Namecheap does not fuck the consumer.

------
Tim-Boss
I'm very happy to report that in the UK GoDaddy don't even appear on the first
page of results!

[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=domain+name&pws=0](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=domain+name&pws=0)

------
yaix
I tried a Google search for "domain name" (in Chromium Incognito Window, to
avoid any "social" stuff) on my Netbook.

I don't see Wikipedia or NameCheap. I don't see any search results at all.

What I see above the fold is exclusively advertisements. In the center column
are huge AdWord ads including deep links. And in the right column is another
stack of 160px Adword ads.

Then there are some internal Google links (sign in, Why these ads?, +You,
etc).

That's it! Well done, Google.

------
smackfu
Of course Go Daddy still has the actual top result... the first sponsored
result in the peach box. Along with Network Solutions and 1&1.

------
mistercow
Not on verbatim search with personalization off. This is one of the reasons I
really dislike personalized search; it makes searches irreproducible.

~~~
endtime
Why is that an important property of searches?

~~~
mistercow
Sometimes I like to search for things to see what kind of buzz there is about
them. Other than that, there's just something unsettling and vaguely
frustrating about a system that doesn't work the same way for me as it does
for someone else. I can't give any examples of where there's a crucial need
for short term reproducibility of searches; it's more that there are lots and
lots of petty cases where it is slightly annoying.

------
garrett_smith
I predict the SEO circle jerk will out them soon for begging, borrowing and or
buying links. Way to blow up their spot.

~~~
chrisguitarguy
It's not going to matter. Godaddy already has about 100x the external links
that NameCheap does (according to SEOmoz[1] and Majestic SEO[2]). If NameCheap
moved up, it was for reasons other than external links.

1\.
[http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/comparisons?site=www.godaddy...](http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/comparisons?site=www.godaddy.com&comparisons%5B0%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.namecheap.com)

2\. [https://www.majesticseo.com/reports/compare-domain-
backlink-...](https://www.majesticseo.com/reports/compare-domain-backlink-
history?d0=namecheap.com&d1=godaddy.com&d2=&d3=&d4=&type=1&ctype=1&entries=12&IndexDataSource=H)

~~~
Osiris
GoDaddy also has north of 50 million domains registered versus 3 million for
Namecheap. If I understand correctly, GoDaddy doesn't make any (or very
little) of domain sales, it's the other services like hosting, email, etc that
generate the revenue.

~~~
joelrunyon
How much GoDaddy charges for domains has little to do with their SEO ranking.

They do use it as a loss-leader because most people starting a new site search
for domain names over hosting when starting out.

------
Kiro
Go Daddy is on 8th place for me.

~~~
ashconnor
2nd for me even though Matt Cutts (I follow on Google+) shared GoDaddy on
Blogger.

------
abuark
I am looking for alternatives to "Go Daddy". What choices do I have other than
"NameCheap" ?

Thanks!

~~~
chaz
I like Gandi.net. A bit more expensive at $15.50 for a .com, but it includes
DNS, SSL, web redirection, and email (nice for setting up forwarding
addresses).

~~~
didip
Is SSL free at Gandi.net?

~~~
warp
For every domain, you get 1 year of free SSL -- when you need to renew the
certificate you do have to pay for it.

------
smackfu
GoDaddy still wins for "domain names" when I'm signed out or in.

------
edzme
Whatever it is I'm for it. F u daddy.

------
arunoda
OH! What is SOPA has done to Go Daddy. Oh my

