.travel sTLD in Google?

[kkralickus]

A prospective client approached me to help with some Google SERP issues. Apparantly their .travel website was indexed by Google to roughly 800 pages and then promptly plummeted to about 15.

My initial thought is that they're spamming, duplicate content, butting heads with Big Daddy, or just plain new. It appears that all .travel sites are dealing with the same situation.

A search at Google for "site:.travel" returns 113,000 pages. Click on the "cached" link next to any of the returns and it does not exist.

The same search in Yahoo throws zero pages.

My searches for .travel sites draw a blank. Interestingly enough, you can do a Google search for an obscure 4-word phrase and find their site at position 21 (Term= "Lodge name1 name2 location"). The page loads but no cache and no page rank. Not just zero page rank, but grey bar. I haven't seen a grey bar in 2 or 3 years.

My advice to these folks was to optimize the site at a .com domain. That being said, anyone else dealing the .travel realm? Am I missing something here? There's a lot of talk about the start of .travel but nothing regarding SERPs of any sort.

[mcanerin]

One of my clients, the Canadian Tourism Commission, has registered several .travel sites and will be promoting them heavily. We've checked and there is no problem from a search engine perspective (sometimes it's nice to work for the government - search engines actually talk to you...)

However, there are 2 places that put out .travel domains - the proper place to get them is here: http://www.tralliance.info/

Another company, new.net, also has .travel domains, but they won't show up in any SERPs. The first thing I would do is make sure that they didn't register the .travel with new.net. Stay well away from those guys, IMO. Some domain companies resell net.net domains, which in my opinion is not a very good idea.

Second, keep in mind that all the usual issues with new domains still apply, including the so-called sandbox, etc.

Other than that, there is nothing about the sTLD that would/should cause any problems that I'm aware of.

Ian

[kkralickus]

Thanks for the input, it's nice to see other folks in the mix.

These folks say they registered through Tralliance and all seems to be on the up & up. The site went live in 11/05.

Re: The sandbox. I've played in the sandbox and watched sites sit in and eventually come out. <Every> new site my I've watched go live has been cached by Google (at least 1 page) and given some page rank (even if it is a 0/10) within 5 months of existence. I've been at this a while and I've yet to see a site draw a blank in Google/Yahoo.

That being said, as far as I can see, <none> of the .travel sites that I have found have a page rank. Grey bar for all - no exceptions. And none of them have cached pages in Google or Yahoo.

Yours is the same. The Canada.travel site:
http:// www.canada.travel/(stuff). No page rank, no cache.

Is this my data center? Can anyone see a cache or PR?

I should add - why would Tralliance sites appear in SERPs when new.net sites would not?

[kkralickus]

Update - My client obviously has some clout.

He's on speaking terms with Ronald N. Andruff, President & CEO of Tralliance Corp.

Ronald emailed THE Vinton G. Cerf at Google. http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint

Of course, they both very politely blew me off, which I think is great. But it's nice to be noticed.

How many of you have been blown off by the Chief Internet Evangelist of Google?

[Scott Fish]

I actually think that the .travel domains will have a little more weight than people think. These domains must be registered by tourism based companies, not just someone looking to throw up an adwords site.

I'd look out for .travel sites trumping your serp rankings in the future.

[mcanerin]

Hmmm - I'm seeing a grey-bar too. I haven't started on the site yet, but a grey-bar is not my preferred starting point, naturally.

Although I'm certain it's a technical issue, obviously this is something that should be fixed ASAP - Googlers?

Coincidentally, I'm moderating a seminar in Ottawa next week - the first Canadian Online Travel Industry Conference. Guess what? One of the panelists is Vince Chirico, Head of Travel Sales for Google. I'll talk to him and see if he has any insight into the issue.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention so quickly,

Ian

[kkralickus]

Update -

Google concedes that the .travel TLD is not being cached and engineering is looking into it.

No word on Yahoo at this point.