Why Fake Traffic is not Allowed
To continue providing the highest-quality parking services, Sedo does not allow fake traffic. This type of traffic is often artificially generated and is used to inflate visitor statistics and click-throughs. However, these click-throughs do not generally convert for sponsors; low conversion rates decrease the value of keyword bid prices and - in turn - the amount we can pay out for every click. In relation to the domain aftermarket, inflated traffic statistics are misleading for investors who want to build up a portfolio of high-performing domain names. To maintain value for the entire Sedo community, it is important that all members avoid activities that might directly influence the natural traffic to their parked domains.
What Counts as Fake Traffic
Fake traffic includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:
- Using PPC ("Pay Per Click") Programs
- Traffic from visitor/link exchange systems
- Advertising the domain on forums, blogs, chatrooms, and/or networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook, or Xanga*
- Encouraging friends or family to visit the page via bulk, solicitous emails, etc
- Paying to promote the domain with services such as Google Adwords™, Google Adsense™, or other similar programs
- Linking to the parked page from classified listings such as Craigslist
- Using Pop-ups/Pop-Unders
- Using frames without permission from Sedo
- Generating traffic from scripts, click bots, etc
- Self-generated clicks and traffic (clicking on the advertisements yourself)
- Promoting the domain, via any of the above, as anything other than search results
Traffic Audits
Sedo performs regular audits of traffic to parked domains inconjunction with our upstream advertising provider. Upon reasonable suspicion that a member's clicks are the result of fake traffic, Sedo reserves the right, without prior notice and at Sedo's sole discretion, to 1) delete any or all of the accumulated parking revenue for a user account; 2) remove any or all of the user's domain names from the Domain Parking service; and/or 3) suspend the user's account.
For more information, refer to Section 5.3 in the Sedo User Agreement.