Google Toolbar
 

I tend to use descriptive domain names with keywords embedded (eg http://women-in-bondage.info , http://www.science-fiction-stories.info , http://www.genuinemagicpower.com , http://sorority-initiations.com , etc.) and when I find Google sends me traffic almost as soon as I upload the site I assume that at some point in the past someone has had the same idea as me and used that domain name before me, then given up the site, let the domain slip, and I have had the same thinking as them when I have set up my site. For example http://www.detective-fiction.info is a blindingly obvious URL for a site about or containing detective fiction, what are the odds on me being the first to think this? So I assume the quick Google traffic is because they still have listings for the old site, and I am getting that residual traffic.

However, more recently I have been wondering how every single new site I think of has been thought of before. Particularly as some are a little too specific to the subject. For example I chose http://planetdominatrixbooks.com for a site publicising my series of sci-fi books about Planet Dominatrix. What are the odds on someone else having used that combination of word for their site? But my first Google hit was two days after setting up. Also some of my sites are heavily Perl driven so I'll put up the shtml pages and bugger with the scripts for days, sometimes even weeks, before the "going live". Usually the shtml pages get Google hits long before I have finished, and BEFORE I HAVE EVEN GOT A SINGLE LINK TO THE SITE anywhere on the Internet.

Now it has crossed my mind that I have the Google Toolbar on IE, and I use IE to check my sites after uploading. So I am wondering, does Google use the toolbar to find new sites to list? Am I, by having the toolbar installed, giving Google an instant "list my site please" message when I first visit my own site after uploading?

Does anyone know if this happens? Or am I just mad?

You're not mad.
Alexa toolbar works the same way and by this basis they roughly estimate your traffic.. at least in the past.

Yes, the toolbars definitely communicate with their Home Bases about your actions. It's always nice to get that first recognition that the initial SE traffic brings.

Since you're using what you call descriptive domain names, you're probably getting some initial traffic from those searches regardless of whether anyone has ever registered that domain at some point in the past (of course you can check for earlier sites at archive.org if you want to know). That nice organic traffic is part of the "Honeymoon Period" so enjoy it while it lasts, because the period is there for a reason.

Unfortunately, while domains like that were relatively easy to rank once upon a time, the EMD (exact match domain) part of Big G's algorithm subtracts points for over-optimization, so be very careful about anchor texts linking to those sites. You don't want lot of links where the linked words are an "Exact Match (for the) Domain" of those sites.

HTH

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Thanks for your replies

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Shit, I should of thought of that. I use archive.org all the time. Mostly for out of copyright films, but occasionally to look up websites, and I once used it to mine my first ever website for lost content, when my hard drive fried after I had lost the domain.

Sadly the latter does not preclude the former! |loony| |crazy| |loony|