Another day, another change to the Google search algorithm likely to send a shiver down the spine of some travel brands heavily reliant on traffic from the search giant.
But this change isn't about content on sites - it's a tweak to the search crawling kung fu so sites which have keyword-based domain names are perhaps not as favoured as they once were.
Google has now acknowledged that in the past people have complained that it gives "too much weight for keywords in domains".
"So we have been thinking about adjusting that mix a bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm, so that given two different domains it wouldn't necessarily help you as much to have a domain name with a bunch of keywords in it."
Here is the clip from Google Webmaster Tools where the change was announced, albeit briefly (fast-forward to 2m19s):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAWFv43qubI
Now while the "turning down the knob" is not specific to a particular industry vertical, many travel sites have long benefited from so-called "URLs from heaven" because they were believed to be better performers in search.
Think: Cheapflights, Cheaptickets, perhaps even TripAdvisor, as well as a myriad of destination-focused sites such as TravelingInSpain, etc, etc.
Now many such sites will say the content they have is unique and valuable enough to ensure Google continues to crawl and rank it accordingly.
But the range of affiliate link-led sites with very little unique content but with strong, keyword-led domain names, could be on the end of a nasty shock if their page rank plummets when the switch is made.
Cheapflights says it welcomes the move by Google, adding:
"There is a lot of abuse with keyword rich domains and in the interests of improved customers experience this alteration may well help achieve this."