Google reiterates its guidance on TLDs and search results, and also says it isn’t geotargeted .geo domains on their own.
A month or two ago a couple reports came out suggesting that new top level domain names give some sort of inherent search engine advantage.
I’ve gotten into the nasty habit (sarcasm) of actually reading beyond the headline of reports and studies, and I was unimpressed with the data (if you can call it that) in these reports.
Matt Cutts previously said there would be no inherent advantage to new TLDs. Cutts is on leave, but colleague John Mueller recently reminded everyone the truth:
It feels like it’s time to reshare this again. There still is no inherent ranking advantage to using the new TLDs.
They can perform well in search, just like any other TLD can perform well in search. They give you an opportunity to pick a name that better matches your web-presence. If you see posts claiming that early data suggests they’re doing well, keep in mind that’s this is not due to any artificial advantage in search: you can make a fantastic website that performs well in search on any TLD.
The reports I’ve read seem to be based more on anecdotal examples than any sort of hard data. It’s really hard to say if a site ranks well because of the domain or not. I like how Mueller explains this in his second paragraph.
I should point out that the same goes for .com vs. new TLDs. Building a site on .com doesn’t give you an inherent SEO advantage over a new TLD. The reason there are more .com domains in search results is because a) there are more .com domains registered and b) they are generally more established/older sites.
In a follow up to his Google+ post, Mueller noted something interesting: .geo top level domain names, like .nyc and .bayern, don’t get figured into search results for a geographic area.
… and just to be complete — we treat all of the new TLDs as gTLDs, meaning you can set geotargeting as you wish in Webmaster Tools. There’s no automatic geotargeting for TLDs that look like city or regional names.
If .geo domain names prove popular, I expect this to change.
Sridhar Raj says
My query to John posted on his G+ Page.
Would there be an inherent advantage where the LOTD+ROTD string makes sense, for example coffee.club which was the example in the early reports ranking close to if not higher than (someother)coffeeclub.com which was an aged domain/site for 7+ years.
IMO, without deep SEO technical albeit, every nTLD is not the same, there is significant value for end users (both recall and perhaps SE ranking) only where the LOTD+ROTD combination makes a search string. This is in addition to providing an opportunity to own a shorter more relevant EMD not available in a dot COM extension.
Am I wrong? Are you saying I could deploy a site on myholiday.club or theholidayclub.co since dot co is a gccTLD or use a long tail name like greatestholidayclubtoday.com (since I can never find a short dot com that easy) and they are all the same to the 800lb Gorilla in Search (joke), and that only the topicality in the web content itself will help in higher rankings…
Sorry if I sound ignorant, really would like to know what lies in store for nTLDs in the future, where strings makes good sense (have a vested interest in some of them)
Bill Roberts says
This should inform digital marketers/ e-commerce website owners that TLDs don’t contribute to rankings. Every domain name has the ability to make it on the top ranking. Matt Cutts has emphasized it.
Richard Downs says
” They give you an opportunity to pick a name that better matches your web-presence.” – for a tiny percentage of a similar .com/.net price.
The gTLD’s have been released because .com etc essentially ran out of good domains. We have seen over the years that single word, succinct domains are out of our reach due to cost and availability, now they are not.
EMD for SEO works, gTLD’s allow you to take advantage of it and have very specific domains.
For example : forex.trade – firstly just from the domain, i know what content the site will have, also. I am going to search for trade forex. Its an EMD, forex.com because of 20 years of being the top tld has conditioned us that its better. its not. It will remain king for a long while because of its 20 year head start but not for ever….The difference is forex.trade wont cost you millions and its available. So registrants get a short, succinct, memorable domain which can work for exact match domain purposes, exactly descriptive of their business for a small price. Seems like a win win.
Just think how many start ups that have been named as they are because of lack of domain availability. Cant call UBER ; localtaxi.com if the domain wipes out all their start up capital….
Sridhar Raj says
Exactamundo! On the money, short and sweet!
JZ says
even in your scenario, if forex.trade is successful, it will want to own forextrade.com eventually.
Richard downs says
Why? Forex.trade will be doing them just fine for search and branding.
JZ says
Because .com is the default tld. Just look at all the other successful businesses build on alternate domains and hacks, they almost always acquire the .com once they can afford it.
JZ says
Also, forex.trade is NOT comparable to forex.com. Its comparable to forextrade.com. I see so many new domainers thinking they own these great keywords but in the new gtlds you have to take into account what is on the right and left of the dot.
Richard downs says
For Exact match domain it is. Google looks for the simplest most relevant result. Forex.trade gives you that for a search of “trade forex” it’s not a live domain at the moment so you can’t check though. Why would Google prioritise forextrade.com over forex.trade? It’s more succinct.
Rubens Kuhl says
There all kinds of Geo TLDs. .rio and .nyc are restricted to local registrants, while .london is not… this might impact future decisions of search engines whether content is local or not.
It’s not clear what registries should prefer: being automatically geo-targeted prevents having content customized per location, but it also boosts SERPs without domain registrants configuring their region in Google Webmaster.
bhartzer says
Technically speaking, it’s not the TLD or the gTLD causing the ranking or the “boost”. Google is right when they say that the TLD or gTLD doesn’t matter. However, if you have seattle.dui.attorney, then more sites are going to link to you with that URL and with those keywords in the anchor text. So, that’s what will give you the ranking advantage or ranking boost–not the actual domain name.
That’s the same reason why companies almost always rank for their company name, because everyone links to their site with that anchor text.
Sridhar Raj says
@bhartzer – Technically speaking IMHO you are referring to Exact Match Domain name as part of a URL and using Anchor Text term incorrectly – http://moz.com/learn/seo/anchor-text
However I agree with the basic notion and have requested clarification from J Mueller with nTLD based example..
Matt says
I agree that there’s been a lot of bad data propagated by parties with an interest in promoting nTLDs, but you have to keep in mind that Google has their own interests, and have frequently put out information that turns out to be wrong. In this instance, it’s important not to conflate new TLDs not being a ranking factor with new TLDs not conferring an advantage. There are multiple ways in which using a new TLD domain demonstrably impacts other attributes which are ranking factors. The most obvious and impactful example being the greater prevalence of keywords in the anchor text that Bill mentions. It’s the same dynamic that benefits keyword domains: http://www.canirank.com/blog/keyword-domains/
Colin Campbell says
I wonder if there is an indirect benefit of owning a great name with great branding which drives traffic and hence supports position in Google. Google does look at the domain, traffic, links etc. In the case of a Coffee Club search on Firefox in Florida, Coffee.club has made it to the second spot. It also looks great and gives the owners of coffee.club the logical authority to rule that space which fuels even more traffic. If it was coffee.abc I wonder if that would not provide the confidence that a consumer is looking for especially if they are looking for a club. I have no doubt coffeeclub.com could have a similar effect if it was available, although it is a slightly longer URL. Ultimately domains with meaning will help customers self select what they are looking for. If you are looking for golf club, wine club, or coffee club, the URL becomes an indicator.
Andrew Allemann says
Colin, you point out some great benefits of using a new TLD. I can see how non-SEO popularity can lead to SEO popularity.
One thing people think Google takes into consideration in rankings is the click through rate (and how long people stay on the site they click through to). If people are more likely to click on the new TLD, then that could help. I don’t know if people are more likely to or not. One thing that intrigues me about .click is if people are more likely to click on them.
BTW, just checked locally and coffee.club is on the first page for “coffee club” with both quotes and without. Last time I checked it was page 2. Congrats.