Co-authored by David Hallam, Business Development Director NCC Group and Hans Seeuws, Managing Director OpenRegistry.

Google has posted details on Ranking of new gTLDs (new gTLDs) in search. John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst, said that new gTLD’s will be treated the same as other gTLD’s such as .com. He stated: “Overall, our systems treat new gTLDs like other gTLDs (like .com & .org). Keywords in a TLD do not give any advantage or disadvantage in search.” The ambiguous use of the word “overall” in the statement, may leave some doubt as to whether the 600 .brands—new domain extensions operated by brand owners—are included or excluded in any VIP search ranking treatment. One could speculate that the vague wording is perhaps driven by commercial reasons. If Google had announced that all domains within a .brand domain extension would be valued higher, why would those same brands then bother to register their names in any of Google’s new domain extensions such as .home or .site?

Google’s comment on new domain name ranking wasn’t the first of its kind. The message became somewhat of a mantra each time an SEO study around new Internet extensions claimed to have discovered a domain ending that brings specific search benefits.

• German search engine optimisation specialist Searchmetrics found what appeared to be a 1.18 position improvement in .berlin domains when web users were searching for information while physically located in Berlin. Search engines often use your IP address to deliver better results.
• Total Websites took screenshots that appeared to show how a domain ending in “.company” would do better than an equivalent dot-com domain if someone used the term “company” in their search. It found the same pattern across other new domain extensions as well.

A domain extension—whether or not it contains a keyword—is only one part of the entire URL. It’s no magical wand that will transform any toad into a high ranking Google princess. Far more relevant is that .brands can utilise their seizable investment to create a domain naming strategy that aligns with consumer search behavior. Combined with proven SEO methods, this can pave the way to ‘click through rate’ heaven.

The Only Way for .brands Is Up

Having full control over every character between the two dots unleashes a powerful weapon with several ways for .brands to attract attention.

1. The presence of search terms in the domain name leads to higher organic rankings or a better ad quality score in pay-per-click ad ranking algorithms. Studies show that using the ideal generic name produced 45 per cent more clicks on an ad. Don’t make a term like ‘home’, ‘domains’, or ‘nic’ your online operating basis, but look for keywords that match closely with what your customers are searching for.
2. Shorter snappy titles get read first—myproduct.brand instead of brand.com/myproduct
3. We tend to give more attention to words at the end of a sentence or line. .brands will shift the consumer’s attention away from a generic .com towards a meaningful and relevant brand.
4. Last but not least: keywords in a search show up in bold in the URL. How’s that for an online neon sign?

“The fundamental way to increase your rank is to increase your relevance,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt quote. Billions of Internet users each day decide what is relevant and what is not, by clicking. The more that new .brand domain extensions start actively using their extension AND host content rich sites, the more Internet users will prefer URLs that they know and trust, and click on them. The more visitors, the better the click rate, one of the search metrics that factor in determining a search engine rank.

Things to Consider when Launching Your .brand

• Consistency in domain naming - If you type in www.example.brand, but then your type in just example.brand and the “www” does not redirect to www.example.brand, that means the search engines are seeing two different sites. This isn’t effective for your overall SEO efforts as it will dilute your inbound links, as external sites will be linking to www.example.com and example.com.
• Bad redirects -Shifting from a .com to a new .brand domain extension requires the right precautionary measures to avoid the risk of causing search engine issues. Set up the redirects on a page-to-page basis such that sub-folders and deep content pages are redirected to corresponding sub-folders and deep content pages on the new domain. SEO specialists should avoid redirecting all pages from one domain to the homepage of another domain.
• Duplicate content - If you decide to build your new domain extension AND keep the .com alive at the same time, there needs to be sufficiently different content on each website to avoid a duplicate content penalty.
• Frivolous forwarding - Registering domain names and redirecting them to another site has long been a practice employed for SEO reason. Though this has been effective in the past, Google largely devalues URLs that simply forward.

One More Thing…

Google is trying to find the most relevant search results, not the sites that best game the system. And relevance and brands are closely linked according to Schmidt, back in 2008 he said: “The Internet is fast becoming a cesspool where false information thrives. Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” Not a single brand has paid the $185,000 ICANN application fee to game the search engine system. What better way for a brand to be considered relevant online than to create its own gated community and put a lid on that cesspool?