Business Insider: 10 Myths About The New Top-Level Domains

[Domainate.com]

10 Myths About The New Top-Level Domains

Got an article published in one of the most active mainstream business blogs regarding the new TLDs, essentially pointing out a lot of misinformation that's been going around most of the mainstream blogs regarding the new TLD program. Feel free to share your comments!

 

[SpiderHunter]

Thanks for the share, it was a good read.

At #7 I mostly agree but there will be a lot of new opportunities for simple domainers to grab domains worth in the range of $xxx-xx.xxx quite easily considering all the new possible extensions.

 

[Domainate.com]

Thanks for the share, it was a good read.

At #7 I mostly agree but there will be a lot of new opportunities for simple domainers to grab domains worth in the range of $xxx-xx.xxx quite easily considering all the new possible extensions.

That's assuming the registry doesn't withhold those names though, and there hasn't been a release of an extension that I'm aware of since .in where the registry didn't withhold the premium domains. In an auction, especially an auction at launch, domains worth in the range of $xxx - $xx,xxx would sell at around their value if not higher.

Look at .xxx for instance...I personally don't think it will be that successful as the adult industry hates it and doesn't want to adopt it, but they are getting a massive amount of pre-registrations. Don't you think that alone will take up almost anything of immediate $xxx+ value? And the fact that names with multiple pre-reg's going to auction will remove most of them from being bargains?

It's not like the days of old when registries simply released everything first-come first-serve and there's a melee of registration activity to get the best of the best. THOSE were gold rushes. That initial melee on the latest new extensions has been to get the leftover scraps and there's no reason to believe new extensions from ICANN's new TLD program will operate any differently.

 

[gpmgroup]

Congratulations on getting published

Point 9 is very wrong though

9. Domains of new generic TLDs will outduel established TLDs in SEO.

.com, .net and .org being more established and mainstream than newer extensions has always given them an SEO benefit....

Google's representatives are on the record as saying Google does not discriminate by gTLD.

If you think about it; with all of Google's PhD's it would be crazy to discriminate by gTLD. It's like saying all orange people are bad or all green people are better than blue ones.

 

[Domainate.com]

Congratulations on getting published

Point 9 is very wrong though




Google's representatives are on the record as saying Google does not discriminate by gTLD.

If you think about it; with all of Google's PhD's it would be crazy to discriminate by gTLD. It's like saying all orange people are bad or all green people are better than blue ones.

First off, expecting Google to say anything other than "we don't have a bias towards/against X" is futile. Large companies only ever make politically correct statements. They didn't say a word about .co.cc before delisting every single one of them.

Additionally, if you think .com doesn't hold any more authority weight over .name, .travel, .pro or any other mostly-failed extension, explain why we aren't seeing SEOs exploit the exact match keyword domains in those extensions and reaching top ranks for top terms. Those domains would cost peanuts compared to the .com's, and in .name especially given it's an old extension now, the age factor wouldn't matter as much...should be SEO heaven, right? But it's not, because they know that Google DOES bias towards the big 3. Also, look at ccTLDs in their respective countries. Google clearly biases towards .co.uk and .org.uk sites in the UK, and rightfully so.

Secondly, you missed the point. My point wasn't that the new TLDs would be biased against because of not being .com/.net/.org. Google's goal is to serve up sites with trust and authority over spam/scam sites, irrelevant sites, or sites that are otherwise not desirable to go to. Panda further indicated this with looking at weak content, sites that merely republish content, etc. One of the ways Google can help determine if a site has authority is through domain and site age. On that basis alone, Google will prefer a .com/.net/.org exact match domain over a brand new exact match domain in a new extension. Again, if you don't think this is the case, why haven't we seen SEOs exploit the recent .co, .me, and others to rank for the top terms? Some perhaps have tried, but how many have you come across in Google lately for major terms? you might say "well targeting those terms is a long process involving years of linkbuilding" etc. - again more proof that these new extensions won't be overrunning the established ones anytime soon.

One last point: It's no secret that Google sandboxes completely new domains. Even if you can get them to rank, it's a much more uphill battle than if you have a domain even aged half a year to a year. So do you think upon release of new TLDs, Google will all of a sudden stop doing this to make sure they don't inadvertently bias against any new extensions? Of course not. In fact, that would show blatant bias more than what they currently do.

 

[gpmgroup]

Google chooses its words very carefully and many people mistakenly read into their statements things they want to be so, however to the best of my knowledge Google have always been very truthful.

co.cc is not an official second level domain it is owned by a company that happened to offer free sub domain redirection services. It would be no different to offering abc.doma.in xyz.doma.in etc.

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&t...t&q=germany&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&t...=hp&q=spain&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b

Age and authority are not a function of TLD

The sandbox is not a function of TLD

i.e. sites are affected irrespective of TLD. I agree with you there will be tons of hype from sharp suited salesman saying new gTLDs will be instantly at the top of Google and you and I both know most won't.

However to say Google awards advantage or disadvantage to .com or any other gTLD simply because of the gTLD is just as misleading as the inevitable sharp suited salesmen's spin for new gTLDs we will be hearing in 16 months or so.

 

[Domainate.com]

Google chooses its words very carefully and many people mistakenly read into their statements things they want to be so, however to the best of my knowledge Google have always been very truthful.

co.cc is not an official second level domain it is owned by a company that happened to offer free sub domain redirection services. It would be no different to offering abc.doma.in xyz.doma.in etc.

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&t...t&q=germany&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&t...=hp&q=spain&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b

Age and authority are not a function of TLD

The sandbox is not a function of TLD

i.e. sites are affected irrespective of TLD. I agree with you there will be tons of hype from sharp suited salesman saying new gTLDs will be instantly at the top of Google and you and I both know most won't.

However to say Google awards advantage or disadvantage to .com or any other gTLD simply because of the gTLD is just as misleading as the inevitable sharp suited salesmen's spin for new gTLDs we will be hearing in 16 months or so.

So you think it's just as easy to rank Insurance.name #1 for keyword Insurance as it would be to rank Insurance.com? We can agree to disagree on the answer to that question, but the belief that the .com would have a much easier time than the .name all other factors equal is not simply my own. You will find very few SEOs who do it for a living that believe the .com and .name would be on completely equal footing, which is exactly what Google's statement would imply.

Again though, I stress that my point wasn't that the new TLDs would be biased against because of not being .com/.net/.org. On launch day, every domain registered in a new extension will be newer than every .com/.net/.org registered before that day. That's a fact. Google looks at age as a ranking factor. Even if you believe that to only be true for initial sandboxing purposes, that's a fact. A->B->C = A->C.