information Google says keywords in the TLD part of your URL are ignored for ranking purposes

[sutharshan]

Google’s John Mueller confirmed yesterday in a Google Hangout that keyword-rich TLDs, such as the new top-level domains that have keywords in them — like .LIVE, .NEWS, .ATTORNEY and so on — do not count for ranking purposes. Mueller said Google completely ignores that for ranking purposes.
http://searchengineland.com/google-says-keywords-tld-part-url-ignored-ranking-purposes-251971

 

[Chris Rice]

I've been working with SEO for almost twenty years and I've learned that not EVERYTHING Google says is to be considered as 100 percent reliable facts. They have so many parameters in their algorithm and some of them will be kept secret.

I would say that it's crazy if the .yoga TLD is not considered at all if having a yoga studio. If the name of the studio is "Hot Yoga" and the web page is: Hot.yoga, then you will only be ranked for "hot"? Makes no sense.

Ok, hot.yoga is a kind of hack, but a much better name than hotyoga.yoga. If Google are not taking this into consideration, they are not progressive enough. Google obviously considers the content, links and meta data, but still the niched TLDs should be one of MANY parameters. That is my thoughts on this.

Is really Coffee.club just ranked for "coffee". Google says so, but I am not totally convinced.

Coffeeclub.club is a freaking ugly name...

They are lying.

1. Google "Emafe Rice" and you will see EmafeRice.com

2. Google "Emafe Rice XYZ" and you will see EmafeRice.xyz instead.

White lies and flip-flopping is a common occurence when it comes to the information Google provides about SEO.

 

[Chris Rice]

Go figure. And who actually searches for xyz ?

The point is you cannot trust Google to tell you how their algorithm works, and more importantly how it will work in the future.

It is common sense that they will use every keyword at their disposal to determine the content and relevancy of a specific website for Google Search (alt tags, content, backlinks, domain name, TLD).

Another example is when Google Adsense advised us to embed advertisements on the top of our websites for better results (6 to 8 years ago). They later came out and penalized people who placed ads "Above the Fold" 3 to 4 years ago (even though it contradicted their previous advice). Now visit YouTube.com, their main advertisement on their desktop version is "Above the Fold" (against their TOS for Adsense).

This type of flip-flopping and misinformation is common in Google's press releases and keeps people focused more on building quality content than trying to game their algorithms. TLD's already play a role in Google Search and will play a much larger role in the future.

 

[indam]

Very interesting read for those in domaining! Against all beliefs.

 

[deez007]

I can't believe hat you say

they at least "don't do evil", right?

Lol...actually they are probably one of the most evil organizations on the planet I think.... They are like E corp from the Mr Robot series

When I said "Im not saying that Google is downright lying" I was referring to only the statement about TLD's ... if you ask me in general if they are evil liars would say HELL YEAH!

 

[TRY]

I can't believe hat you say

they at least "don't do evil", right?

Wrong, "don't do evil" motto was changed.

 

[frank-germany]

Wrong, "don't do evil" motto was changed.

obviously long ago

 

[doubleU]

the .tld will have same effect as exact match domains:

in search results the part that matches the search query will be shown BOLD

Do this this search:

site:.vision pulsevision

Notice the TLD is BOLD in the result set.

 

[doubleU]

Totally agree with folks above. What G says may be truth and may be lie. Like 50/50. They always tell us how we should do in order to make them happy.


So what? Showing something in bold doesn't mean higher rankings, huh? Correlation does not imply causation.

In this example you see that the TLD part of the domain is taking into consideration when producing the result set.

That's all we need to know !

In fact the only part of domain that's ignored in a search is the DOT !

 

[doubleU]

It's correct, maybe we will wait for a time to see the change. However, I think those TLDs are just extensions and do not count in SEO factors.

Thinking is an overrated business !

TLD's have never been more influential in search results !

The TLD is always into account when producing a result set !

 

[golan]

In this example you see that the TLD part of the domain is taking into consideration when producing the result set.

That's all we need to know !

In fact the only part of domain that's ignored in a search is the DOT !

Nope.

Yes the TLD part of the domain is taking into consideration when producing the result set - visually. When G decides what to make bold and what not to.

However the article and the title of this thread saying about ranking.

How making something bold can mean it's now higher in the serp page?

 

[Fancy.domains]

Go to google.com. Search for "com.space". Check the 1st spot. Oh wait..

???

Com.space is a domain that not even exists, it's registry reserved.

Of course you have to consider developed and established sites. Try my bangkok test in my last post. You can probably add any keyword as long as there are established sites for each name.

 

[Messiah]

And come on, if searching for "google com", of course the "com" part will be considered.

Let's do a test, search for:

A. "bangkok net"
B. "bangkok org"
C. "bangkok com"
D. "bangkok nu"

The results clearly shows that this is a factor for a website with some age. I know that it's also about the inbound and outbound links, as well as meta data, but anyway. :P

Maybe Google are right and do not consider the TLD by now. But secondary, this IS clearly an important factor for all established websites.

I would disagree here.... By actually typing within the double quotes and mentioning tld next to the keyword, you are actually asking google to show the results relevant to these terms. This means they are going to retrieve based on these terms alone. Here even if you had dot within the term, it would show almost same results. Considering your example, let's take a look.

"bangkok org" About 36,100 results
"bangkok.org" About 36,200 results

"bangkok net" About 18,400 results
"bangkok.net" About 18,400 results

"bangkok com" About 4,68,000 results
"bangkok.com" About 4,68,000 results

"bangkok nu" About 14,600 results
"bangkok.nu" About 14,700 results

If you understand my point, they are not ranking because of their TLD. They are ranking because of their Anchor text and backlinks.

Let's see an example. BuyShoes.com , Buy.Shoes and BuyShoesOnline.com
They all can rank typically same way but making Buy.Shoes backlinks will be easier because it has relevant keyword to us. Also, if you have same natural backlinks/anchor text for BuyShoesOnline.com, it will rank the same way.

As long as I know, GTLDs and NTLDs are not even a ranking factor except CCTLDs where they play major role in showing country specific results.

 

[Messiah]

I did NOT use quotation marks when I searched this. Please, try without.

That's why I said it relevancy. If you type org in your search query, of course it is going to retrieve the results according it. But that doesn't mean it is ranking a website based on that TLD. Or it is giving special treatment to that TLD. It has less volume of search. If you just type Bangkok, it would show Bangkok.com on second or third spot because that website has built the authority already.

I can agree on the links and anchor texts. However, the result will be the same for new gTLDs.

That's exactly I said. There is no special treatment to any TLD whether it is dot COM or dot PIZZA..

 

[Fancy.domains]

That's why I said it relevancy. If you type org in your search query, of course it is going to retrieve the results according it.

Yes, but then it should be be the same for pizza, as in .PIZZA. Given that the site is, developed and has back links with relevant anchor texts.

Still interesting that Google is giving the TLD zero, or very little, attention for SERP results, even for very niched extensions such as .PIZZA, .YOGA, .LAWYER and so on. No doubt about that. Personally, I think it's strange and a bad move, but there are probably reasons for this.

It will be interesting to follow this...

 

[Bullock]

Ehmmm... interesting, the combo keyword + keyextension doesn't work for Google search!

 

[doubleU]

Ehmmm... interesting, the combo keyword + keyextension doesn't work for Google search!

As my previous example shows this is simply not true and the proof is below :

Example Search :

site:.vision pulsevision

Search Result :

No.1

https://pulse.vision/

 

[doubleU]

@doubleU

I searched: on Google in this way:

bankaccount.com = 60.400.000
bankaccount.net = 60.400.000
bankaccount.org = 60.400.000

account.bank = 29.300.000 (extension .bank)
account bank = 487.000.000 (without dot)

bank account = 133.000.000
"bank account" = 59.200.000


In conclusion, the results show that Google doesn't consider the extension, indeed, it represents a negative factor!

Your comparing the number of results from a search with two strings, some concatenated with a dot and some not concatenated at all.

This has very little to do with the topic here.

 

[Messiah]

Operating from a .com will not give you an SEO advantage or rank you higher than any other TLD for the same keywords.

New gTLDs are not in any way disadvantaged form ranking in search results.

Google recognizes keyword/s both left and right of the dot with the search query.

If search engines operated with this kind of bias then they would be subject to 'Unfair Competition Laws' in particular the EU.

And who said they give more importance to dot com here? Nobody. Well, at least not me.

What I said is that even if it is PulseVision.com, PulseVision.org or PulseVision.biz, they would still rank well provided they have done proper SEO and have good authority.

 

[doubleU]

My thought is simple. When EMD isn't available in .com, I wouldn't suggest a nTLD with a EMD keyword in the extension. Or, perhaps, change domain/URL hoping to get a boost in ranking with new extensions.

Could be wiser to use the alternative EMD keyword in the extension for branding purposes.

 

[Olayinka Oladele]

Google. Always got something up their sleeves and mostly, fishy! 50-50. Let's see where this ends. Good read.

 

[GBA]

I've found actually an older statement by Matt Cutts, 2012, software engineer at Google, also disproving the fact of taking the new gltds into special account:

https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/4VaWg4TMM5F

 

[biggie]

Google says keywords in the TLD part of your URL are ignored for ranking purposes:

kinda reminds me of when the iPhone first came out and domainers were anticipating seeing a ".mobi" in the url of the phones' browser. but they used .com instead.

that doomed .mobi speculation and now big G says they will ignore all ".whatevers" for ranking considerations.

soooooo, if you got in and didn't get out before the .mobi reality check, you probably lost money.

soooo, if you got in and haven't got out of .whatevers yet, based on this revelation... what should you expect?

imo,

 

[enlytend]

if a person types google search in to google google.search would be top of search engine rankings
{organic seo} unless another website was called exactly the same name with an aged domain already at the top of google rankings {organic seo}

as i said i know as i tested a new gtld to see if the new keyword gtld did rank in google rankings as the keyword {and it does}

It doesn't work that way.

How competitive was the phrase? How strong are the competing sites?
Was it also on your page? Like in the page title?
Did you have personalization shut off when you checked it?

No business wants to rank for just one keyword. Buying domains and setting up unique sites for every relevant keyword would be a huge waste of resources. Linking them all to your main site risks a doorway page penalty.

PPC ads appear above search results, even if you rank for something organically you can get better results if you bid on it too.

 

[Satyajit Adhikary]

Like penguin n panda, u never know when Google would roll out an update pigeon or parrot announcing that keyword TLDs would be given more weightage than their .com

 

[TRY]

nyc.autos will only rank for nyc and not autos.
To rank for nyc and autos both keywords need to be to the left of the dot.
2 keyword .com's anyone?