Some companies are making branding decisions based on a misunderstanding of how new generic top-level domains are being treated by Google. The news comes from VPS, application, and dedicated server hosting provider
Future Hosting, which wants to "mitigate the impact" of company's not being fully informed regarding the performance of new gTLDs.
Established in 2001, Future Hosting has headquarters in Southfield, Michigan, USA. The company offers a range of managed hosting services including dedicated servers, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), and hybrid Virtual Private Servers. It has made its comments about the new gTLDs based on "recent clarifications from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller".
The rise in the number of gTLDs means there are now hundreds of domain name extensions which, unlike the traditional ".com" extensions, are related to a range of specific regions, interests, professions, and business areas. These include the most recent ".news", ".airforce" ".army", ".dance", ".ninja", ".rehab", ".social", and a string of others that came before them.
The common sense perspective regarding these extensions is that should someone submit a search term that relates to the areas covered by these extensions, then a domain that carries such extension is more likely to be found in search, giving them higher ranking than other domains. However, John Mueller is reported to have suggested that new gTLDs are treated in exactly the same was as other domains (such as ".com" domains'). The fact that a domain, for instance, contains an extension such as ".london" does not mean it will be higher in ranking than any other domain for a search that includes "London".
“We're seeing companies make branding decisions based on a misunderstanding of how the new domains are treated, which has the potential to be harmful to their search performance and hence traffic and revenue,” explained Future Hosting's Vice President of Operations, Maulesh Patel. “The new gTLDs confer neither a specific advantage nor a disadvantage for search ranking. These domains can be great for branding and making domains more meaningful, but they don't influence search”.
What do you think about the new gTLDs? Do they offer an advantage? Let us know your thoughts. Add your comments below.
