Will purchasing a branded TLD improve your SEO?
As ICANN continues to move forward with its plans to permit the creation of unlimited new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), what does this mean for SEO? What are the benefits and downsides of branded gTLDs, and are they commercially viable?
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is a not-for-profit organisation tasked with maintaining the Internet registry of domain names and IP addresses, is permitting the registration of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) in addition to existing gTLDs such as ‘.com’, ‘.org’ and ‘.mobi’. In addition to this, ICANN is also currently in the process of expanding the domain name system to include Internationalised Domain Names for non-Latin languages.
ICANN has stated that any entity meeting the following basic registration requirements can apply for the creation of a new gTLD:
- String reviews (concerning the applied-for gTLD string). String reviews include a determination that the applied-for gTLD string is not likely to cause security or stability problems in the DNS, including problems caused by similarity to existing TLDs or reserved names.
- Applicant reviews (concerning the entity applying for the gTLD and its proposed registry services). Applicant reviews include a determination of whether or not the applicant has the requisite technical, operational, and financial capability to operate a registry.
Applicants will also need to pass checks to ensure that there are no objections to registration, such as cases of public decency (as in the case of .xxx), or legal or commercial objections, such as trademarks. Applicants will also be required to pay ICANN a setup fee of $185,000 (£120,000), a move which has caused some parties to express concerns that gTLDs are simply a cynical money-grabbing exercise.
So what are the benefits of these new gTLDs?
TLDs are all about differentiation. In the same way that a ‘.com’ domain can be thought of as a global site, and a ‘.co.uk’ domain can be considered to be a UK site, these new gTLDs demark specific portions of the Internet, and can be used for various purposes. For example:
- Sites relating to a particular geographical area, such as ‘.nyc’ for New York City, or ‘.SW1’ for the applicable South-West London postal area.
- Special interest groups without geographical boundaries can have their own space on the Internet, making them easier to identify and associate with.
- Companies can cement their brands on the Internet, creating second tier domains for sections of their organisations on a branded gTLDs.
- Innovative service offerings involving profiles on domains such as ‘.facebook’.
- Inexpensive, price differentiated domain hosting, on domains such as ‘.mysite’.
- Sub-sections of the Internet dedicated to specific content, such as ‘.music’, where commercially available tracks can be advertised, or ‘.appstore’ where you can host your iPhone apps.
Recently, Canon announced its application to register ‘.canon’ as a gTLD. What stood out on Canon’s Press Release was its reason for registering the domain:
With the adoption of the new gTLD system, which enables the direct utilization of the Canon brand, Canon hopes to globally integrate open communication policies that are intuitive and easier to remember compared with existing domain names such as "canon.com."
What strikes me about this is that ‘canon.com’ is already pretty easy to remember. I imagine that rather than ‘canon.canon’, subdomains such as ‘corporate.canon’, ‘sales.canon’ and ‘printers.canon’ would be the objective here, although there would at first appear to be little benefit to this.
As Canon is a multi-billion pound company, I suspect that this may have been purchased as a knee-jerk, defensive measure, even if a smart employee did not come up with a good reason as to why it should be purchased.
As it stands, there are likely to be few organisations that can justify the expenditure associated with registering a gTLD, especially given the superficial benefits of the domain name (aside from the potential uses identified in this article). Many companies are already worried about the cost of registering their domains on different TLDs, but do so defensively in case someone else registers them. With a potentially infinite number of new gTLDs coming on the market, these costs are only going to increase.
What do new gTLDs mean for search engines?
As is the case today (with some exceptions), relocating a site from one gTLD to another is unlikely to have many benefits SEO-wise, and often has a negative impact on rankings in the short term. It is also impossible at this stage to tell how the search engines will treat these new gTLDs.
For commercial product sites, moving from an existing domain which is performing well to a new domain is inadvisable due to the link profile and reputation gained over time, not all of which may be transferred to the new domain, at least not right away.
From a monetisation perspective, having the keyword in the TLD will provide far less benefit than having a well optimised site with a strong natural link structure, something which cannot simply be bought off the shelf. The value of reselling domains which are relevant to a particular group of commercial organisations by offering a unique differentiator as per points made earlier in this article is, of course, one method of monetisation, but it would certainly be a brave business model.
In summary, registering a gTLD is only really feasible in a situation where you can justify the expense through clear strategic planning and/or your business cannot afford to have its brand diluted. This will be more important where a company does not own a registered trademark, as an objection is less likely to be upheld should anyone try to create a gTLD of their brand name.
It will be very interesting to see how Canon will use its new asset, assuming that its application is successful. Any other organisation which decides to register a new gTLD will also make an interesting case study for more widespread uptake of this novel branding opportunity.
Tags: domains, international, keywords, marketing, search, SEO
