Report: Google Ignores Keywords in TLD

During the last few years (and maybe even longer than that) there has been considerable speculation about how Google looks at domain name extensions. This afternoon, Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz wrote an interesting article pertaining to how Google looks at the extensions when it comes to new gTLD keywords.

Here’s an excerpt of what was shared in the article  (read the full article for more information and background about this):

“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.”

The article cited comments made in  a Google Hangout, which I embedded below. Schwartz referenced specific comments that were made at the 12:45 mark of the video.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. If that is the case then I wonder why when I do a search for “Trump news” one of the top three results is http://www.trump.news and the words ‘trump’ and ‘news’ in the domain name are bolded on the Google search result page? They are also bolded in many different keyword searches also in the domain extension part like ‘Google domains’ shows domains.google in bold.

    I believe that like he said they don’t take it into consideration for ranking purposes but I am going to make an educated guess that they do consider it for relevance purposes, which may, in turn, have an effect on the results that are displayed.

  2. Yea, sure, and WHO CAN BELIEVE THEM NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY? Seriously, talk is cheap…

    CLASSIC EXAMPLE:

    “Did Google Manipulate Search for Hillary?”

    • I think gTLDs are going to have just as much, if not more, relevance than .com in the future. Might not be that way now but hard to imagine it won’t be considering the limitations .com provides and the unlimited possibilities of more relevant domains gTLD offers. I’d start investing….

    • Of course the massive supply will impact values. So will the foolhardiness of many of them. So will the pricing. So will the lack of premium availability.

    • Hello Trevor,

      We are confused at your statement = ” Might not be that way now but hard to imagine it won’t be considering the limitations .com provides and the unlimited possibilities of more relevant domains gTLD offers.”

      Its the new TLDs that are plagued with Limitations. Please site a .COM Stand Alone Profit Centers limitation ?? We are ready to respond with the real truths.

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.com

    • I was simply talking about availability limitations for new companies looking for a relevant domain. Many of the .COM domains are already taken, highly priced, or are purchased and not being used at all. This creates a limitation on the purchase of new .COM domains, especially for startups. Companies are left to look through new TLDs as options or pick another company name. For example intercom.com vs intercom.io. Where intercom.io is a much more successful company and is still using the .io TLD and outranks its .COM competitor. The .io TLD has been very useful for them.

    • ” Companies are left to look through new TLDs as options or pick another company name. ”

      This is only true for companies who ignore the Strategic Advantage of Getting their billfolds out and paying for a superior .COM Profit Center on the secondary market, where astute Online Marketers are purchasing .COM Stand Alone Profit Centers.

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.com

  3. They probably ignore the keywords in the domain for ranking aswell. Just because a site on a keyword domain ranks high does not mean it is the actual domain is helping it to rank.

  4. Are there any online service to tell if the owner of a website paid something to boost rankings in a time period , ex : during last 2 years ?

    To distinguish between technical (seo) and financial part (ads).

  5. It’s I always interesting when Google releases these sort of statements that simply don’t follow some of the obvious results that are occurring. They have done the same thing with blogs on subdomains vs subdirectories, stating it doesn’t matter and rankings aren’t affected eitherway. But MOZ stands strong on stating subdirectories are the way to go based on their tests.

    We started a site at https://SaaS.Community and the primary keyword it ranks for it SaaS Community. It’s hard to deny that the ranking are coming from the domain and its gTLD extension. I truly wish I could believe Google’s statements but they seem to consistently go against what is actually happening.

    • Good point. How about intercom.io vs intercom.com as I mentioned in an above comment, maybe a better example. The startup community has really leveraged TLDs like .io and .ly with success in many cases.

  6. It will be interesting to see how Google factors in the dot brands (brand TLDs) such as .barclays and .canon which are proprietary to the brands. Doing a search for “barclays” or “canon” home.barclays and global.canon show up high in the search results. Maybe it has nothing to do with the TLD but interesting nonetheless. Should Google’s algorithm be smart enough to recognize that when a “brand” is searched their dot brand sites should be favored because they are owned by the brand? This would obviously require Google to consider the TLD for brands. If you consider it for brands should you therefore also consider it for other TLDs? Questions. Questions. Questions 🙂

  7. What John Mueller from Google (and this article) fails to point out is the fact that anchor text still DOES count:

    So if I have a domain like Jacksonville.Attorney, there’s a really good chance that people will link to that site using those keywords. And yes, anchor text still does count towards rankings.

    Although Google “says” that the keyword in the TLD doesn’t count towards rankings, that’s not entirely true. Because Google still relies on links and anchor text as a factor, then it’s those links and anchor text in the links that indirectly helps a keyword rich domain name rank (new gTLD or not).

    • Yes it may seem like Google is interested in .xyz. The truth of the matter is Googles real interest is in ALL new TLDs be used to bolster their Google Ad Support Networks growth in users. ALL new TLDs require EXTENSIVE ,and Expensive Google Ad support.

      If you use new TLDs your stolen Traffic as the result of Google Ad Support, will explode. If you want ALL the traffic meant for your site you need to get away from Googles Traffic Stealing System.

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.com

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