Does your domain extension affect SEO?

What does Google actually say?

Google’s documented position is that its systems treat new generic top-level domains like other generic extensions — .com, .org and the rest — and that keywords in a top-level domain give no advantage or disadvantage in search. A .studio or .design is a generic extension like any other. “design.agency” gets no boost for containing the word “design”.

Google also states the rule it uses to classify an extension: unless ICANN lists it as a country-code extension, any extension that resolves through the IANA root zone is treated as generic. Internationalised extensions are handled the same way.

Bing has said similar things. Neither engine publishes a list of extensions it prefers, because there isn’t one.

When does the extension matter?

Country codes. Extensions like .de, .fr, .in and .ca tell search engines the site targets that country. That’s useful if you’re a German business selling to Germany and unhelpful if you’re a global product on a .de because the .com was taken.

Country codes that behave like generics. Google publishes a list of country-code extensions it treats as generic because they are used so widely outside their own country. As of this review it is: .ad, .ai, .as, .bz, .cc, .cd, .co, .dj, .fm, .io, .la, .me, .ms, .nu, .sc, .sr, .su, .tv, .tk, .ws. If the extension you want is a country code, check whether it’s on that list — and check again later, because the list changes.

Spam-heavy extensions. A few very cheap extensions that are open to anyone attract a lot of spam. Google says the extension itself isn’t penalised, but a name on an extension where most sites are junk starts with less trust from users, and users are who click.

What affects SEO more than the extension?

• Whether people can remember and spell the name after hearing it once.
• Whether the name and the brand are the same word, so branded searches find you. The domain name is the brand for most people.
• Whether you’ll still own it in five years — see renewal pricing.
• Content, links, speed, and everything else that has always mattered.

The best domain for SEO is a short, spellable brand name on an extension you can afford to keep. Which extension that is comes second. If you’re weighing one against another, the .com question is the one most people are really asking.

Plainly

Generic extensions rank the same, and a keyword in the extension earns nothing. Country-code extensions can tie a site to a country unless they are on Google’s list of ccTLDs treated as generic. The extension affects SEO far less than whether people can remember the name.

What Webault does about this

Webault picks extensions to fit the brief, from the 532 open ones, and shows each name with its price. It doesn’t rank extensions for SEO, because search engines don’t.

Questions

Related reading

• Is .com still worth it? — when .com is worth paying for, and when a better name on a fitting extension wins.
• Domain hacks explained: kern.ing, del.icio.us and friends — splitting a word across the dot, and the extension risks to check first.
• The renewal-price trap in cheap domains — why the $2 domain renews at $30, and how to check before you buy.