New top-level domain (TLD) names such as .xyz and .guru are being billed as splendid marketing and branding opportunities. Some digital marketing pros say the novel web addresses offer significant marketing benefits.

Top-level domain names are the root, or suffix, of domain names and are sometimes referred to as extensions. The most common and sought after are .com, .org, .gov and .edu. It’s now difficult to find a domain name with those extensions that’s not already taken. That’s especially true of the .com extension. Individual countries also have domain extensions like .uk (United Kingdom), .au (Australia) and .cn (China).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has now added a smorgasbord of top-level domain names. There’s .green for the environment friendly, .law for law firms, .dog for canine lovers and hundreds more. Companies can also obtain a .brand, or dot brand, a top-level domain that’s identical to their brand name, as in www.home.barclays. The result is an explosion of extensions. There are now over 7 million domain names and 738 TLDs around the world. To find if a domain name is available, you can go to Network Solutions and enter your preferred name(s) into the “find a domain” search box. To find who owns a domain name, you can use the Network Solutions “Who Is” search function.

One group of companies is clearly benefiting from the deluge of new TLD names: the domain registrars like GoDaddy and Network Solutions.

Semi-cynic that I am, I see the new domain extensions as a sort of protection racket by the domain registrars, trying to compel commercial and not-for-profit organizations to register dozens of domains for their corporate name to prevent cyber-squatters from purloining and misrepresenting the name.

Companies and brands already have the protection of copyright and court cases as well as appeals to ICANN if individuals or other companies try to inappropriately use their copyrighted brand name in a domain name.

In order to capitalize on getting a recognized brand name with a new domain extension, a cyber-squatter will need to build a website with substantial content and multiple in-bound links in order to be listed in search engine results. That’s unlikely to happen in most circumstances – and the cyber-squatter website will almost certainly not make the first page of search results. How many of the new domain extensions have you seen on the first page of any search results? So there actually seems to be little risk in not purchasing the corporate or brand name in all the TLDs.

Question of Trust

There’s also little benefit. The huge number of domain extensions now available actually detracts from their value, it seems to me. Although the new names may provide cute and memorable web addresses, the evidence to date shows they provide no intrinsic business value, SEO advantage, or boost in customer trust.

The challenge for the new names is that consumers don’t trust websites with new TLD names more than ones with the old-fashioned .com, says Peter Roesler, president of Web Marketing Pros, in his article for Inc. The endings automatically brand websites as new, which introduces an element of distrust. That’s why the older .biz and .info sites never gained much traction.

A survey by Moz asked users if they were more likely to trust an insurance quote from a website ending in .insurance. The result: 62 percent of Americans, 53 percent of Australians, and 67 percent of marketers said they were unlikely to trust the quote based on the domain alone.

Some pundits compared the expected push to claim Internet real estate to the California gold rush. Major companies, including Microsoft and GM seized their TLD brand names. Yet the new web addresses have yet to attract significant web traffic.

Possible Benefits

Still, many Internet marketers and business leaders say obtaining additional digital names provides substantial marketing and branding benefits. Brands can claim a domain name that specifically represents its service mark or niche, says marketing agency BrightLabs. For example, a real estate firm named Eagle Real Estate could obtain the web address of eagle.realestate. A donut shop could obtain the website donut.shop. Catchy, descriptive names like those are memorable. They can increase a brand’s digital standing and authority, proponents say. The new suffixes are especially popular with tech-savvy Internet users. 

We may see more of the new extensions, known as not-coms, after Google’s announcement last week that its new parent company, Alphabet, will have a website address of abc.xyz, according to the AP. ABC.com is already taken by a television network  and alphabet.com is owned by BMW, the German auto manufacturer.

Many smaller businesses couldn’t get a domain with their business name. The domain was already owned by another business with the same name. They had to concoct some bastardized or extended version of their business name as their domain name. Now, the new domain extensions give them the opportunity to use their actual business or brand name as their domain.

Proponents say the new web names will help consumers find the websites they seek. But they are also causing confusion. Many web surfers may not realize that .cat marks websites on the Catalan language and culture, not the fury, four-legged creatures so popular on the Internet.

The Moz survey found that consumers generally know about country codes — for instance that .fr refers to France. However, many mistakenly believe that .ca, which stands for Canada, is for California websites.

No SEO Benefits to the New TLDs

Some claim that using the new domain extensions offers SEO benefits. Not true. Google has stated that it doesn’t treat new TLDs, including new brand names and country codes, any differently than older names.

“There still is no inherent ranking advantage to using the new TLDs,” wrote Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller on Google+. “They can perform well in search, just like any other TLD can perform well in search. They give you an opportunity to pick a name that better matches your web-presence. If you see posts claiming that early data suggests they’re doing well, keep in mind that this is not due to any artificial advantage in search: you can make a fantastic website that performs well in search on any TLD.”

Despite the attention and their proliferation, new domain names have not won widespread acceptance among consumers and small businesses. Proponents predict the new domain names are wave of the future. They also predicted that last year and it didn’t happen. It seems the business community isn’t getting suckered into the registrars’ effort to increase their revenues.

Bottom Line: Some Internet commentators argue that new top-level domain names offer brands an excellent marketing and branding tool. Marketers and PR pros would be well-advised to beware the hype. Before you press your company to pay a domain name registrar for another name, think through the possible benefits and if a novel web address will really attract website traffic and gain customer trust. The small risk of cyber-squatters devaluing brand equity probably isn’t worth the substantial cost of buying up the proliferating list of domain suffixes, especially since brands can be protected by copyright and cease and desist orders. Moreover, with the proliferating domain extensions, it’s nearly impossible to buy up all versions of a brand name.

What’s your opinion on the value of purchasing the new domain suffixes for a company or brand? Please share your comments below.

Glean.info grants permission to republish this article provided that the republished version contains a link to the original article on the Glean.info Blog.

William Comcowich

William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.