Domain registry Radix (a subsidiary business of Directi Group) released a case study that shared the story of different nTLD owners who saw favorable SEO results after adopting or switching over to a new top-level domain. From digital marketing agency Louder.online to winning WIX SEO Hero project seo-hero.tech, both large and small businesses plus individuals from all walks of life are now using nTLDs to shoot their way to the top of Google search rankings.
Why Do nTLDs Rank Well?
To get some insight as to why nTLD domains seem to do quite well when it comes to ranking organically, Radix reached out to SEO expert Bill Hartzer who is based in the Dallas, Texas area. Hartzer said URLs that use nTLD extensions have the following advantage: brand new domains don’t have a bad history – or any history at all. Therefor, there is nothing holding a URL using an nTLD extension back from ranking well organically.
New domain extensions are also unique in the sense that they offer context and often provide exact match results for a searched query by integrating relevant keywords. For example, Emirates.store offers unique merchandise to all of the different Emirates superfans around the world. That store also happens to receive 43.92% of its traffic organically from search engine rankings. Although Emirates is already a well known and highly searched word (and brand), there are plenty of other examples out there which include startups and other small businesses that are finding plenty of success themselves. One example of that would be seo-hero.tech, which owner Walid Gabteni used to win the WIX SEO Hero challenge.
Can Existing Businesses Switch To A nTLD?
One very common misconception is that older domains are likely to rank better than new ones. But it’s not the age of the domain that matters, but the age, backlinks, and history of the website it’s associated with. While it might be great to have a site that is several years old, the age of the domain that goes along with it doesn’t really matter. That’s exactly what makes new domain extensions so exciting – you have the opportunity to register a domain name that uses exact match words which related to your company or brand without having to sacrifice SEO value in the process! As for existing businesses that already own their desired term in .COM – switching is always possible. Some businesses may want to register a new domain extension and then just redirect all traffic from their .COM to their new extension. However, others may choose to move just part of their website (for example, moving the store portion of their website to a specific .STORE domain) and then leave the rest of their website on its existing extension. Both options are possible and fairly easy to setup!
Conclusion
If you’re thinking of registering a new domain for re-branding of a curent project or launching of a new one, don’t let nTLD extensions hold you back. New domain extensions are being released every year and it opens up a variety of new opportunities to get short, exact-match domains. It’s already been proven new extensions won’t hurt your SEO results, so never hesitate to register a new extension if it goes with your product, service or brand.
