You may think we have gone mad, as links are still a key factor that Google uses to determine authority of websites and hence increased visibility in the search engines. So hear us out and you will see why we are taking the stance that we are no longer building any links for our current and future clients.
This post is designed to be an open & honest discussion with businesses who will have likely heard about ‘Link building’ and want to focus on this activity to increase traffic to their website through Search Engine Optimisation work. A lot has changed over the recent years and below we will run through how outreach & promotion needs to run in the modern age.
What we’ve been noticing
As you can imagine with working on a lot of Search Engine Optimisation campaigns, we naturally look at a lot of different websites and what websites are mentioning other websites online. This certainly does make you realise just how many weird and wonderful websites there are on the internet.
Approaches often taken for link building included identifying relevant websites, drop the webmaster an email to see if they would be interested in linking to ‘Website X’. This, as you can imagine, has an extremely low response rate as people simply hit the ‘Delete’ button as they receive hundreds of requests like this every month.
For any website owners who do respond, they are often clued up about the real reason why they are being contacted. For a link, for Search Engine Optimisation purposes. Different industries are savvier than others, with the travel industry being extremely savvy to this. The general response would be along the lines of “That’s nice, here is what we charge to place a link on our website” – which isn’t a good approach to take. This falls into the paid links category which is against Google’s guidelines and can lead to your website being penalised and removed from the search results.
It is clear that in a lot of industries the websites that are linking out to other websites are in the main, well…horrible. They aren’t going to be driving any referral traffic and they are purely there for Search Engine Optimisation reasons only. The more websites we review the more we have been seeing this trend over the last couple of years. It has reached the point now whereby the quality websites are few and far between and simply aren’t interested in just linking to a website because they have received an email from the website owner.
In summary, the more traditional competitor link analysis and link building approaches that we do, the more challenging it is becoming to achieve good results. Too many websites simply aren’t good enough quality nor are they on-brand. This is not a good way to be spending time as the results to come from this work take far too long to come through.
On the client/business side, it is clear that there is a huge gap in knowledge about outreach & promotion and how it relates to Search Engine Optimisation. Hence the reason for this blog post to help to bridge that knowledge gap and educate businesses as to what is needed to compete in a modern age. Hopefully this blog post can be a resource for businesses to look at to understand in more detail about why traditional ‘link building’ isn’t a future proof strategy and how content marketing, outreach & promotion is going to benefit the business.
Why are links important
Firstly, let’s take a look at why links are important, how search engines analyse links and what role this plays in modern Search Engine Optimisation work. As a business looking to increase visibility in the search engines you will more than likely have heard about how important links are when it comes to increasing visibility and driving more traffic to your website.
Let’s get one thing straight, links are important to both users and search engines. They can drive referral traffic to your website from popular websites which can also lead to a direct increase in revenue as customer purchase your product and services.
Search engines analyse links and want the link to be a genuine endorsement from ‘website A’ about ‘website Bs’ products and services. Whether this is talking about said business in the form of press coverage (non-advertorial), a review of the product or service or even official membership from somewhere.
Links impact the visibility of your website in the search engines. Various studies have been completed over the years that show how there is a correlation (not causation) between how visible a website is on Google and how many high quality backlinks the website has.
This brings us onto the issue we have with ‘link building’. Correlation does not equal causation. Businesses and website owners should not be chasing links for Search Engine Optimisation purposes. Stop doing this, immediately! Start building relationships with your customers, peers and industry websites so that you earn links.
Link building
The phrase ‘link building’ has spread throughout the Search Engine Optimisation industry and picked up by businesses across the world over recent years. This phrase is misleading businesses into thinking there is a magic box of tricks that allows someone (generally a digital agency or a junior level person within a company) to go out onto the internet and tell other website owners that they must link to ‘website A’ because it is amazing. Hence why you see so many companies offering to ‘build links’ for your business;
Surely the services at $27.99 are going to be a good investment aren’t they, right? If it seems too good to be true….then it probably is. Businesses paying for ‘link building’ activities that is not integrated with the rest of their businesses are leading to only one thing…a Google penalty for unnatural links. Businesses in highly competitive industries are notorious within digital circles for going down this route and several multi-national well-known brands have received penalties from Google for their activities. This should be a lesson to businesses.
Simply ‘building links’ isn’t a good approach to be taking. Websites are owned by real people running real businesses, and they too have the age old question running through their mind WIIFM – What’s in it for me. No-one, no matter how good they claim to be cannot simply go out and ‘build links’ for any business. Sure, it is possible to place links on low quality websites around the web that no-one is ever viewing, but this approach is going to get you penalised by Google, leading to reduced traffic from the search engines. As mentioned earlier, Google continues to crack down on these activities and if your business is relying on Google for a significant part of your revenue, then you have to ask yourself, is this a risk you are willing to take if you get caught out?
As a business and website owner, to generate more high quality links to your website, then you need to be doing something worthy of other websites talking about you. It really is as simple as that. Stop trying to manipulate things. We believe so strongly that going out and trying to ‘build links’ for clients is not the best approach to take, that we have taken the stance that we simply aren’t going to help with this. Instead, we are helping businesses to take digital seriously and build a strong brand online through the range of digital marketing services.
The evidence and industry changes
Let’s take a look at the evidence about how the industry has been moving over the last few years. Not from hearsay, gossip and proposed ‘experts’, but straight from the horse’s mouth.
Will backlinks lose their importance in ranking?
Answer: Yes, backlinks will become less important in the future. Google currently uses links to assess the basic reputation of websites
What could the webspam team have done better?
Answer: We probably waited too long to penalise websites who use paid links to manipulate search algorithms
Should I build links using article directories?
Answer: No. No, you should not be doing this
What should I be aware of if I’m considering guest blogging?
Answer: Don’t use guest blogging for SEO purposes.
Does Google take action on spammy guest blogging activities?
Answer: Google is willing to take action if they see spammy guest blogging activities for link acquisition
How does Google consider site-wide backlinks?
Answer: There are some genuine cases for this, although often these are spammy
Do you recommend article marketing as an SEO strategy?
Answer: Not a good approach to be taking
What are some effective techniques for building links?
Answer: You do want to build great content, and often great content is what earns links
Other
Looking at Matt Cutts’ (Head of Web Spam at Google) personal blog titled, the decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO highlights this point even further. Looking around the web, there are always blog posts titled “10 ways to build links” etc. and quite frankly, these are often rather generic and not very useful. Don’t get me wrong here, there can be some interesting tips when looking at the points made, when adapting this to your businesses in the sense of earning links.
Why we have taken this stance
The reason we have put this blog post together and taken this stance is because we speak with a lot of businesses about Search Engine Optimisation work, and most businesses are still living in the past, 5 years ago, when this type of practice was acceptable. Digital moves fast and as a businesses, to stay ahead you also need to move fast. This includes keeping up with the large shifts in how to market your business online for sustainable growth.
Results can be achieved by genuinely making your products and services better along with connecting with your audience and customers. This post is designed to be a wake-up call for businesses to highlight what is needed in the modern era to compete online and to increase traffic from search engines.
How we move forward
To reiterate, we aren’t saying we aren’t going to be increasing mentions of client brands and websites online. This is not the case. This is still extremely important for brands to be focusing on, although it is the method of working towards this goal that is changing.
A change of mind set is needed;
From: Building links for Search Engine Optimisation purposes
To: Earning links and natural mentions because you are doing awesome things as a business that people want to talk about
Integrated Online Marketing
If your business isn’t integrating digital into every aspect of work, then you are missing an opportunity to build your brand further online. Find the expertise, knowledge and stories within your business and look to showcase this digitally. Whether this is through blog posts, digital resources or video content for your customers and audience.
Building a strong brand online will earn your business links which will help to increase the authority of your website and hence traffic levels. All our focus for clients is on building a strong brand online and linking digital marketing activities together to earn links. No longer can we look at a departmentalised or segmented approach to digital marketing with the aim of increasing popularity on the web.
An integrated approach is the way businesses need to be looking at their digital marketing activities to compete online in competitive markets. To give an indication of the type of content your business could be producing to earn links;
Product / service content: You would be surprised how many websites simply don’t have enough detail about this. Why are your products/services so amazing? Why are they better than competitors? What awards have you won for your work? What are the features and benefits for your customers? How can the product / service fulfil your customers’ needs?
Blog content: Talk to your customers about what is happening throughout the business. New member of staff joined? Then talk about what they are there to do. What events have you recently attended? What services have you just launched? How are you making a difference in your local community? How can your customers use your product / service in innovative ways? Don’t just think about the product / service, but think about how customers will use it.
Resources: What resources and information will help your customers? Are there any specific files, drawings, guides, calculators, etc. that your customers will find useful? Start to genuinely help customers online by providing resources to help them with what they need. Anyone can sell ‘product x’ – all of the above is what makes your business different to others and hence increase authority on the web.
Summary
The one thing to take away from this blog post is that we are helping businesses to develop their brand digitally. Quite simply, the industry has moved on very fast and this is what is needed for businesses to compete online today. Some may think this is a strong stance to take, yet we believe strongly that this is the right approach and will ultimately lead to better results.
What you may also be interested in heading about is some of the content focused work our staff have completed during their careers that has achieved phenomenal results, without ‘building’ one single link;
Building industry: Non-brand organic traffic growth of +97% within 6 months
Building industry: Brand new business, driving +14,000 visits to the website within 12 months
Travel industry: Non-brand organic traffic growth of +25% within 3 months
All of the above has been achieved through by expanding relevant and useful content on the website. Not through ‘building links’, but by making the website better for customers by providing additional information that is useful for them. We know this works and we would like to reiterate to businesses that content, along with relevant promotion, needs to be the key focus for building your brand online.
We’ve been rather busy over these last few months working away in the background getting things in place so we can offer our clients a full range of digital services. As always, our focus is on increasing traffic, sales & enquiries through our clients’ websites with digital marketing activities.
Why we have expanded our services
Before we look at the new services we have on offer, I’d like to explain the rationale behind this change. Since launching only 9 months ago we have spoken with a large number of companies within the East Lancashire area, from start-ups to multi-million pound well established businesses. One thing above all that we keep hearing in the discussions we’re having with businesses is around need for a wide range of high quality digital marketing skills.
Businesses we have spoken to have been struggling to find the right skills and experience to fulfil roles and requirements in a wide range of digital marketing areas. Requests from clients vary hugely and requirements often cover multiple disciplines. This is the reason we have expanded our services to support our current and new clients with a full range of digital services to suit their needs.
New Services
We see digital marketing breaking down into five key areas which are design, build, traffic generation, tracking and optimisation. We are now able to offer our current and future clients a full range of digital marketing services to suit their specific needs. Find out more about each of our key service groups below.
Design
We believe that design feeds into all digital marketing activities from website development, search engine optimisation and email marketing. Design should be an integral part of all digital marketing activities to generate maximum engagement and response from campaigns.
We understand the importance of building scalable and stable platforms for your customers. That’s why we work with you to build websites and mobile applications that your customers love. With so many options available for developing websites and mobile applications, we recommend the best solution to suit your needs.
Whether this is a simple WordPress website or a large Magento ecommerce platform to sell your products. Save yourself time and money by working with enterprise level content management systems (CMSs) so you can make the changes to your website with ease by simply logging into the administration area and making the change.
Traffic generation is essential for all businesses operating in the digital world. An increase in traffic to your website, mobile applications and social channels leads to an increase in sales and revenue. With so many options for generating traffic and sales through your website, we will create a clear strategy for your business to grow.
Tracking digital marketing campaigns is essential for brands serious about growing their business online. Tracking is at the heart of everything we do to ensure that all campaigns are performing well along with seeing where improvements can be made. We use advanced tracking solutions to provide detailed insight into your business to allow you to focus your marketing budget on areas that are going to provide a return.
Continually improve your website and the user experience for your customers to increase sales and revenue. Find out what your customers really think of your website and identify areas for improvement. Using a mixture of a data driven quantitative methods along with user driven qualitative methods allows you to gain a deeper understanding of your customers.
We also offer training across the range of digital marketing services which are suitable either as a one-2-one intensive training session or as a group based session for your internal marketing teams.
Summary
If your business is looking to increase traffic, sales & enquiries online then get in touch to find out how we can help. To make sure you are working with the right digital agency, we offer a free proposal tailored to your specific needs so you can try us out before you commit to working with us.
Wow, wow and wow!! That’s right, we are in the finals for 4 separate categories for the Lancashire wide business awards, The Bibas 2014! This is such an amazing achievement within the short space of 9 months since officially launching.
The Be Inspired Business Awards is the largest business awards in Lancashire designed to showcase leading companies in Lancashire. This year there were over 1232 applications from 576 companies. Lancaster University Management School prepared the judges for the awards who undertook rigorous training. The research project from Lancaster University examined the world’s leading business awards to gain insight into how to judge the best companies. Based on this, they established a set of criteria to evaluate the large amount of applications to create a shortlist of excellent companies.
Dr Ellie Hamilton from Lancaster University Management School said;
“I promise you, if your business makes it to the interview stage, you have done very well indeed.”
The awards are being backed by leading companies including;
Here are the four award categories that we have been shortlisted for.
Creative Business of the Year
Companies shortlisted for the finals of the Creative Business of the Year award category had to show how their creative expertise delivered innovative products and services to their clients. We showcased how we balance both creative and commercial development for projects with clients and the strategies we use to ensure both work in harmony.
We are a creative company and are always looking for new opportunities for our clients. Within the application for this category we had to explain how we nurture creativity within the business and how we achieve excellence as a company by providing solutions to our clients to suit their individual and unique needs. You may have seen earlier in the year, we became an official HootSuite Solutions Partner.
E-Business of the Year
We have been shortlisted in the finals for the E-Commerce Business of the Year. This category was open to businesses that have significantly grown their business or that of a client. This may be achieved through e-commerce, communications and mobile technologies.
As part of the application, we demonstrated how we have used the internet and technology in an innovative way to enhance commercial performance for our clients, and identified opportunities for growth.
Given the pace of change, it is a constant challenge to respond with meaningful actions and strategies for our clients. There have been several major changes within the digital industry that we have had to adapt to stay ahead since launching only 9 months ago.
We are always looking ahead at what the next big thing is going to be and we strongly believe that digital is on the verge of changing everyone’s lives in ways we can’t even imagine. With the rise of superfast broadband throughout the country along with physical computing and wearable devices gaining ground, this really is going to be an interesting time ahead.
New Business of the Year
Another award category we have been shortlisted for is the New Business of the Year award. This award was open to businesses that have been operating for less than 3 years.
We had to explain how we identified key opportunities within the digital and creative sector and innovations we have brought to the market. Since launching in 2013, we have grasped huge opportunities and continue to grow the business further.
Stay tuned for how this start-up company grows over the next few years!
Most Inspiring Business of the Year
Finally, we have also been nominated for the Most Inspiring Business of the Year award. This category wasn’t actually open for applications like the other awards.
Instead, the judges looked at the 1232 applications from all 576 companies and decided that we were a company worthy of the finals and one to watch for the future!
We are really pleased to announce that we have got through to the finals in the Prolific North Awards 2014 within the SEO & PPC Agency category. This has come from achieving outstanding results with our clients, driving huge increases in traffic and sales through their websites.
The Prolific North Awards celebrate excellence, recognise leading companies and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the creative and media industries across the North of England. The Search Engine Optimisation & Pay per Click Agency category is for companies who demonstrate consistently high standards of work, have identified and exploited new markets, income streams and opportunities for clients along with demonstrating exceptional search results for Search Engine Optimisation campaigns.
SEO & PPC Agency category
Find out more about the awards and see who we are up against. We’re up against some much larger and well established companies with over 250 members of staff, which is a significant achievement and huge recognition for us within our first year of trading. We have also recently been shortlisted in the finals in the prestigious Lancashire Red Rose Awards.
The judging panel for the Prolific North Awards 2014 include Andy Barke the Industry Head at Google UK, Russ Brady the Group Head of Public Relations at The Co-operative, Leanne Buchan the Culture & Sport City Development Directorate at Leeds City Council, Mark Dickinson the Chairman at Prolific North, Dave Edmundson-Bird the Principle Lecturer for Digital Marketing & Enterprise at MMU Business School, Richard Frediani the Programme Editor at ITN, Jim Hancock a Journalist & Presenter, Dee Marshall the Director of Communications at Welcome to Yorkshire, Neil Roscoe the Communications Officer at Jaguar Land Rover, Sally Sykes the Executive Director for External Affairs & Strategy at the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman plus many more.
You may have heard recently that the internet is about to change, in a big way, with the launch of new top level domains. While I’m sure this is exciting news for people working in the digital industry, it may not mean much to people who are busy running their businesses. Once you have read over the blog post, you will understand what this change is all about and learn what this means for your business.
What are top level domains?
Firstly, let’s take a step back and ask what a top level domain is. The way the internet works is all powered by top level domains, we’ll leave all the really geeky bits for another post. The best way of understanding this is to look at a few different domains. Below highlights which part of the domain name is the top level bit;
www.contradodigital.com
www.google.co.uk
www.number10.gov.uk
www.facebook.com
www.twitter.com
Hopefully it is clear to see above that the top level domain can be classified as ‘the last bit’ in layman terms. Following on from this, there are two basic categories of top level domains which are either Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs for short) and Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs for short).
A Generic Top Level Domain is one that doesn’t relate to a specific country, whereas a Country Code Top Level Domain is one that does relate to a specific country. If you want to see all of the different top level domains that are available, the best resource for this is to look through the official 362 top level domains within the Root Zone Database from IANA (the people who manage all this).
Ok, so what has all of this got to do with the new top level domains that are being launched? Well, in summary, everything. Currently the way domain names are structured is nice, simple(ish) and internet users are familiar with the setup.
What is changing?
Previously, the top level domains were restricted and new ones rarely got announced which made things easy for users. If a user knew the brand in a certain country but didn’t know the domain, it was likely to be www.brand.co.uk or www.brand.com for example.
The change that is happening now is that companies can apply to own new top level domains of their choosing which means the web could become a little bit like the wild west with domains appearing such as;
www.contrado.digital
http://michael-cropper.facebook
www.google.search
www.your-brand.shop
www.bob.plumbers
The possibilities are endless, which creates a lot of confusion for people using the internet. What domain names are trust worthy? Which ones are official sources? As a business, do I need to secure all possibilities to protect my brand? This change raises a lot of questions. Not only this, but the rollout has started to happen with the following 35 new top level domains being announced within the past few months alone. For those of you good at maths, you will notice this is an almost 10% increase for the number of top level domains available….within the space of a few months! Below are the domains that have been announced to date;
New Top Level Domains Announced To Date
Wow!
What is the reasoning behind the new top level domains?
Ok, so let’s take a step back again and look at why this change has happened. Again, without going too technical, a domain name is basically a signpost to a web server which runs a website. Imagine it in a similar way to your address is a signpost to a lat-long location as a nice comparison;
One of these above is a little easier to remember for people, while the other isn’t. This is the same as with domain names. Domain names are a user friendly way or referring to an IP address.
With almost an additional 2 million domain names registered under .co.uk in 2012 alone, this figure is likely to be similar again throughout 2013 and 2014;
Annual New UK Domain Name Registrations
I’m sure that when you look at the graphs above it is clear why something had to be done. It’s because the memorable names are getting harder and harder to find for businesses starting up and looking to expand. If you want to look at buying a memorable domain name from someone, then you better get your cheque book ready as they don’t come cheap;
Certainly not cheap for a memorable domain name. Hence one of the reasons for the change.
What does this mean for marketers and businesses?
The way domains were categorised was nice, it gave a bit of order to the web and helped users. New top level domains change everything.
Imagine;
.email
.mail
.app
This change has the potential to re-categorise how domains are used as availability increases throughout 2014 and beyond, especially as digital marketing agencies create innovative campaigns around the new domain names that become available. This is something to keep a close eye on as things develop which will give you a better understanding of any opportunities that come from this change.
If you are a large brand, then maybe this is something you want to think about registering to protect your brand. Looking through the list of almost 2000 applications, there are some large brands who have jumped on this opportunity. Some of the more notable branded top level domains include the following, and I’m guessing you can imagine who they could be owned by if their application goes through;
Brands with Top Level Domains (Click for full image)
One item to note is that just because a brand has applied for the domain name, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be successful. It is an application process which can be challenged by other brands, so watch this space.
Do you want to register a new top level domain?
Then be prepared to go through a lengthy process and be aware that simply applying, not purchasing, will set you back a staggering $185,000 per application which is classified as a ‘gTLD Evaluation Fee’. If you are looking to go through the process of registering a new generic top level domain then follow all of the guidelines outlined on the website.
How to register a sub-domain from a new generic top level domain?
Ok, so let’s say you aren’t quite ready to splash out on your own generic top level domain, but would still like to use it in a way such as http://higfy.bbc then how would you go about purchasing this domain? At the minute, we will have to wait and see how registrars handle this, so your best bet at the minute it to contact your current registrar and speak with them about this. The availability all comes down to who owns the top level domain and if they are willing to share the love, or not.
For example the BBC aren’t likely to allow me to purchase my own http://michael.bbc, instead they are going to be more interested in using this for their own shows in some way. So keep an eye out for how your registrar is going to be making these available over time. The individual costs for these will depend on how much the owner of the new generic top level domain wants to charge.
Notable Locations
So moving away from brands and towards locations, what are the main location based generic top level domains which have been applied for?
Locations with Top Level Domains (Click for larger image)
This again will be interesting to see how these location based generic top level domains are used. Are they really that different than the abbreviated versions we have and use today though? Could they become trendier to have? Could they simply add more domains to the location in addition to the current setup? Who knows, but what we do know is that it is going to be an exciting time to see how these are used.
What about Google?
Where would we be without Google? And what is Google doing in this space? I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you here as Google has applied for a staggering 101 new generic top level domains which include the following (non-English ones excluded from this list);
Google’s New Top Level Domain Names
Interesting that “.Live” is in the list above. Hmm. I think Microsoft may have a couple of concerns about that one….
Will Google treat new domain names differently with Search Engine Optimisation
In summary, probably not. Google has always stayed away from strict groupings in the traditional sense as different people can own different domain names on different generic top level domains. For example, a .co.uk domain can be owned by a valid UK based business, or a spammer. So it is not a valid signal to simply look at that and come to a conclusion on its own.
That said, does a new branded generic top level domain signify that you are a well-recognised brand? Maybe. Google hasn’t released any official guidelines on this at present as this is still really early days, so subscribe to our newsletter and follow us socially to stay up to date when this does happen as we will be informing you of the changes.
What about your current domain?
Should you be planning to move over to a new generic top level domain? Or should you run two separately? Or more? Well, this all comes down to how you want to be presenting your brand to the world. Careful consideration needs to be taken during any domain migration as it is a significant business decision that needs to be backed up with marketing collateral and campaigns, which have their own costs associated with them.
Our recommendations here would be to see how things play out. If you are a large domain and this is extremely important to you, then you may want to think about applying for your own branded generic top level domain.
Overall
Overall I’m sure you’ll agree that this is an enormous change to the internet and how brands and consumers are going to view and consume content on the web. This is clearly something that is going to take time to settle down and the applications have only allowed through around 30 new generic top level domains to date, so it may take a while to review all 2000 applications that are currently in the queue.
Stay tuned and watch this space! Do you have any thoughts on these changes? How do you think they will impact users and brands? Leave your comments and thoughts below.
You may have heard recently that the internet is about to change, in a big way, with the launch of new top level domains. While I’m sure this is exciting news for people working in the digital industry, it may not mean much to people who are busy running their businesses. Once you have read over the blog post, you will understand what this change is all about and learn what this means for your business.
What are top level domains?
Firstly, let’s take a step back and ask what a top level domain is. The way the internet works is all powered by top level domains, we’ll leave all the really geeky bits for another post. The best way of understanding this is to look at a few different domains. Below highlights which part of the domain name is the top level bit;
www.contradodigital.com
www.google.co.uk
www.number10.gov.uk
www.facebook.com
www.twitter.com
Hopefully it is clear to see above that the top level domain can be classified as ‘the last bit’ in layman terms. Following on from this, there are two basic categories of top level domains which are either Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs for short) and Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs for short).
A Generic Top Level Domain is one that doesn’t relate to a specific country, whereas a Country Code Top Level Domain is one that does relate to a specific country. If you want to see all of the different top level domains that are available, the best resource for this is to look through the official 362 top level domains within the Root Zone Database from IANA (the people who manage all this).
Ok, so what has all of this got to do with the new top level domains that are being launched? Well, in summary, everything. Currently the way domain names are structured is nice, simple(ish) and internet users are familiar with the setup.
What is changing?
Previously, the top level domains were restricted and new ones rarely got announced which made things easy for users. If a user knew the brand in a certain country but didn’t know the domain, it was likely to be www.brand.co.uk or www.brand.com for example.
The change that is happening now is that companies can apply to own new top level domains of their choosing which means the web could become a little bit like the wild west with domains appearing such as;
www.contrado.digital
http://michael-cropper.facebook
www.google.search
www.your-brand.shop
www.bob.plumbers
The possibilities are endless, which creates a lot of confusion for people using the internet. What domain names are trust worthy? Which ones are official sources? As a business, do I need to secure all possibilities to protect my brand? This change raises a lot of questions. Not only this, but the rollout has started to happen with the following 35 new top level domains being announced within the past few months alone. For those of you good at maths, you will notice this is an almost 10% increase for the number of top level domains available….within the space of a few months! Below are the domains that have been announced to date;
New Top Level Domains Announced To Date
Wow!
What is the reasoning behind the new top level domains?
Ok, so let’s take a step back again and look at why this change has happened. Again, without going too technical, a domain name is basically a signpost to a web server which runs a website. Imagine it in a similar way to your address is a signpost to a lat-long location as a nice comparison;
One of these above is a little easier to remember for people, while the other isn’t. This is the same as with domain names. Domain names are a user friendly way or referring to an IP address.
With almost an additional 2 million domain names registered under .co.uk in 2012 alone, this figure is likely to be similar again throughout 2013 and 2014;
Annual New UK Domain Name Registrations
I’m sure that when you look at the graphs above it is clear why something had to be done. It’s because the memorable names are getting harder and harder to find for businesses starting up and looking to expand. If you want to look at buying a memorable domain name from someone, then you better get your cheque book ready as they don’t come cheap;
Certainly not cheap for a memorable domain name. Hence one of the reasons for the change.
What does this mean for marketers and businesses?
The way domains were categorised was nice, it gave a bit of order to the web and helped users. New top level domains change everything.
Imagine;
.email
.mail
.app
This change has the potential to re-categorise how domains are used as availability increases throughout 2014 and beyond, especially as digital marketing agencies create innovative campaigns around the new domain names that become available. This is something to keep a close eye on as things develop which will give you a better understanding of any opportunities that come from this change.
If you are a large brand, then maybe this is something you want to think about registering to protect your brand. Looking through the list of almost 2000 applications, there are some large brands who have jumped on this opportunity. Some of the more notable branded top level domains include the following, and I’m guessing you can imagine who they could be owned by if their application goes through;
Brands with Top Level Domains (Click for full image)
One item to note is that just because a brand has applied for the domain name, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be successful. It is an application process which can be challenged by other brands, so watch this space.
Do you want to register a new top level domain?
Then be prepared to go through a lengthy process and be aware that simply applying, not purchasing, will set you back a staggering $185,000 per application which is classified as a ‘gTLD Evaluation Fee’. If you are looking to go through the process of registering a new generic top level domain then follow all of the guidelines outlined on the website.
How to register a sub-domain from a new generic top level domain?
Ok, so let’s say you aren’t quite ready to splash out on your own generic top level domain, but would still like to use it in a way such as http://higfy.bbc then how would you go about purchasing this domain? At the minute, we will have to wait and see how registrars handle this, so your best bet at the minute it to contact your current registrar and speak with them about this. The availability all comes down to who owns the top level domain and if they are willing to share the love, or not.
For example the BBC aren’t likely to allow me to purchase my own http://michael.bbc, instead they are going to be more interested in using this for their own shows in some way. So keep an eye out for how your registrar is going to be making these available over time. The individual costs for these will depend on how much the owner of the new generic top level domain wants to charge.
Notable Locations
So moving away from brands and towards locations, what are the main location based generic top level domains which have been applied for?
Locations with Top Level Domains (Click for larger image)
This again will be interesting to see how these location based generic top level domains are used. Are they really that different than the abbreviated versions we have and use today though? Could they become trendier to have? Could they simply add more domains to the location in addition to the current setup? Who knows, but what we do know is that it is going to be an exciting time to see how these are used.
What about Google?
Where would we be without Google? And what is Google doing in this space? I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you here as Google has applied for a staggering 101 new generic top level domains which include the following (non-English ones excluded from this list);
Google’s New Top Level Domain Names
Interesting that “.Live” is in the list above. Hmm. I think Microsoft may have a couple of concerns about that one….
Will Google treat new domain names differently with Search Engine Optimisation
In summary, probably not. Google has always stayed away from strict groupings in the traditional sense as different people can own different domain names on different generic top level domains. For example, a .co.uk domain can be owned by a valid UK based business, or a spammer. So it is not a valid signal to simply look at that and come to a conclusion on its own.
That said, does a new branded generic top level domain signify that you are a well-recognised brand? Maybe. Google hasn’t released any official guidelines on this at present as this is still really early days, so subscribe to our newsletter and follow us socially to stay up to date when this does happen as we will be informing you of the changes.
What about your current domain?
Should you be planning to move over to a new generic top level domain? Or should you run two separately? Or more? Well, this all comes down to how you want to be presenting your brand to the world. Careful consideration needs to be taken during any domain migration as it is a significant business decision that needs to be backed up with marketing collateral and campaigns, which have their own costs associated with them.
Our recommendations here would be to see how things play out. If you are a large domain and this is extremely important to you, then you may want to think about applying for your own branded generic top level domain.
Overall
Overall I’m sure you’ll agree that this is an enormous change to the internet and how brands and consumers are going to view and consume content on the web. This is clearly something that is going to take time to settle down and the applications have only allowed through around 30 new generic top level domains to date, so it may take a while to review all 2000 applications that are currently in the queue.
Stay tuned and watch this space! Do you have any thoughts on these changes? How do you think they will impact users and brands? Leave your comments and thoughts below.
Companies shortlisted for the finals of the Creative Business of the Year award category had to show how their creative expertise delivered innovative products and services to their clients. We showcased how we balance both creative and commercial development for projects with clients and the strategies we use to ensure both work in harmony.
