Will you buy a .car .cars or .auto extension?

[Alexander Lau]

Alexander, I researched and wrote the stl.cars study.

As far as other SEO variables go, I am not aware of any. The site was moved to a new domain. They did everything right. I tried to be as transparent as possible by presenting GOogle analytics data and data from other sources.

If you have any other specific questions I would be happy to answer them.

Feel free to look at semrush.com or majestic.com for other data, as well.

Please prove there is a direct correlation between TLD change and traffic spike, I'd be very interested in seeing it. IOW, why would a TLD switch cause such a jump in traffic? I don't buy the TLD change as any piece of organic growth. You or they might be doing your organic work better and seeing increases (and that's great), but that has little to do with a TLD switch, based upon how search engine bots (currently) view you.

 

[Bill Hartzer]

I am not sure if there can be any more proof than what we have right now. The site was moved, nothing else changed as far as I know. So it is one of the best examples we have.

The domain move would help rankings because of the anchor text changes in the links. We saw this happen with www.coffee.club who saw great ranking increases when they moved.

We also saw the same thing with www.jacksonville.attorney as well that now ranks for their most important keywords as well.

 

[ed.brooks]

Please prove there is a direct correlation between TLD change and traffic spike, I'd be very interested in seeing it. IOW, why would a TLD switch cause such a jump in traffic? I don't buy the TLD change as any piece of organic growth. You or they might be doing your organic work better and seeing increases (and that's great), but that has little to do with a TLD switch, based upon how search engine bots (currently) view you.

Correlation never has to be "proved"; it's there or it's not there. Causation is something different.

 

[Bill Hartzer]

By looking at the data we have, and the fact that no one really knows the actual Google organic search algorithm, we may not be able to prove beyond a doubt that a change in domain name helped or hurt.

My job has been to present the data and this case study, and be as transparent about it as possible.

 

[Rob McCartney]

Would this even really be a debate if .car, .cars & .auto were 40 dollars a year instead of 3K? Most likely not, the domains would of been purchased and either parked (waiting for more hard data) or simply forwarded to a different domain.

 

[Alexander Lau]

I am not sure if there can be any more proof than what we have right now. The site was moved, nothing else changed as far as I know. So it is one of the best examples we have.

The domain move would help rankings because of the anchor text changes in the links. We saw this happen with www.coffee.club who saw great ranking increases when they moved.

We also saw the same thing with www.jacksonville.attorney as well that now ranks for their most important keywords as well.

I have my doubts.

From all indications, exact keyword domains and funky TLDs hold little value any longer, those days are long gone. It's about relevant, fresh, authoritarian on-site content that drives sites.

Are you suggesting users were more attracted to stl.cars, coffee.club, jacksonville.attorney because of branding / vanity URL?

 

[Alexander Lau]

Correlation never has to be "proved"; it's there or it's not there. Causation is something different.

You get the point, I'm looking for factual evidence that show a connection. Sheesh...

 

[Bill Hartzer]

Alexander I was not referring to the actual exact match domain, it is more about the change in overall anchor text links to the site, as a part of the sites' link profile.

Nonetheless I am seeing a resurgence in emd domains ranking very well now.

 

[Bill Hartzer]

>> Would this even really be a debate if .car, .cars & .auto were 40 dollars a year instead of 3K?

The whole point of that pricing model, in my opinion, is to make sure domains that are purchased are actually used for live sites and NOT just redirected or squatted on.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Alexander I was not referring to the actual exact match domain, it is more about the change in overall anchor text links to the site, as a part of the sites' link profile.

Nonetheless I am seeing a resurgence in emd domains ranking very well now.

OK, so you made a bunch of changes to links and structure(s) on-site, for each of these. In other words, you cleaned up the content on these sites. I can buy that as part of the increase.

17 SEO Myths That You Should Never Follow (Neil Patel is a pretty good source, you probably know of him)
http://neilpatel.com/2015/04/14/17-seo-myths-that-you-should-never-follow/

The major factor in whether TLDs have an effect on SEO is whether the domain contains keywords. Of course, you and I know that Exact Match Domain names risk getting penalized.

Everything still boils down to the value you offer with your domain name. During the days of frequent updates, an average EMD ranking dropped from 13.4% to 26.6%.

This data shouldn’t scare you, but rather it should guide you. Now you know that when choosing top-level domains, what matters is the long-term brand and benefit when you register a memorable and professional domain name.

The caveat: If you haven’t registered any domain name yet, I’d advise you to choose top-level domain names (.com and .net).

However, if you’re already a site owner, just decide to focus on offering immense value, creating high-quality content, and using social media to connect influencers who will help promote your content. I’ve even seen domain names with weird extensions do well in search, such as Paper.li.