Today’s Ask an SEO question comes from Colin in London, UK. “My question is about duplicate content. I work for a group of schools in the UK. We have 21 schools, each has its own website and domain with a link or banner linking back to our main group website. The schools are very busy, … Read more
Gravatar announced a free domain name offer and Bluesky integration that makes it relatively easy to use a custom domain name as a Bluesky handle. A custom handle provides a more professional Bluesky presence compared to the standard generic versions like username.bsky.social. Integrating a domain name through Gravatar involves several steps on both platforms but … Read more
In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, the company’s Search Relations team hinted at potential changes in how country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are valued for SEO. This revelation came during a discussion on internationalization and hreflang implementation. The Fading Importance Of ccTLDs Gary Illyes, a senior member of Google’s Search Relations … Read more
Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about a ranking preference given to sites that use country level domain names and explained how that compares to non-country domain names. The question occurred in the SEO Office Hours podcast. ccTLD Aka Country Code Domain Names Domain names that are specific to countries are called ccTLDs (Country Code … Read more
Since the Times Of India quadrupled its organic growth in the US in 12 months, more ccTLDs (international domains) have been spotted ranking in the US. Image Credit: Kevin Indig More international domains would make sense as Google is testing country labels indicating where the site operates. Google has also expanded Translated Results: Translated Results … Read more
Google announced the availability of the new dot ING top level domain that allows users to register domains that indicate verbs, nouns and adjectives that end with the ing suffix. ING Top Level Domain (TLD) A top level domain (TLD) is the last part of the domain name, like .com, .org, etc. The newest version, … Read more
WordPress.com announced that they are paying the domain transfer fees for Google Domain customers, and is committed to keeping domain registration prices low. WordPress.com is matching Google’s pricing on over 400 top-level domains that are offered by WordPress.com. Existing WordPress.com customers will also benefit from rock bottom prices on domain name registrations. According to WordPress.com … Read more
In a Google SEO Office hours session, Google’s Gary Illyes answered the question about whether there was a downside to using the .AI domain since it’s associated with the Caribbean island of Anguilla. His answer was kind of surprising. The Difference Between a gTLD and a ccTLD There are two kinds of domain names. There … Read more
Squarespace announced that it is acquiring all assets of Google Domains, including the transfer of approximately 10 million domains, with the transaction expected to close by the third quarter of 2023. Google and Squarespace have entered into an agreement to transfer the assets of Google Domains. Google Domains will go into a transition period as … Read more
Google announced the release of eight new top level domains (TLDs), including one which may have a high commercial potential for law firms, others that are useful for academics and two top level domains that are based on file extensions, which might be problematic from a security standpoint Top Level Domains The eight new top … Read more
Keyword-rich domain names were once thought to be an effective way to increase a website’s visibility and improve search engine rankings. However, there are several reasons why keyword-rich domain names can be detrimental to a website’s success. In response to a thread on Reddit, Google Search Advocate John Mueller shares his opinion on domains with … Read more
Domain names with keywords in them are considered valuable for a variety of reasons, including a long-standing idea that they might be directly or indirectly helpful for ranking purposes. Choosing a domain name is an important step for launching a website, so it’s important to make the right choice. The choice of a domain name … Read more
Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about ranking benefits of using the keywords in the domain name. Mueller confirmed that there’s no SEO bonus for keywords in the domain and listed reasons why not to use keyword-based domains. Mueller lists valid reasons why keywords in domains don’t provide a ranking bonus and why … Read more
