Lindsay Gellman wrote an article for The Atlantic about domain names and them becoming less relevant in a world of superior search algorithms.
Gellman wrote, “the front lines in a decades-long battle for prime virtual real estate had shifted from domains to search rankings, social media, and mobile technologies.”
The author did go on to get quotes from the following industry participants.
Cyrus Namazi, the vice president of domain-name services and industry engagement at ICANN, acknowledged that demand for new top-level domains won’t eclipse that for legacies “any time soon.”
Richard Tindal from Donuts chimed in, new extensions have yet to reach a “tipping point of awareness,” he believes they will be “ubiquitous” within a few years as users realize the possibilities for customization and more firms adopt them.
Frank Schilling relayed the following, “the extensions are ripe for new brands looking to secure short, memorable custom email addresses. An unwieldy domain that fares well in search rankings might still be burdensome to type out when addressing an email.”
No surprise that a search analytics CEO, Kevin Rowe, said the following, “Domain is less important now than it was ten years ago.”
What I believe the author overlooks is the fact that domain names equate to individual freedom, they are the thing you have the most control over, you pick the name, you pick who you do business with for your registrations. You do not have freedom when you use other services such as social media.
While I am a proponent of social media, they are a spoke in the wheel that is your domain name. We have written about Google wiping out a decade old blog, social media accounts closed, social networks that faded away, did you make a fortune on Vine three years ago ? You won’t be in 2017.
Search algorithms have proven time and again to change with no understanding as to why. Google changes their ranking factors the way a teenager changes their fashion preferences.
Domains make communication easy at a party, a conference, a dinner. No one says, “Google me, my SEO people are now doing a great job and we rank 8th for domain names. People relate to easy and memorable, in a world of ADHD, domains still matter.
Read the full article here
That was great analysis Raymond, I love your domain name = freedom.
Thanks
A domain name is all about creating a brand that people will remember and know how to get back to your website without Google or Bing.
You guys are too focus on talking about the actual domain name and how a user might remember and how they will go back to the site. 95% of all website navigation goes through Google/Bing. All that matters is how you gonna leverage the traffic sources and build a brand. Your traffic sources are google/ apps/ social, they dont give a shit about your domain name, they care about your brand value. A generic, descriptive, vanity domain name does NOT help your brand value.
We have way too much invested into premium, category killer domain names. We’ve built 100s of brands. Made up brandable domain names work way better than premium generic domains. I’m telling you guys how it is, without any BS thats beneficial to our own existence.
You are not telling anyone how it is, you are giving your (worthless imo) opinion.
I’d rather a reasoned opinion than a useless opinion of an opinion.
The only reason behind this constant bashing of what we are all used to, .com being the first and the main address we all type into our browsers to go to our favourite site or desired destination on the net, is the abundance of all the .junk now available that no one in their right mind would even touch despite all the hype and the 0.99 cent promotions.
All this will be forgotten in no time and will join the ranks of .mobi and .tel.
Thanks for the great read Raymond.
The .01 .10 .50 .99 promotions are running their course.
The spammers, and scammers are in Heavan right now.
They are cheap because they are worthless, so if a registry can get 50 cents, and a sucker to pay one year auto renewal, they are all for taking money from a lemming.
Last I checked Taryn was spending more money than ever on the ol AM DIAL
Dont skate to where the puck was, Skate to where the puck is going.
The future does not revolve around the address bar URL type in navigation.
Television and radio commercials almost always contain a domain….They don’t say, “Google us.”
Domains are dead. especially short one-word .com names. Better sell them all to me before they are worth zero.
“A generic, descriptive, vanity domain name does NOT help your brand value.”
Congratulations goes to FX, the hands-down winner of the “Foolish Statement Of The Year” Award!
this is right up there with “we don’t need a website… we have facebook.”
Most people use mobile and voice search.
I see a future for long tail generic .Com domains.
Agreed. I’d much prefer a long .Com than a short .crapolla new gtld. Not even a question in my mind. I see no benefit or future to them and agree that soon they will all soon be in the grave. Obviously so.
Barney and Patrick, I like your thoughts on this. I would appreciate connecting via email or on linked in. Jon Kleiber in LI or warehousebroker via my Gmail address. Thanks
Voice search? Do you mean ‘Ok Google’
Funny thing is we are selling more domains, for more money than we were 10 years ago, so who is right, who is wrong, there are articles for every which side of any argument.
I let the numbers speak.
Perhaps the Atlantic should put its money where its mouth is and rename itself 164.257.14.189 or something.
Owning a professional looking url and email will highly create trust and a feeling of security to your customers.
With all the fake and fraud sites out here you better own a kick ass domain name if you want to be taken seriously!
@Xavier
To your well-made point, there’s another MAJOR advantage that businesses receive from a category-defining domain name: When such firm bid on RFPs, or pitch their products and services, Sourcing/Procurement folks will always take that firm seriously, and treat them the same as the Fortune-500 companies in their same space.
I’ve seen this time and time again – from BOTH sides of the fence, bidder and buyer.
A Facebook or Twitter page is simply the bait cast out to the user to hook them back to your main site where you sell them your product. No serious company is running their e-commerce through social media.
Search engines have increased the need for high quality domains that stand out from your competition. All of this adds up to a bright future for premium domain owners.
there’s more than one reason to have a good keyword domain, geo + keyword works great in small local niche search, a nice domain looks very professional on a business card or letterhead, a longtail domain can be category defining and create an aura of knowledge, professionalism and one stop shopping for the owner.
there’s more than one reason to have a good keyword domain, geo + keyword works great in small local niche search, a nice domain looks very professional on a business card or letterhead, a longtail domain can be category defining and create an aura of knowledge, professionalism and one stop shopping for the owner.
I think the conversation about this would be much stronger at a neutral business blog/site rather than a domain blog. It’s like asking a bunch of tire salesman if they think tires have any value.
Domains in general have more financial value and less search value. But again, this discussion is obviously very biased and one sided. It’s like we’re trying to convince someone in the room about domains but its just us talking to each other 🙂
Common sense it would never take place on a neutral business blog, and really outside this industry those blogs are not neutral, they despise domain investors.
I don’t think anyone is trying to convince anyone anything, they are replying to the article that the author here referenced.
The entire article is based around the notion that the only way that people discover the product/information they want is through a search engine now. Discovering is only half the battle though. When you are competing against Amazon, ebay, etc (who let’s face it dominate most search results) for any sort of sliver of marketshare, you are going to need everything that you can get your hands on to attract, convert and retain that buyer. A bad domain name isn’t going to help you at all in that effort. Quit pretending.
Domain choice also goes far beyond a necessity of appearing in search results. The average company that just was created and named itself yesterday, probably searched through thousands of options to land on a name that WASN’T taken in .com . They picked a name they could get for $10, could afford from the aftermarket, or were even more brave and went with a new TLD. The fact of the matter though is that they didn’t name themselves something made up like NitroRCX (or whatever made up name you could choose) because they wanted to show up higher in the search results. They made the name because it’s a brand that resonates with them, says what they want to be known for. Their choise awas how they wanted to be known, found, remembered and trusted. If they’re smart they picked “their name” in .com because that’s the easiest way for someone to remember their name and where to find them. It’s second nature for almost the entire planet to remember a company name and append it in .com
They’ll want to print it on business cards, packaging, yellow pages, etc. They’ll want it to be short and sweet and easy to say if they do radio or TV ads. They’ll want all these things to line up. Why ? So they’re found, remembered, trusted.
This is the real reason domains command high values way back in the beginning before google was even a thing nd have continued to maintain high values. Go ahead and buy a bad domain, but you’re making a decision that can impact all of your online efforts. Taking business advice from the Atlantic and
Last point, there’s still a ton of people (I presume baby boomers) proving the article wrong and lining my pocket every day by typing in what they want.
I seem to recall an article one or two years ago stating that apps would render domain names redundant. Well here we now end of 2016 and no signs of that becoming a reality.
There really are 2 separate issues, and that article sort of combines them both so it gets confusing. The article mainly talks about the new tlds and how those may not take off like expected. But, that is not necessarily the same as talking about the future of .com domains. The new domain extensions and .com are in the same industry, but are not the same business. The tlds may fail and .coms may thrive. Or the opposite. Things are changing, but it is too early to tell much of anything yet from all of it.
good point Eric !
Just like Walmart and big box retailers have killed off mom and pop stores.
Google, APP Stores, Social media with it’s focus on big brands have killed off an ability for small and niche sites to gain any kind of scale or traction. That has a waterfall like effect on the need for a premium domain names. Vanity domain name does not equal freedom. Freedom does not pay the bills.
Frank said; “memorable custom email addresses.”
Who the fuck need an email address ?? You’re selling vaporware !!
Future communication will NOT revolve around an email address.
Email will be here long after you are gone.
I wondered when and where I would post this, and clearly this is the time and place:
JUST YESTERDAY while surfing FB, a GOOGLE ADVERTISEMENT PROMOTING DOMAIN REGISTRATION WITH THEM appeared prominently in my news feed. So they are now paying FB to advertise their domain services…
Thanks for that.
Don’t mention it. Was quite a surprise.
If I sold Hats, I would want Hats.Com on my business card
Exactly. And everyone saying otherwise are full of crap. So I say, to those new gTLD propagandists put your domains where your mouth is and immediately release all your dot-Coms to the domain community for free.
I’ll wait…
If I sold hats I’d be more concerned with hats than I would the domain name on a business card.
What kind of hats would you sell?
Domain names will be around forever. Domains are part of the Internet backbone.
Domains just have more competition now with Seach Engines, Apps and Social Media, but these are also used to get people to navigate the a companies .Com website to buy their products.
But businesses don’t care how their product sells, just as long as it sells, even if the sale or lead came from a search engine, app or social media.
That being said, a businesses .Com website will always be the core of their online presence.
No Fortune 500 company is going to drop their .Com domain name and use a new TLD domain, an app, search engine or social media account instead of their .Com website, to promote their business. They are using new TLDs, apps and social media in addition to their .Com website (not the other way around), because different generations use different platforms to access the Internet.
Plain and simple.
That’s a good point! That’s why I have developed a unique system using Google Images in conjunction with .com domain names in my own site Domains Feast so just plain and simple!
Ironic how the article uses a theatlantic.com. Maybe they just quite using the site and submit all articles to google and everyone will fine them somehow.
Getting people to navigate to your site isn’t impossible. But getting them to come back again — that’s where a memorable domain comes into play.
Domains are form of speech. With nTLDs, speech is now possible on both sides of the dot. nTLDs can make URLs absolutely compelling.
“We got a lousy two-word domain for $12, but that’s OK, we’ll just spend $2.5 million per month on Google ads and another $2.5 million on Facebook to make up for it.”—said a marketing department head at more than one Fortune 500 company.
Many companies are now competing with Google in one market segment or another. Meanwhile, Google’s users aren’t paying for Google’s services. It’s the bozos with the lousy domains who are paying for Google, even while they ostensibly compete with Google. That’s not a sustainable business model.
Jon Schultz posted a comment here on 16 December:
“I would like to see discussion of ideas like Joe Alagna’s “Ten Percent Rule for Domain Names in Advertising”: “If you allocate 10% of your advertising budget towards memorable and/or traffic-producing domain names, you will achieve 10 times the results for your advertising.” That’s from http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2016/dailyposts/20160915.htm ”
[comment posted on: http://www.thedomains.com/2016/12/16/what-do-you-want-in-2017/%5D
Even if the conclusion of this article had any validity; which it doesn’t, a fool would know that Google is inching closer and closer to monopoly once Yahoo files bankruptcy next year. What does this mean? Those Google AdSense prices are going to be 2x, 3x more expensive. Keyword dot-Com domains are the insurance, that search engines and social media cant offer. Dot-Coms are going up in value as the rest of the world joins the Internet…
As a company you can’t create a brand and get the right domain with it afterwards. Today, the domain owner actually owns the brand.
It’s common knowledge that descriptive domains are valuable for search ranking & CTR when you’re doing paid acquisition. Now let’s assume this would completely change as the author suggests, why would this change the value of memorable domains? Even when search becomes a less prominent channel for customer acquisition, that doesn’t mean that all companies will start wanting and using unsexy and irrelevant names as their brand.
The opposite is actually true. Memorable, short and descriptive domains will keep increasing in value as demand for them keeps increasing while they are relatively limited in supply.
What a stupid argument!
The author should consider what I said to Vint Cerf (about a decade ago) as he was making the rounds promoting google over “domain name guessing”. We were both attending a domain name conference and in his speech he heralded the superiority of search. I asked what he meant by “search”, because at the time my mother equated search with “pressing the blue e” (this was before google had launched chrome, android, etc.).
Now if the author had argued successful marketing is all about selling phones to illiterate suckers, that might have some merit (depending on the target audience you are trying to reach).
GTLD = Good To Lose Dollars
Any other questions?
Google has been trying very hard for people not to type in the exact domains for years. They get most of their money by forcing trademark owners to buy google ads for their own trademarks. They want ever click to go through them. Google is every domainers biggest enemy. I try to never use them for anything anymore. I use DuckDuckGo for search, and don’t use gmail or android. The only google owned site I go to is YouTube.
MISSING half the equation:
Search, apps, social media all provide choices. Snippets in these choices are anchored & distinguished BY the domain name. Google has acknowledged this (“domain bias”) and raised the position and salience (color) of the domain/URL within the SERP snippet.
Mobile: note that default search on iphone is BING, which favors the domain in their algo.
Domain will always be a key factor in CHOICES to click. It is the only factor that is truly unique.
Always is a very long time.
Estimated Sirs,
There is no women commenting. Do they know something? Or again have some clever elaborate plan?
Is generalizations and oversimplifying suddenly OK? This is not a political statement.
Personally I enjoy Raymond Hackney’s small well-written articles and links. Really. Compared to a lot within the domain investing industry his personal financial interests are not blatant. And provide me with information. Which brings me to:
1) Before taking an interest in domains, I always checked if a danish, swedish, british, argentinian company had a dot com. Even if I knew the companies were credible, well-capitalized and had a “brand”. I still do and find it unserious not to have one.
2) Guessing, gut feeling is part of this industry as in most investing. Facts today guides, I hope, my decisions and “gut feeling”, “opinions” about the future.
3) My annoyance with several social media for several well-known reasons, is strangely enough shared by many 15 to 25 year olds I’ve asked. “What’s new in X” , “Why is X interesting” etc.? Statistically invalid, interesting for me, though.
A humble opinion from a man (last time I looked).
Sincerely,
Rolf Sonne Rasmussen
Who needs a domain? I want to rely on Google, Bing and FB they have my best interests at heart. Then I want to build an app and 50% of the public does not download new apps so I will be right where I should be on Mobil! After all with 15 apps on the Mobil screen there is plenty of room for my new app! And when I build my website on FB then Zuckenberg can just wipe my website clean with FB screening method…just like Fb eliminated my uterus post…It was offensive thank god we all have Zuck to do our screening.
With no domain to worry about I can just post whatever I want to and let Google decide where I should be located, after all its their mission to organize the worlds information! Which includes me let Google decide if I should get any traffic, after all they are the search leader for a reason.
Email who uses email anymore? No I want to fight and get one of the 20 phone numbers to my future customers. They can use their browser and when they get a new contact I will just fall off their screen!
What fool would pay 1.5 million dollars for xxxvideos.com? After all anyone can use Google and get all the free videos they want right?
Do you still use business cards, do you use any other form of advertising (radio, tv, print), do you hope people come back after their first visit?
Then a memorable domain name matters.
Or if you just tell people to Google you, then you just lost a level of professionalism right there, not to mention highlighting your opposition front and centre.
>> “Frank Schilling relayed the following, “the extensions are ripe for new brands looking to secure short, memorable custom email addresses. An unwieldy domain that fares well in search rankings might still be burdensome to type out when addressing an email.”
That kind of suggestion is obsolete now.
Today, almost all you ever have to do is type an email address a single time. After that, AUTO-COMPLETE kicks in — whether you are using desktop email software like Outlook, online browser-based email access, etc. The email address will often even be stored, not merely the subject auto-completion memory.
not merely the subject of*
The article has no weight for one simple reason, social media owns you. It can change their rules (and have do so all the time) who sees your content, how they see it, or pretty much anything that they want to do. They own it. So, Atlantic did a bad article about nothing. It is like comparing apples and oranges, social media is good (and usually you have to do paid to get any real traction).
Domains having less value in the world of search engines is a fact, but the question is how much less. If it’s only 1% less, than nobody would care to entertain this discussion… but even in a search-driven world, there is value in having a good domain name:
– Better SEO
– Better customer return rates when they go directly to your site after finding it first thru search
– Better returns on broadcast advertisement
I don’t think anyone can make a good informed guess on how much less, so let’s have the market tell every actor in this value chain how much domains are worth.
Most of these gTLD propagandists ignore the fact that Facebook.com, Google.com, etc., are dot-Com domains before they are search engines! These social media companies wouldn’t part with their dot-Com domains for seven figures. Moreover, Facebook paid $200K (domainer undersold by a few million) for Facebook.com back in 2005 and went on to purchase FB.com for $8.5 million. These registrants can do whatever they want at anytime with their domains, and that includes censoring your goods and services, deleting your content, or cancelling your account at any time for any reason, period.
…gTLDs are fool’s gold hyped by Ponzi schemers…
Radio, TV, magazine, billboard ads have website addresses, not long facebook and twitter handles. For legitimate companies, their domain name remains the online doorway to the company. “Google me” will not replace the power of the company internet address.
…which also can be and often is the very brand name foundation of the business itself no less…
And people need to stop deluding themselves about the monolithic nature of email within the commercial and marketing ecosphere as it relates to all this. Email requires a domain. The concept of “at Somewhere.whatever” means something to people, and they generally can’t open an account anywhere or engage in commerce without that either.
(Which kind of brings me back to my post above here, btw: thedomains . com/2016/12/21/search-engines-killing-need-memorable-domain-names/#comment-217642)
So now that all of your competition are also on Google and Facebook, how do you stand out?
I absolutely agree. I’ve been hearing more or less the same statement over a decade: search engines will be far more important than the domain name. However, a good domain name is the key and the dream of every successful online project. It’s when your customers find you without the help of a search engine that you can say that you have a solid business on the Internet.