Google’s John Mueller felt the need to reiterate the fact that new top-level domains (TLDs) still do not provide any ranking benefit in search results.
Matt Cutts initially stated this fact back in 2012 in response to an article which claimed new TLDs did provide a rankings advantage. Perhaps Mueller felt the need to share this information again as even more new TLDs enter the domain registration market.
In case you weren’t aware, you can now register domains with extensions such as .guru, .rocks, .expert, .website, and a plethora of others.
These days there’s a lot more to choose from beyond the traditional .com, or .net, but none of them will give you any advantage in the search engines. From what I gather after reading Mueller’s statements, there’s no disadvantage to using these either. “They can perform well in search, just like any other TLD can perform well in search,” says Mueller.
The best use of these new TLDs is to enhance your branding by allowing you to pick a name that’s more in line with your web presence. There’s a good chance that the .com version of a domain name you’d like to register is already taken, but the .rocks version may be available, for example.
Meuller emphasizes that you should not be swayed by any posts claiming to have data which suggests new TLDs are doing well in search results. If that’s the case, it’s not due to any artificial boost or preference from Google. “You can make a fantastic website that performs well in search on any TLD.”
