In the SEO industry it seems that Google is permanently in the driving seat when it comes to customising the web. However, it seems that ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is set to make some big changes in the way that businesses and consumers use the web, which as always, will have an impact on the future of SEO.
ICANN controls web domain suffixes, for example .gov, .edu and .com which have all previously been restricted to cater to certain organisational types. However, ICANN have announced that they will now allow custom TLD’s (Top Level Domains) which means that any word/ letter/ number combination can be used at the end of a URL.
At the moment the changes will mostly affect large corporations due to the hefty price tag of such TLDs ($185,000 sign up fee with a $25,000 maintenance fee) so right now this news probably won’t affect the dental industry, nevertheless what starts at the top will inevitably trickle down to smaller scale businesses once the price is more affordable.
So what are the implications for these changes? Despite the current preference in search engine results being towards natural links and older domains; it is whispered that Google may show preferences towards these new TLDs as those that can afford to purchase them are clearly concerned with their brand reputation and therefore are likely to produce more relevant results when searched for, a clear goal for Google. However, more recognised TLD’s such as .com and .gov are more likely to be trusted by the general public so click through rates may be higher for more traditional TLDs.
For those who work within the SEO industry, SEO work on increasing rankings and online footprint may become irrelevant, as customers may not return to the website if customers cannot remember the custom TLD. For the worst case scenario, when creating new domains for each page it is important that each page is redirected carefully in order to avoid being penalised by Google for duplicate content and therefore wasting the large fee for purchasing the TLD in the first place.
Right now it seems a mystery to what the real effects custom TLDs will have on the SEO industry as a whole and more locally for individual practices, all we can do is watch this space!
More information can be found about this subject from Promotion World