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

[Alexander Lau]

I bet another study done now on http://stl.cars/ could "prove" an even higher session count, just by the traffic increase of using it as an example on DR

Alexander, jo changes like that were made. I was referring to the fact that moving to a new domain will change the anchor text of links (naturally).

This site in THIS study did not change anything but the domain name. Period.

I'm not impressed by the numbers in the first place, let alone the reasoning behing the jump. @Jeff Kershner had alluded to this in a post earlier, which includes:

"7.51% increase in new sessions?

Looking at the chart...

1. The dealer website gets very little traffic, just over 100 sessions a day on average.
2. The Orange line represents sessions prior to the domain change. I see the Orange line having a higher amount of sessions on average within the reported time frame, with the Blue line taking a huge dip right after the domain change. It's not until Jan 2016 that the sessions start to normalize (with an abnormal spike in sessions towards the later portion of Jan.)

"The referral traffic went up 33.67 percent, and the traffic from Social Media websites went up 20.09 percent."

With traffic this low, an increase of 2-3 sessions more a day in referral traffic or traffic from Social Media could account for a 33% increase."

 

[Alexander Lau]

IMO, This DR forum post help's set the tone of the unique TLD analysis...

• Admit it, we all are flying blind...
  • We have no Internet shopping cart to score our ideas.
• This causes all kinds of wild ass guesses about what works and what doesn't.
  • ...we don't know what a win looks like
• So, what tool do we use to know what a car shopper wants (i.e. "the gut call")?
  • Empathy*.

*Empathy is the ability to experience the feelings of another person. Working in a store does not automatically give you car shopper empathy, you need to see the world thru their shoes.

Hence the need for usability testing and user-centered design, which dealers (for the most part) never take into consideration (nor should they be forced to, IMO). However, they should be asking these types of questions of their platform provider vendor(s) (on all levels of services, not just website page interfaces). Additionally, what might work or convert in one demographic, might not for another. IOW, there is no shiny button or system to install. It's testing, testing, testing and more testing. If something starts to fail, more testing.

Usability testing is the best way to understand how real users experience your website or application. Unlike interviews or focus groups that attempt to get users to accurately self-report their own behavior or preferences, a well-designed user test measures actual performance on mission-critical tasks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing
Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. Usability testing focuses on measuring a human-made product's capacity to meet its intended purpose.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Retargeting ads, they're following me on Twitter and I see this mumbo jumbo. I really can't believe they're using a story like this to promote their product (to be honest with you).

http://www.drivingsales.com/sammy-q...ains-edgy-like-sushi-but-better-for-marketing

Automotive Domains: Edgy like Sushi, but Better for Marketing
We’re very excited about the possibilities these new domains offer our dealership – and believe they will also have a great impact on our SEO. I have already migrated my website to www.brilliance.auto, which ranks #1 on Google for terms like “brilliance auto,” “brilliantly certified,” and “brilliance NJ.” I will come back and report on our progress once my new websites have launched.

Until then, it would be great to hear if any others of you have acquired a taste for this brand of sushi!

---------------------------

Car buyers in his demographic searching for the word "Brilliance Auto" and "Brilliantly Certified" and "Brilliance NJ" might find his location, but the search traffic volume on those keywords is extremely low and searchers should have already been able to find their group for those keywords (previously) because of on-site content (nothing to do with domain name changes).

This is not helping any dealer's SEO. I would have left this alone, but they are chasing me with ads.

 

[Mark Kellogg]

I'll stick to .com
Those extensions are viewed for rebranding purposes.

 

[Steve Stauning]

Anyone selling these or the .autos extensions Dominion is selling as anything other than "cool branding" is bending the truth. There is no SEO benefit of these, period. Run quickly from anyone claiming otherwise - they are a shill.

 

[Alexander Lau]

I added a ton of my responses here to this weak post @ http://www.drivingsales.com/mike-ambrose/blog/new-domain-names-help-dealerships-search-rankings. This is a BS sales pitch, if I ever saw one.

BTW, I linked our discussion to that page.

 

[GGooley]

I have to reiterate something here: If you are searching for a Bass Guitar, and you go to www.bass.com is it a guitar? Bass Beer? Fish Information? If you go to www.bass.guitar YOU KNOW, what you are shopping for.

Nobody is getting the wool pulled over their eyes, Browsers are supporting these domains in all areas. ( .Yoga .Property. Rental. .Shoes) Tons of articles from the big boys (GOOGLE) supporting this fact. So should dealers run? No, they should make a conscious business decision when the time is right for them. It's ok, some people have a harder time with change than others. No point in getting into a pissing match.

Price? Yes the .AUTO and .CAR .CARS domains ARE NOT $12 a year for a reason. Squatters buy up all the domains at that price and viable businesses are left with terrible domain names. Sell .AUTO at a premium and that will allow a strong business that sells BadCredit products to own a deserved domain (www.badcredit.auto) TRY BUYING www.badcreditauto.com won't happen.... or it will cost you 20K not 3K which these new domains are approx selling for.

SEO - IT'S EARLY. People need to let the cards fall, time will tell. Nobody can predict Googles algorithms, so how is this comment relevant?

Anyone selling these or the .autos extensions Dominion is selling as anything other than "cool branding" is bending the truth. There is no SEO benefit of these, period. Run quickly from anyone claiming otherwise - they are a shill.

Remember what people used to say about owning a website??? I'm having flashbacks.

 

[craigh]

For now, Matt Cutts made it pretty clear that they're not going to give you better SEO rank just because you paid money for a good domain name. SEO is based on the content of the website, the relationships the website has, the performance history of the website, etc.

There are plenty of ways to systematically track this, but we'll never get an absolute result on the subject.
For example, when I google "Car Dealership" the #1 result has a domain name 100% unrelated to automotive.
SEO will always have so many factors to it that the significance of the domain will be minor.
If you're focusing on your domain for SEO reasons, you better have the other 99 SEO items checked off on your list because they certainly hold more weight.

 

[Steve Stauning]

Remember what people used to say about owning a website??? I'm having flashbacks.

Not sure why you felt my point was worthy of this retort, but let me restate my point more plainly: There is no additional SEO value in these new extensions. None. Nada. Period. End of story. (Whether or not they are good marketing is in the eye of the beholder. I shared no opinion about that.)

 

[GGooley]

@craigh agreed. Many factors have much more weight at this time. Valuable, relevant, written content trumps all, and always will IMO. We cannot predict how weighted the new domains will have.

@Stauning again, to state "There is no additional SEO value in these new extensions. None. Nada. Period. End of story." I would have to ask if you were sitting in the last Google or Bing algorithm update meeting?

More data will be compiled over time and SEO will be a factor or not with these domains. At this time, it's a business decision up to a Dealer that needs to weigh their options (branding, memorable URL, will they have SEO weight as we progress in organizing a cluttered .com web?)

On a billboard or youtube pre roll video will you remember www.abcmotorscity.com or ABC.AUTO? You be the judge... It's not only about SEO.

Do you want prime real estate in the case that these Domains are weighted heavy? We know LA.AUTO is a memorable, strong branding decision. If SEO becomes an obvious smart business solution (Over time, with strong backing data) with a .Auto or .Car .Cars domain then BONUS, you own the real estate! Not to mention the other great factors.

Nobody is force feeding these domains, it will become a part of the internet. Up to you if you want to take part.