As a search engine optimization (SEO) and domain name consultant, one of the questions I get asked most often about domain names is whether or not the domain name or TLD (Top Level Domain) matters. Will the domain name ending have an effect on SEO or search engine rankings. Are certain domain name endings preferred by the search engines over other domain name extensions? I decided to answer this question based on search engine optimization testing and not just based on my personal and professional experience. [Read more…]

A social media influencer has been sentenced to 14 years in United States Federal prison for the attempted hijacking of a GoDaddy domain name. According to a United States DOJ press release, “Rossi Lorathio Adams II, age 27, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also known as “Polo,” received the prison term after an April 18, 2019, jury verdict finding him guilty of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by force, threats, and violence.” [Read more…]

Network Solutions, a Web.com company, along with Register.com, has suffered a data breach (they got hacked) in late August 2019. They did not discover this data breach until October 16, 2019. They’re just notifying customers on November 1, 2019 about the data breach. Shouldn’t they have contacted their customers to change their passwords shortly after they discovered it on October 16, 2019? [Read more…]

When someone (or a company, organization) doesn’t renew a domain name, the domain name goes through a drop process. First the domain name usually enters a period of time when the current owner can renew the domain name. It’s essentially put on hold. It then enters a period (a certain number of days) when it’s marked as pending delete, and then, at one particular date and time, it is released to anyone who wants to register that domain name. The domain expiration process goes something like this: [Read more…]

Despite the fact that I transferred a domain name from Network Solutions to another registrar (GoDaddy), Network Solutions still wants me to renew the domain name and has it in my account. I literally transferred the domain name and moved it because technically it’s not my domain name (I bought it for a client). The client only used GoDaddy as their domain name registrar, so I had to move it away from Network Solutions. However, days later, the domain name is still in my Network Solutions Account. At this point, I am assuming that if I don’t do anything, Network Solutions will charge me for a domain name I don’t own, and a domain name that isn’t even at their registrar anymore. [Read more…]

KPMG has moved to their own .BRAND TLD (Top Level Domain), the first of the big accounting firms to make the move. Previously they were using the domain name KPMG.com as their home page, and now if you go to KMPG.com in your web browser it will redirect you to their new domain, home.kpmg, which then redirects you to https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home.html. This move is yet another sign that the big worldwide brands are beginning to move on over to their own .BRAND TLD, ditching their .COM domain name. [Read more…]

Every year at the NamesCon domain name conference, ROTD (Right of the Dot) holds a live domain name auction. This year they’ve picked 641 premium domain names to run in the auction–only the best from that list will be auctioned off live at the event this year in Las Vegas. The domain names are currently up for auction at Namejet, who is listing the domains. You can bid on them right now, right here. Some have a reserve price, but others don’t. At a minimum bid of $300, there are definitely some good buys to be had. [Read more…]

The domain name Files.com recently sold for US $750,000 according to Domain Name Wire. Action Verb, LLC bought the domain name Files.com and, according to the landing page on the site, they plan on launching “powerful file management for businesses of every size”. Certainly $750,000 is a lot of money to spend, and it is a great domain name. But did Action Verb, LLC, do any due diligence on the domain name before they bought it? [Read more…]

Does Domain Name Registration Length Affect Search Engine Rankings?

This has been discussed time and time again, but since Epik is now offering Forever Registrations of domain names, I thought that I would ask Google’s John Mueller if domain registration length is a search engine ranking factor. Or, whether or not Google prefers domain names that have been registered for a longer period of time. I asked John on Twitter, and here’s what he said: [Read more…]

Zoho Corporation, also known as Zoho CRM, had their entire domain name taken down by their registrar Tierranet (aka DomainDiscover). According to a Tweet by Zoho CRM’s CEO Sridhar Vembu, they were trying to understand why the domain was taken down entirely. [Read more…]

When you buy an expired domain name, owning that domain name does not give you the legal right to any other accounts that are associated with that domain name. For example, if you buy a domain name that has an email address that was set up by the former owner, I don’t think that you don’t have rights to accounts that were set up by that former owner. [Read more…]

Hartzer Consulting has chosen to exclusively broker a large domain name portfolio of 500 domain names. About 400 of the domain names are in the Home Inspection niche, with the majority of them including a city name along with keywords such as home inspection, home inspections, home inspector, or home inspectors. Some of the domain names include BeverlyHillsHomeInspector.com, LAHomeInspectors (LA for Los Angeles or LA for Louisiana), LouisvilleHomeInspection.com, and MiamiHomeInspection.com. [Read more…]

I continue to hear it over and over again: people saying that they should always use a .COM domain name for your website. I questioned someone just the other day about their statement. The answer they had was “have you ever seen a non .COM website rank in the search engine results?” [Read more…]

Yes, I know the title of this post sounds harsh: should you use a dash or a hyphen in a domain name? But to be honest with you, that is my conclusion now that I have seen this. It’s solid proof that the right keyword rich domain name will out-rank a hyphenated domain name in the search results every time. Don’t use a Hyphen in Domain Name, here’s proof of that. [Read more…]

Hartzer Consulting, in a sponsored case study that was just released, analyzed three different car dealership web sites that are on a geo-related (city or State) .CARS domain name. Of the three web sites we analyzed, two of the car dealerships built brand new web sites on a .CARS domain name. One car dealership moved their existing web site from a .COM domain name to a .CARS domain name, ArizonaUsedCars.com moved to Arizona.CARS. [Read more…]

One of the longstanding debates amongst those who are fans of .COM domain names and those who accept the New gTLD domain names is whether or not the public confuses a New gTLD domain name ending with a .COM domain name. So, if you have a domain name like whatever.widgets, those who are fans of .COM domain names say that whatever.widgets will lose traffic to someone mistyping it. The argument is that they’ll type in whatever.widgets.com or whateverwidgets.com (and not type in whatever.widgets). [Read more…]

For the second time in a row, one of my domain names has been denied an SSL certificate because of it’s domain name. But, this second time, the website went down without warning, despite being on CloudFlare. [Read more…]

GoDaddy has signed an agreement for the sale of its PlusServer business to funds advised by BC Partners for $456 million (€397 million). As part of the transaction, PlusServer will assume liabilities of €23 million and retain existing cash on the balance sheet of €12 million. The deal is expected to close by the end of August pending regulatory approval. [Read more…]

The New gTLD domain names have been available for a few years now. As you may know by know, I have done new gTLD research in the past because I’m generally interested in the New gTLDs from a marketing perspective. I’m not as interested in them from a domain investor perspective. Thanks to NTLD Stats, we can see how many domain names have been registered for each New TLD. That’s helpful, from many standpoints. We know which TLDs are selling. [Read more…]

Domain registries Donuts and Rightside are combining, with Donuts, Inc. acquiring Rightside Group for a purchase price of $213m. Rightside will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Donuts, which is a privately-held company. Rightside’s common shares will no longer be listed on any public market. [Read more…]