Should Car Dealerships Use a Geo .CARS Domain Name?

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.

• A Wichita based car dealership built a new web site on Wichita.CARS.
• A Phoenix based car dealership built a new web site on Phoenix.CARS.
• A Mesa based car dealership moved their existing web site from ArizonaUsedCars.com to Arizona.CARS.

We analyzed each of the web sites, looking at their web site traffic and search engine rankings in depth. We were given access to each web site’s Google Analytics data. We also used the search engine ranking and traffic analysis tools at SEMRush.com to gather data, and make conclusions.

The Go.CARS home page, where you can find more information about .CARS, .CAR, and .AUTO domain names.

Geo .CARS Domain Names

When we refer to the word “Geo” in the domain name industry, a Geo domain name would be one that includes a city name. For example, an example of Geo keywords would be “Dallas Cars”, “Chicago Cars”, “Atlanta Used Cars”, and “Miami New Cars”. Each of those are Geo keywords, and a Geo domain name would be something like DallasCars.com, Miami.Car, or NewYork.CARS.

Since the .CARS domain names have been available for registration for over two years, we felt that it’s important to gauge how these domain names are being accepted, how they are performing online, and how these domain names are being used. Are they being accepted and recognized by consumers? And, from an business perspective, is purchasing and using a .CARS domain name worth the investment?

ArizonaUsedCars.com Moved to Arizona.CARS

What happened when one car dealership moved to a new .CARS domain name? Take a look at the Google Analytics data below:

What happened when ArizonaUsedCars.com moved their web site to Arizona.CARS? Referrals from Google Organic Search went up 74 percent. Get more details by downloading the case study.

Arizona.CARS Results – Moving to a .CARS Domain Name

As we mentioned earlier, Mesa Arizona car dealership moved their web site from ArizonaUsedCars.com to Arizona.CARS. The car dealership moved from ArizonaUsedCars.com to Arizona.CARS at the end of May 2016. Only the web site was moved to a new domain name, and no other changes to the web site were made. As a result of the move to the new .CARS domain name, the web site got more Google organic search traffic during 2016 than the previous period that we analyzed:

• The dealership, on ArizonaUsedCars.com, received 15,094 visitors from Google organic search in a 7 month period before they moved. That’s a value of about $55,244.
• The dealership, on Arizona.CARS, received 26,190 visitors from Google organic search in a 7 month period after they moved. That’s a value of about $95,855.
• Just by moving from ArizonaUsedCars.com to Arizona.CARS, the dealership saw a traffic value increase of $40,611 ($69,618 of value annualized).

Search engine rankings overall, since SEMrush.com has been tracking them, continues to go up and has not been affected by any Google search algorithm updates or other influences that would have decreased the number of positions the web site is ranking for—which is impressive.

Download the Geo .CARS Domain Name Case Study

In the full case study, you’ll see more details, in depth, about when the Wichita.CARS web site launched, when the ArizonaUsedCars.com web site was moved from the .COM to the .CARS domain name, and more details about Phoenix.CARS. We show you the Google Analytics data, SEMrush.com search engine ranking data, and more.

To download our full 34 page case study, you can read more over at Hartzer.com: GEO.CARS Case Study.