In a post on his blog, Bill Hartzer has written of how new gTLD domain names can rank well in search results.

Hartzer gives the example of searching for “designer trunks” using Google with designertrunks.shop ranking among the top search results. Domain Pulse also tried the same search using Bing. With Bing, designertrunks.shop was the top ranking domain name.

Hartzer has previously reported in March 2017 of an SEO Hero contest run by Wix where new generic top level domain names ranked highly. The top spots clearly went to seo-hero.tech and seohero.ninja.

Domain Pulse tried a few other combinations, not extensive research by any means, but couldn’t quickly find other new gTLD domain names that ranked highly using Bing or Google.

Hartzer had been asked whether or not by a reader whether they should use a new gTLD for a website they were working on. The choice was either .net or .shop.

“Since it’s an online store, I personally recommend a .SHOP domain name over a .NET domain name. The visitors, and people seeing the domain name in the search results, will know that it’s a shop. It’s an ecommerce website and not an ‘informational’ website.”

But it appears that with the right search engine optimisation and content, whether it be a .com, country code top level domain (ccTLD) or new gTLD, the choice isn’t so clear cut and will vary depending on the circumstances.

Hartzer notes ccTLDs “are going to rank well in their respective countries. There’s a better chance that a .FR domain name will rank well if someone is searching from France, for example.”

To read Hartzer’s blog post in full, see:
https://www.billhartzer.com/domain-names/new-gtld-ranking/