Moving to a new gTLD can have a significant benefit when it comes to search engine rankings, a study conducted on behalf of Search Engine Land has found.In their study Globe Runner, a Search Engine Optimisation firm, observed “Jacksonville.ATTORNEY, a domain registered by Eric Block, a personal injury attorney in Jacksonville, FL. Eric’s migration from EricBlockLaw.com in March of 2015 was a great opportunity to observe domain metrics before and after the switch. What Globe Runner discovered is that moving to a new TLD very likely contributed to Eric’s site appearing at the top of many search results.”The report went on to say “this result is big news for SEO, particularly in the highly competitive and expensive world of online marketing for the legal industry. For lawyers, the cost of promoting their web presence is rising rapidly, with 78 of Google’s 100 most expensive keywords related to legal services. Searches for lawyers can be highly segmented by specialty and geographic location, yet many firms still spend hundreds of dollars per click in paid SEM campaigns.”The report outlines an example of costs for various search terms, which totalled 540 searches per month totalling $91,279.87, yet these “PPC campaigns yielding middling returns.” So rather than spend money on PPC, they “switched to a new domain, listed the domain with legal referral services and relaunched the site with a new design and content strategy.”Following the change “within months, Jacksonville.ATTORNEY was sitting at or near the top of organic search results for some highly competitive keywords, ranking as high as the first overall match for terms like ‘Jacksonville attorney’ and ‘Jacksonville attorneys.’ This was a welcome change from EricBlockLaw.com, which often ranked several pages down, if they ranked at all.””Since the switch, Globe Runner estimated that the site generates the organic equivalent of $6,400 per month in 333 Google keyword phrases. Many of these searches don’t even include ‘Jacksonville’ as a term, as Google’s results can already account for the location of the user performing the search.”The report is available from the Globe Runner site for free from:
https://cdn5.globerunner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jacksonville-Attorney-FINAL.pdfThe Search Engine Land article is available from:
http://searchengineland.com/can-moving-new-tld-boost-search-rankings-250666
US Case Study Finds New gTLDs Can Benefit When It Comes To Search Rankings
Moving to a new gTLD can have a significant benefit when it comes to search engine rankings, a study conducted on behalf of Search Engine Land has found.