Top Level Domains create Branding for your Website
We’ve previously talked about owning Your own Domain Name as well what we told advertisers via the blog Top Level Domains Only Now all publishers applying to become part of the Gourmet Ads must have a Top Level Domain and here is why…
Top level domains are a vital tool when it comes to branding. They suggest an element of qualification and professionalism that you can’t get with lower level domain names. The top level domain ‘.com’ is the most popular domain name and one of the easiest to remember, which makes searching for your website easy for customers. A top level domain not only creates a great brand for your blog, but it also is fairly inexpensive in the grand scheme of things! At around $7 (depending on the name) the financial implications of having a top level domain are straight forward, still professional and relatively cheap when it comes to promoting your brand.
After ICANN ‘s 2011 launch of personalised domains costing above and beyond $185,000, what many people are curious about are the SEO advantages of top level domain names. Well, if you have a personalised domain which you have spent a small fortune on such as ‘.money’ you will be disappointed to see that it has very little effect on your SEO efforts.
Top level domains are important for SEO strategy
We’ve seen this time and time again with publishers – the biggest impact your domain name can have on SEO search results is if you buy more than one domain. However, generic top level domains aren’t put in place so that you can neglect your SEO strategy – this is still important!
The appeal of something like this is owning your own domain name rather than just a .com domain which many people would consider as generic over .blogspot.com or .wordpress.com etc. However, no matter how ‘generic’ this domain is, it is one of the top level domains. In terms of branding, this can have great advantages for your company due to being seen as a more trusted brand.
If you want to create professional branding for your blog, then top level domain names are the more trustworthy method of doing so. Advertising your brand online is all about a perceived professionalism, and using a .com domain can help you do so. It presents a feeling of trust for the consumer, more so than a .blogspot.com domain would. As such the Gourmet Ads network is now required to only accept publishers with top level domains to be associated brands.
