Luxury and new gTLDs: the report

We have identified new domain name extensions connected or related to luxury: there are international trademarks and generic terms. The strings concerned are:

1. .VIP
2. .GOLD
3. .CASINO
4. .DIAMONDS
5. .BEST
6. .LUXURY (s/p)
7. .RICH
8. .YACHTS
9. .WHOSWHO
10. .GUCCI ®
11. .CHANEL ®
12. .OMEGA ®
13. .HERMES ®
14. .LUXE (s/p)
15. .CARTIER ®
16. .RICHARDLI ®
17. .PIAGET ®
18. .ORIENTEXPRESS ®
19. .LIMO
20. .FERRARI ®
21. .MASERATI ®
22. .BUGATTI ®
23. .BENTLEY ®
24. .LAMBORGHINI ®

The .RICHARDLI new gTLD is an interesting domain name extension since it is the only TLD worldwide to be the first name and family name of a person.

Most of the trademarks represented by the "®" sign have one domain name registration only and the .LUXURY new gTLD is now also available in French.

The monthly report is available in English and in French. Would we have forgotten to add some strings, please tell us. This report will be updated on a monthly basis at the end of the month.

A complete guide to SEO and new gTLDs

I tend to download most guides dealing with new gTLDs that I find on Internet but I admit that I never read them all completely. The reason for this is that there is nothing new and the guides are often used as promotion tools. This one, from English backend registry Nominet, is 8 pages and I made the effort to read it until the end.

These are the topics covered:

• What TLDs are and why organisations are using them;
• Different types of TLD and how they can be used;
• Benefits of TLDs including: improved brand recognition, better online security and more;
• How Google and other search engines treat new gTLDs;
• Explanation of ‘DotBrand’ – a particularly powerful type of gTLD for global organisations;
• How organisations are embracing new TLDs for greater SEO benefit.

And this is what you will find inside:

1. Introduction
2. A beginner's guide to Top Level Domains
3. The introduction of new gTLDs
4. What is a .BRAND ?
5. How do search engine treat new gTLDs
6. Interesting: SEO tips effectively utilizing a .BRAND

The last point on SEO tips utilizing .BRAND domain name extensions is one that I found interesting: it is short but it is a must read for applicants with the intention to use their extension. Such section should be read before creating the first ".brand" domain name.

Missing

It is always interesting to read what one provider can add to such guides but I found that the new URL redirection strategy used by some .BRANDs was not covered.

A dotBrand Top-Level Domain is a powerful tool for branding mixed with SEO, not SEO only: a trademark will be able to do SEO without its own extension using other domain names that will probably cost a lot less money.

Download the guide

The guide can be downloaded on the Nominet website. Nominet is a backend registry service provider for 37 new gTLDs. It offers service to extensions such as the .VIP registry with more than 800,000 domain names registered, .BLOG - .LONDON - .BEER and .BENTLEY

Solutions for failing niche new gTLDs

A niche TLD is a domain name extension created specifically for a certain market or subject. Let's imagine that you were a leader in a specific financial subject and that you decided to operate the domain name extension representing this subject: THIS WOULD JUST BE A VERY BRIGHT IDEA because once the slot is taken, no one else can take it. A new gTLD is unique and there can be one registry worldwide.

"Yep: but no one buys our domains"

What if, after a certain number of years, you realized that your domain names just "did not sell" and no one bought them in the industry in which you are a leader? This is a problem that some registries are facing but in the case of niche TLDs, not generic ones, there are solutions to change this.

It does not sell? Change the method!

Some Multiple Registries, who operate five and more domain name extensions, have targeted niche terms because they are leaders in their industry. Again, this is a very good idea to demonstrate leadership in a business but if no one buy domains, the approach and method should be changed.

"Yeah right: then what?"

In some case, it cost a lot to maintain a registry and I noticed that some multiple registries just "dropped it" and their domain name registration volumes are...decreasing. I also noticed that some multiple niche registries have all the tools to develop their domain names again. So, here are suggestions on what to do:

1. Lower the price: change the price at the backend registry. If you already "don't sell", one of the reasons (not the only one) is probably because the price is too high at the registrar and if you don't lower that price at the source (your backend registry), it won't lower at the registrar.
2. If you are stuck with a bad contract (at the backend), hire a specialized lawyer to find a way out of this because if you can't find a deal with your backend registry (which I doubt), your registration volumes won't increase and you will have to change your backend just because of this. You need volumes of domain names installed and if you don't have that: no one knows that you exist. When you meet with your lawyer, ask him if selling your TLDs to another legal entity, or changing hands (to a subsidiary of yours or a complete different company) wouldn't be a solution to get rid of your contract to another backend registry solution provider.
3. Announce the change of price when it is validated with your backend registry: registrars should follow you on this and announce it to their clients.
4. Some have the tools: did you check your own tools? Some industry leaders are online and offline marketing specialists but neither use their own TLDs for their websites nor use their own tools to promote their extensions! Use your own tools: it is your teams' daily job to promote things on internet to your niche industry! If I had SEO specialists, and/or web designers within my company, I would put them in the same room for a brainstorming with that question: "it cost me "X" per website and domain created": "what can you suggest to help me sell the services of my company using our own domain names?". Give domain names and content to a SEO specialist, he should know what to do with it.
5. Acquisition costs: "$1000 for a client introduced" is something that I read at a new gTLD niche TLD. When killing the cost of a domain name at the backend registry, such an amount of money allows to put a lot of domain names on the market with a basic introduction to a service. Some will call this spam (unless each content is different), some will see back-links, some will want redirections. But is also means:
1. Visibility: a lot more websites and domain names on the market;
2. A lot more chances to acquire consumers for a service;
3. A reduced cost for the niche registry to use his own domains since part of the price paid to the registrar gets back in his pockets.
6. Innovation: we've seen that some registries domain name registration volumes stagnate and a reason for this is "not" that registrars don't do their job, registrars have too many strings to offer and potential consumers (registrants) don't buy anymore the way they did when we launched the .EU registry back in 2005. The solution is in innovation and some registries are quite creative at the moment. As a leader in your niche industry, who better than you, knows how to innovate? As the operator of the string representing your niche, you stay one step ahead so why not innovate using your string?

The .LUXE new gTLD is here

We are already familiar with the .LUXURY new gTLD and its 880 domain name registrations. Well, his French friend has just arrived: the .LUXE new gTLD. Two languages are now covered: French and English.

In a statement, MMX, the multiple registry in charge of launching this Top-Level Domain wrote: "The ICANN-approved .luxe extension is set to shortly enter its pre-launch phases ahead of going on sale to the public from 30 October 2018."

Silimar TLDs:

Just for the note, this domain name extension is listed in my highly consulted list of similar domain name extensions.

The innovation:
"LUXE" seem to stand for "Lets U Xchange Easily" and the registry website says that the TLD is "The first open, Top-Level Domain created to combine Ethereum blockchain innovation and security with ease-of-use for today’s world – the .luxe standard that “lets you exchange easily” smart contracts, crypto and other blockchained products."

Dates:
Extracted from the ICANN web sites, I found other important dates:

• Sunrise Period: 09 August 2018 to 08 October 2018;
• Trademark Claims Period: 30 October 2018 to 28 January 2019;
• Limited Registration Period (LRP): 9 Oct 2018 to 25 Oct 2018.

This Sunrise Period should soon be officially announced on the Trademark Clearinghouse calendar.

The .LAMBORGHINI new gTLD and SEO

While updating the CARs new gTLD report, I noticed that the .LAMBORGHINI new gTLD, a dotBrand domain name extension, added a lot more new domain names ending in ".lamborghini". It went from 33 in June to 172 in July: that is a lot for a .BRAND new gTLD.

A new SEO trick
Many trademarks applied for their own domain name extension "to be the first" or just to protect their assets. Some applied to use them and increase the number of websites ending with their personalized domain names.

".lamborghini" domains are indexed in Google
The Lamborghini trademark seems to have a different use of its own domain names. If I was skeptical  about it in the beginning, I now tend to think that using domain names as redirections is better than nothing.

To have the results above to appear in Google, I entered "site:.lamborghini" (without quotations). This is a way to check which domain names are indexed. In the case above, the results show:

1. Domain names indexed in google and ending in the name of the Lamborghini trademark;
2. 172 of them.

If that helps generating more backlinks to the official website, that's better than nothing. I suspect that this is the first approach to generate traffic...before the trademark kills the ".com" definitely at some point to redirect it to a .LAMBORGHINI front page.