Search Engine Optimization News Blog

Look for a swing towards personalized domain names - coming in 2009 to a website near you! The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has decided to relax the strict regulations concerning domain names, and make it possible to register our own.

What this means for SEO is as yet unclear, but the implications are staggering! Imagine no longer being limited to .com, .net, and .org. Up until now, there have been few others that are commonly used - although you see the odd .biz or .info popping up more frequently now.

Of course, .gov and .edu are highly coveted for linking purposes, and .mil is almost as good (military). There are a few dozen others, including .museum, .aero, .mobi, .jobs and .travel.

The new proposal would make it possible to register almost anything as a domain name, making your url end in .billdawson if you so desire. This is all well and good (although good luck optimizing ‘billdawson’ for search…) but what will this mean for the average webmaster?

Not that much, really. The .com is the .com, and people’s habits die hard. The primary search habits will continue to center around the .com domain, and the main people flocking to register their own domain name are going to be major brands.

It costs a bundle just to get a TLD set up right now, and even if that dropped considerably there comes a time when one wonders if it is worth the trouble. And what about the search engines? Google already dropped .info names from their index, and who knows if the engine will decide that the new TLDs are too spammy for their taste.

A ‘gold rush’ may ensue nonetheless, as cities, countries, corporations and individuals compete for the popular domains. Cities are expected to campain for .paris, .nyc (New York) and .London. Countries have already been lobbying for two letter language designations (Bulgaria’s .bu, for example) and private corporations are expected to take the plunge (think .disney). Individuals may find the price tag prohibitive, although .oprah and .gates wouldn’t surprise me at all. Of course, lobbying for .xxx has been ongoing for years.

It is something to take into consideration as domains become more open, but the real life consequences to SEO probably won’t be seen until a year after the domain registry goes wild.

I wonder if .seo is taken?