The choice of domain name is critical for business. The generic domain name is something that a lot of people strive for and the Citys.info internet franchise is no different. Depending on the market the decision to go with a generic or a branded domain is a tough call to make. In a lot of markets the generic domain name offers instant product or service recognition and will give confidence to the user as to what content they will find when they click on the link. This helps to improve click through rates on a multitude of on-line areas from organic SERPS, PPC listings and blog links amongst others.
The ranking benefits of having a generic domain cannot be underestimated either. Search engines rely on text links from external sources as a voting mechanism to credit sites as being authentic high value sources of information. When an author of content links from one website to another the text that is linked is known as the anchor text.
When read in context the links give the user a very clear guide as to the subsequent content they will find. Search engines use this text in helping them to better understand what information the linked too site is about. This helps improve rankings for the keyword phrases in the anchor text for the linked to website.
The decision to go with a generic or a branded domain is a tough call so testing the performance of both would be useful. The Citys.info internet franchise team conducted tests to see the performance differences in branded versus a generic domain through the Google Adwords platform. This allows an advertiser to bid on terms that users search for in the Google Search Engine. After submitting an initial bid, Google will then give a quality score (a list of variables that affect the cost per click aka CPC) for the keyword selected. The higher the click through rate on the advert the higher the quality score the lower cost to bid in the higher positions. So there is a direct cost implication in an advert not performing well in its click through rate.
The Citys.info platform is an affiliate of the Vue Cinema network and one of the revenue channels is selling cinema tickets. So the test also encompassed a feasibility study to see whether bidding on these terms was cost effective in achieving a target CPA.
Shows an advert displayed around the keywords “Vue Cinema Swansea” and Vue Cinema Cardiff”
Shows what the search results pages looked like at the time of the trial for the Swansea.info version of the test.
The adverts were run simultaneously over a 3 week campaign and the results were vastly different, the two domains Swansea.info and netcardiff.co.uk were run with the same advert creative and a maximum cost per click of £0.10. netcardiff.co.uk received a CTR rate of around 13% where as Swansea.info was consistently receiving a CTR of 56% which is an almost unheard of figure in any main stream PPC campaign.
Given the exact wording and exact same levels of competition that both adverts received the only conculsion that can be made from the test is that the domain name played a very important part in securing the click from the user resulting in a quality score of 10/10 on Swansea.info and 7/10 on netCardiff.co.uk.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I just published a study in which I looked at the effects of a generic, on-topic domain name on the results of an Adwords campaign.
With all other factors being equal (same headline, ad copy, bids, landing page etc.) the ad with the generic domain outperformed a “coined” non-generic domain name by a factor of 2. That’s a combination of a higher CTR and a higher impression count, courtesy of Google’s ad distribution algorithm.
The full analysis is available from http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppcanalysis.pdf
May 21st, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Lee, very interesting post. Could I ask which Tlds, or ccTlds, would you consider worthwhile for a UK geodomain? You obviously rate .infos, how do you feel about others?
May 21st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Hi Mal, if you’re targetting the UK then ideally stick with a .co.uk domain name, if that’s not an option .com should probably be your second choice, .net .info etc (make sure to configure the geo targetting option in webmaster central). I think we’re still a way off the majority of users fully trusting anything other than a .co.uk or .com but as for rankings providing you geotarget a .com or any other tld in webmaster central you shouldn’t have any disadvantage. As for cctld’s operating in the UK i’d stay away from that as there is no option to target them to any other country other than their own. I’ve invested in quite a few .info’s Swansea.info, Aberdeen.info, Tenby.info, Portsmouth.info, Plymouth.info and likewise a few .co.uk’s Mumbles.co.uk being the most successful but good city specific .co.uk’s are very difficult and expensive to come by…i think any domain needs at least 6 months to 1 year to mature with content.
May 21st, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Lee, thanks. Keep up the posting regarding Citys.info’s progression, it’s very interesting to those of us looking at developing geodomains.