In the past 24 hours, both Google’s John Mueller and Gary Illyes answered questions around top level domains and rankings. One was about a ranking boost and the other was on a ranking demotion. In short, Google generally does not demote a site because it uses a TLD and Google does not promote a site because it uses a TLD.
Eric asked Gary, is there a benefit for a lawyer to use a .lawyer TLD and Gary said no:
David asked John if Google may discount all .XYZ or .IR domain names because they are most spammy. John said generally not, they try to demote on a granular level:
Most of this is not new but I constantly have to remind folks of this. So here is some history:
Google: New TLDs Have No Magical SEO Bonus
Google: We Currently Treat New TLDs As gTLDs
Google’s John Mueller: Domain Name Search Engine Registration Is A Scam
Google: New TLDs Have No Inherent Search Ranking Advantage
Google: ccTLD & Wildcard Subdomain Strategies Won’t Give You An “Unnatural Advantage”
Google Temporarily Penalizes Blogspot & Info Domains
Google Wipes Out Any Site On CO.CC
