The world of top level domains is changing. New domains are starting to appear and be used: www.meantime.london, www.50inda.club, www.annualreport.axa. The approaches to raising interest in the new top level domains varies, here’s a few of the basics:
- Be first. Now, I know the first domains have gone live (.bike, .clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, .singles, .ventures), but that doesn’t mean all firsts are shut out. Some have targeted being first in their category: first dotBrand- AXA; some have focused on being first with a new approach to serving customers. How else could you be first?
- Be innovative. There’s lots of talk about innovation in the new domains space and as yet we’ve seen little, however, you can be sure that some of the brands will have some neat models for servicing their customers and I’d bet that certain businesses wouldn’t have ploughed as much money in as they have without a clear plan that is not just innovative, but potentially highly disruptive.
- Think big. Big can help get lots of attention: a big celebrity with a big following on board like dotClub with 50 Cent; or get big reach with the biggest registrars. There are many ways to do big.
- Think small. Focus on the people who’ll be the biggest users of your domain (small business anyone?) and make it relevant to them.
- Engage. Engage at all levels: with registrars, with potential users, with influencers and players in the market.
- Search. “What will switching to a new domain do to my search ranking?” – a question asked by anyone whose website already ranks well. We know that Google provides advice on what to do, as do many registrars. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of nervousness on display at the moment – ever wondered why we’re seeing so many microsites at the new domain addresses and not sites switching from well established names? It’ll be very important to find ways of convincing businesses that switching can be done simply.
- Microsite. So, we’re seeing microsites, just look at dotLondon: standard.london and techhub.london both take you to microsites. Helping your community to understand what they can do with microsites and how they can do it is important. That way, they make sure they’re engaging, serve a purpose and are something they’ll have the bandwidth and desire to maintain.
There’s plenty of other approaches coming through as each new domain attempts to grab its own share of the market at launch and the incumbent registries behind .com and .co.uk are responding with their own thing too.