Webnames.ca StaffThe talk around the office is that EVERYONE should be using generic domain names. What are they you ask? Generic domains are keyword based rather than brand based. Coke.com, Google.ca, Dell.com, CanadianTire.com – these are all brand domains. Examples of generic domains would include halifaxpizza.ca, kelownadenturist.ca, petbeds.com and mobilephones.net.
We keep saying that Google likes generic domain names. The theory is if you type in Barrie tailor as a Google search, a generic domain name like barrietailors.net or tailorbarrie.info will rank in the first page or two of Google.
I decided to put this theory to the test. Last week, using Google.ca, I did searches on the following: Halifax plumber, Montreal plumber, Toronto plumber, Winnipeg plumber, Regina plumber, Calgary plumber and Vancouver plumber.
Of course for a website to rank well it needs to be built properly – targeted and relevant content, perhaps a blog, links in and out, that kind of thing. Websites that are domain parking pages will not do very well.
The results were interesting. I was also testing the theory that you did not have to be a generic .com to rank and it turns out that you do not! .Ca, .org, ,info, etc., can do the job.
In Halifax Plumberhalifax.ca was #3. In Toronto Torontoplumbling.org was 12th. Winnipeg and Montreal did not have generic’s show up – mostly Yellow Pages, CanPages, Kijiji and Yelp listings.
Regina had Reginaplumbers.info at #5 and Vancouver had Vancouversbestplumber.com at #7.
Calgary was the most exciting. Bestcalgaryplumber.com was #1. It’s a built out blog site that you can advertise on. Plumber-calgary.ca was #2 and is also a built out blog site that you can advertise on. Calgaryplumbers.com was #3 and is a plumbing directory site.
The piece de resistance was Calgary-plumbing.com at #4. It is a sister site to ThePunctualPlumber.ca which ranked 6th. Both websites have different content but are about the same company. So the generic domain ranked better than the brand domain!
I would have said a dash was bad for a domain name but clearly good content wins every time.
If you are going to purchase a generic domain name, you have to remember the golden rule – it has to have completely different content from your branded site – mirrored content will get you banned by Google …… and nobody wants that.