Keyword Domains Again Prominent Part Of Good SEO: AusRegistry Report
Following changes to Google’s search algorithms reducing the importance of domain names in search engine optimisation (SEO) ranking, recent data indicates that exact match and keyword domains have once again become a prominent part of good SEO practice.
This, according to a report released this week by the .au registry AusRegistry, caused many to re-evaluate their domain name portfolios and SEO strategies.
The report, Behind the Dot: State of the .au Domain, is the second in a quarterly series from AusRegistry, providing detailed analysis and commentary on the .au namespace and issues affecting the domain industry.
On local news, the .au ccTLD is now approaching three million domains, with growth rates in 2014 stabilising. The report found that during 2014, four quarters of consecutive six percent growth were achieved, indicating that the .au growth rate has stabilised and that this is a mature namespace consistent with other ccTLDs such as .uk, .de, .ca and .nz.
Australians seem to like their ccTLD. With eligibility restrictions that mean an Australian presence is required, it has the second highest number of domains registered per 1,000 people in the ten Asia Pacific countries .au was compared to in the report, slightly behind .nz which has no eligibility restrictions.
In addition, .au is consistently placing in the top 10 of all 283 country codes, with over 2.9 million domains registered as of 31 December, 2014. According to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign for the quarter ending 30 September 2014, .au ranked ninth in total registrations behind .tk (Tokelau), .de (Germany), .cn (China), .uk (United Kingdom), .ru (Russian Federation), .nl (Netherlands), .eu (European Union) and .br (Brazil) and is ahead of .fr (France).
There is also a report on a survey of business use of .au. The 2014 .au Survey reported that 76 percent of the survey respondents who hold domain names hold .au domains.
Among survey respondents, most domains are obtained for business use (over 60%) and over 20 percent of domain name holders owned a domain names portfolio.
The .au ccTLD has also entered a more secure phase. From 1 February 2015, DNSSEC became operational in .au – allowing end users to make use of DNSSEC and sign their domains.
The full report as well as the business survey report can be downloaded from:
www.ausregistry.com.au/research-au
Vodafone Sells 360.com Domain Name to 360.cn
The domain name 360.com was recently sold to the company that owns 360.cn. The seller was Vodafone Group.
The newly acquired domain name will give the company that operates 360.cn to go global. 360.cn is one of the most visited websites in China.
According to whois records, the domain name was first created in March ,2000.
The selling price has not been disclosed yet.
Congratulations to both the seller and the buyer.
Afnic and .SE Releases New DNS Checking Tool – Zonemaster
Afnic, the company behind .fr extension, and .SE, had recently released Zonemaster, a new DNS checking tool.
You can read the announcement after the jump :
“Afnic and .SE release Zonemaster, the new DNS checking tool, product of their partnership on improving the security and resilience of the Internet infrastructure.
After a successful one-year partnership between Afnic and .SE, Zonemaster, the new DNS (Domain Name System) checking tool, is released today.
As a successor to the well-known ZoneCheck and DNSCheck tools (respectively by Afnic and .SE), Zonemaster aims to become a world-class reference instrument for DNS checking.
The DNS being an essential infrastructure for Internet communications, regularly checking the technical quality of Internet domain names is key to improving the resilience of the global Internet.
Available to all as free software, Zonemaster can be alternatively used via a public web interface on http://www.zonemaster.net/ or in a local environment through a command-line or a graphical user interface, after downloading its components from https://github.com/dotse/zonemaster and installing them on a Unix machine.
The service is available in English, French and Swedish.
Zonemaster checks DNS servers and zones configuration against a set of tests based on Internet standards and best current practices to determine that they are correct. By running Zonemaster on a given DNS zone, potential issues related to misconfigurations or security mechanisms (such as DNSSEC) are detected, thus helping avoid degradation or entire unreachability of Internet communication services based on that DNS zone.
Testimonials
For Mathieu WEILL, CEO of Afnic:
“We are proud of providing the Internet community with Zonemaster, as a state-of -the-art checking tool for Internet domain names. We hope that the DNS community will make the most of it to contribute to a safer and more resilient Internet infrastructure.”
For Danny AERTS, CEO of .SE:
“Thanks to our previous knowledge and thanks to the good effort of the experienced joint .SE and Afnic project team our efforts have been leveraged to create the software in a much higher quality and in shorter time than otherwise possible.”
About .SE
.SE (The Internet Infrastructure Foundation) is an independent organization that promotes the positive development of the internet in Sweden.
.SE is responsible for the internet’s Swedish top level domain, .se, including the registration of domain names, and the administration and technical maintenance of the national domain-name registry.
The surplus from domain name registration support projects that contribute to internet development in Sweden, both through its own operations and through financing of independent projects.
Read more at https://www.iis.se”
Donuts Marks One Year of New gTLD Availability with Over 1.2 Million Registrations
[news release] Donuts Inc., the world’s largest registry for new gTLDs, marked the one-year anniversary of general availability of new Internet identities today, reporting that its 150 now live gTLDs are home to more than 1.2 million registrations, accounting for nearly one third of the four million total names registered across all new gTLDs.
The company, which expects eventually to run approximately 200 gTLDs, said it currently operates eight of the top 25 and half of the top 50 new gTLDs by registration volume, including .GURU (80,584), .PHOTOGRAPHY (51,431), and .EMAIL (48,031). Registrants are widely dispersed geographically, with United States customers most active (48 percent), followed by Germany (12 percent) and the United Kingdom (11 percent). Usage of new gTLDs has climbed steadily, as well — according to CSC Digital Brand Services, there was a 52% increase over the past quarter in the number of new gTLD domain registrations ranked in the Alexa top one million most visited sites.
“We’ve built a foundation to create vibrant online communities that drive commerce, participation, communication and the exchange of information,” said Donuts CEO and cofounder Paul Stahura. “As we promised early last year, there’s now a relevant, specific domain name for everyone, promising the ability to identify products, services, communities, companies and organizations.”
Adopters are agreeing. According to Brad D. Riggan of Liquid Media®, an Oklahoma City-based multi-dimensional digital creative firm, the switch to a new gTLD was intuitive. “We changed to Liquid.MEDIA because we wanted a domain name that represented the meaning of our company,” he said. “This is a precise descriptor that tells our clients and potential clients what we do.”
Donuts recently launched .WORLD into general availability, and tomorrow will make .ENERGY and .DELIVERY open to any registrant. .COACH, .MEMORIAL, .LEGAL, .MONEY and .TIRES are now available exclusively to trademark holders and will open to all registrants later in March.
The new gTLD program, still in its infancy, is undergoing rapid growth as .COM and other legacy over-used gTLDs fade in utility. Last fall, Afnic, the registry operator for the .FR country code TLD (ccTLD), released a study documenting that new gTLDs are growing faster than both legacy gTLDs and ccTLDs. And as reported in October, analysts at investment bank B. Riley & Co. forecasted that new gTLD registrations could cross the 20 million mark by 2016.
Further pent demand will be addressed throughout 2015, when “contention sets” — gTLDs for which more than one registry applie — will be resolved. Including names like .MUSIC, .SHOP, .ART and .APP, remaining contention sets account for what will likely be some of the most popular and well-used gTLDs. “We’re still very early in the life of new gTLDs, but the promise of these names has already been well proven,” Stahura said. “As less relevant legacy gTLDs continue to decline in popularity, consumers and businesses are embracing the semantic meaning and specificity of new gTLDs.”
About Donuts Inc.
Donuts securely operates the largest number of the Internet’s top-level domain names and provides varied and relevant online identities, in multiple languages and character sets, to businesses, individuals, and organizations worldwide. Donuts is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, with offices in Southern California, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and London. For more information, please visit www.donuts.co.
This Donuts news release was sourced from:
www.donuts.co/news/donuts-marks-one-year-of-new-gtld-availability-with-over-1-2-million-registrations/
Global Internet Stakeholders to Convene in Singapore for ICANN’s 52nd Public Meeting
[ICANN news release] ICANN will convene its 52nd Public Meeting in Singapore, from February 9th to 12th.
The meeting will bring together stakeholders from around the globe to discuss what the future of the Internet may look like in light of last year’s announcement that the United States (U.S.) government will transition stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community.
Former Senior Advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ira Magaziner, and Singapore’s Minister of Communications and Information, Dr. Yaacob bin Ibrahim, will address attendees at the meeting’s opening ceremony. Details are provided below.
In the afternoon, ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé will join Board Chair Dr. Stephen D. Crocker, Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah and Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific (APAC) Yu-Chuang Kuek in responding to journalists’ questions during an international news conference. They will address a wide range of issues, including the current status of the IANA stewardship transition and the continued delegation of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).
Journalists who are unable to attend the Singapore meeting are encouraged to participate remotely via a live web stream or an international toll-free telephone connection. The details for connecting are provided below.
A recording of the news conference will be posted to the press page of the ICANN web site (www.icann.org/en/news/press) after the event.
To see the full schedule of events and meetings taking place during ICANN52 in Singapore, go to singapore52.icann.org/en/schedule-full.
Registration for ICANN52 is available on-site or at registration.icann.org.
