Have you ever tried to register a domain name for your website? If you have, then you would know that it is a complex process and a very critical one at that. Your domain name is a crucial branding asset that has a lasting impact on your business’s marketing activities and online presence. This makesfinding the perfect domain name a supremely important task. Today, there are more than 1200 new domain extensions to choose from. It is imperative for you to understand how these new domains, such as .TECHor .STORE, impact your website’s online marketing and search engine ranking. After all, ranking high on search results and staying up there is top priority for any business. While choosing a domain name, the most obvious question that will ring in your mind is — what is the effect of a new domain extension on my website’s SEO ranking over a conventional, such as a .com, domain? Google has a simple answer: It does not differentiate based on what domain extension is used. However, Google prefers shorter and relevant web addresses over longer ones. Google’s John Mueller, a webmaster trends analyst, gave an insight on how Google handles search and treats new domain names: “When we have two URLs that have the same content, and we try to pick one to show in the search results, we will pick the short one. … It doesn’t mean it is a ranking factor, but it means if we have two URLs and one is really short and sweet and this other one has this long parameter attached to it and we know they show exactly the same content we will try to pick the shorter one. There are lots of exceptions there, different factors that come into play, but everything else being equal — you have a shorter one and a longer one, we will try to pick the shorter one.” Simply put, whether you go with a new domain name or an old one, it will have no inherent impact on your website’s SEO. However, a shorter URL is preferred and you can acquire a short domain name on new domain extensions — given that the domain name of your choice might still be available and, being relevant, will add to your brand value. Bill Hartzer, an SEO expert with 20 years Search Engine Optimization experience, seconds the fact that a new domain name is as good as any other for SEO. He suggests that if a website uses the best SEO practices, it will not suffer in ranking. Using a new domain name will result in a shorter, memorable and relevant website name that is better for customers and users. And what is better for users can potentially help rankings. Last year, WIX.com, a cloud-based web development platform, hosted a contest that invited users to make websites that are optimized for the term ‘SEO Hero’. The winner of this contest was www.seo-hero.tech, a website on a new domain extension. Walid Gabteni of www.seo-hero.tech, says, “Google loves businesses that stand out. I needed to standout and for that I used several tactics, choosing the .TECH domain extension was one of them. If you are a startup or a tech company, you must quickly register your brand on .TECH for the same reason.”
Winner of Wix’s SEO Hero challenge explains his strategy in this post.
  This article is also published on Medium.