A new crop of florist website domain names is coming online to complement the .coms, .nets. The new wave already includes .florist and soon .flowers will be available. You could be the owner of www.newyork.flowers or www.sanfrancisco.florist. And these new domain names aren’t just for florists – lots more business-specifc domains are on the horizon – .bar, .photo, .menu, and many more.
So should you invest in buying a new florist-specific domain name? What do experts have to say about whether these florist domains are good for your flower business?
Some SEO Experts Doubt SEO Benefit of .Flowers
The supposed SEO benefits of having an exact match domain remain unproven. Matt Cutts, a former Google software engineer, doubts that gTLDs will boost search engine rankings at all. “Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD),“ Cutts argues. “Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either.”
Consumer many also not recognize or understand these new domains immediately. Many of your customers are probably accustomed to the standard web endings. Leo Mirani, writing for the tech website qz.com, gives a brief, unenthusiastic history of new domains.
“Seven [new domains] came into existence in 2000, and a further eight in 2004. Most of the new domains in these two waves never really took off. You will sometimes spot .biz or .info in the wild, but more niche ones such as .mobi (aimed at mobile sites)… got little attention from the markets they were aimed at.”
Add on the fact that gTLDs typically cost more on an annual basis (most start at $39.99 per year), and you can see what many businesses will opt to stay with the domains they know.
But .Florist or .Flowers Domain May have some Benefits
Some experts predict that the new top-level domains could help bring more traffic to your site through search engine optimization. Writing for Kickstart Commerce, Alvin Brown writes that while .coms are still on top of SEO now, that could all change with gTLDs. He finds that those with exact match domains especially may give .coms “a run for their money.”
A florist-specific domain will make your flower shop’s website stand out from the .com crowd. It could also be a second shot if your flower shop’s name was already taken when you went to register it online. For instance, if John Smith could not register www.newyorkflorist.com because it was already taken, he now has the option to register www.newyork.florist.
In the example above, newyork.florist is an exact match domain because the url is the actual name of the business with no extra .com diluting the search result.
Final Verdict on .Florist and .Flowers Domains
There are strong arguments for and against launching a new florist website at .florist or .flowers. Shops that enjoy staying on the cutting edge of florist technology may want to seek out a gTLD site of their own, while others will want to wait and see the results first. In either case, the advent of the .florist and .flowers domains show how important ecommerce has become to florists, and how much of an impact florists are having on ecommerce.
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Interested.
Good Advice. Shared it on F&C Thanks.
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Seems to be interested, i also have .florist. Hope it works as well.
i did not get any benefit for using .florist so shifted to normal .com brand. Its very confusing to choose from .florist domain.
Does it help us in SEO activities?
This is great information for mostly newly start-up thinkers.
I almost followed what maya did. Since I have could not choose my choice, I’ve read your great article and Maya responded. So, I got a new point of view in choosing domain name for my flowers online shop… Thx alot.