When it comes to creating and marketing a website, it’s essential to think of a URL that reflects your brand – secure your domain name here before it gets snapped up by a competitor. Choosing the right domain will impact everything from search engine optimisation (SEO) to social media marketing (SMM), but as well as targeting keywords it’s also necessary to keep up with domain name trends – particularly within the automotive industry as many new domain name endings are now available.
Default domain name endings
Whether you’re a technology expert or not you’ll know that there are many domain name endings to choose from with .com tending to be what most people default to when they run a search. In fact, .com endings are considered extremely valuable with some of the most expensive domains ever sold ending this way – including insure.com which went for $16 million, sex.com which sold for a whopping $14 million and hotel.com which raked in an impressive $11.million.
It’s fair to say that .com is memorable and reliable, however, with more suffixes becoming available within the automotive industry, it is now possible to market automotive websites in a different way.
Creation of new suffixes by ICANN
Last year, ICANN – the non-profit administer of domain names on the internet – made it possible for companies to buy domains ending in .car, .cars or .auto thanks to the creation of new suffixes. Cars Registry applied to sell these domain names in 2012 and is now selling website domain names at wholesale prices to well-known website retailers – who in turn retail them for around $3,000 a piece.
Benefits of the new suffices for automakers
While no one quite knows what the long-term benefits of such suffixes will be, automakers have rushed to buy these domain names in a bid to strengthen their brand – after all, having a brand name plus a highly searched term like auto or cars not only looks professional but also gives consumers a clear idea of what a company is all about.
Google relates to brands with a strong identity helping to push them up the Google rankings and therefore such domain endings are an exciting prospect for the automotive industry. While Chinese automaker Geely now uses Geely.auto, well-known companies such as Apple and Google have bought Apple.car and Google.car respectively.
The new domain name endings have also given businesses who couldn’t get their preferred URL first time round another chance. Used car dealership Brilliance Auto, for instance, was forced to use BrilianceAuto.com with just one ‘l’ as BrillianceAuto.com with two ‘ls’ had already been taken. Now, they can use Brilliance.Auto. That said, the domain endings are giving a few companies a headache with Audi recently filing a complaint against the registrant of audi.cars and audi.auto who snapped up these sites before Audi had a chance to do so.
Marketing methods are forever changing which is why it’s so important to keep your eye on the ball and follow the latest trends, as the new automotive domain name endings have shown.