Could the SEO value of cctld’s being going away? SearchEngineJournal.com published an article this morning that talks about just that.
In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, the company’s Search Relations team hinted at potential changes in how country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are valued for SEO.
Creative Use Of ccTLDs For Branding
According to Illyes, the primary reason for this shift is the creative use of ccTLDs for branding purposes rather than geographic targeting.
He elaborated:
“Think about the all the funny domain names that you can buy nowadays like the .ai. I think that’s Antigua or something… It doesn’t say anything anymore about the country… it doesn’t mean that the content is for the country.”
Illyes further explained the historical context and why this change is occurring:
You can read the full article here.
I think for those purchasing and using repurposed cctlds this a probably no bid deal. Fantasy.ai for example just sold for $120K, the company that purchased it, certainly does not care how they rank in Antigua.