Choice of domain

[rmcatalyst]

Hi. I want to build a new site that is optimised for a training product that we have. We have an existing domain which I'm considering pointing at this new site.  This domain is one of the new .training TLDs. Let's call this domain foo.training where my main keyword to optimise for will be "foo training". I've also looked and can see that foo-training.com is available. I read up on best practices for domains here : https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain

My question is will the .training domain be seen as "spammy" in any way? Am I better to just go ahead and register the .com?

[Chris_Hickman]

In terms of SEO, there are no penalties for using a gTLD. Technically you have an equal chance of ranking well for a keyword than those with .com domains. It comes down to preference, marketing and the SEO work you put in.

I can see the .training domain working well for marketing to a younger audience, it may be appealing and seem more modern. An older audience may be more accustomed and feel that .com domains are more professional.

Exact match keyword domains gained notoriety because they would often get great anchor text when people linked to their website. I don't see why you would have an issue with that because I would naturally link to the site as "Foo Training."

To answer your question plainly, no it won't be seen as spammy but the .com may seem more professional and credible to some users. I hope this helped make your decision easier.

[rmcatalyst]

Thanks for reply it's much appreciated. This is pretty much as I thought too and I understand that I don't need to have the keywords in the domain it's just for this particular use case, based on what i've seen from how competitors are ranking, i think it will generally help here.

I'm really interested to hear from others who may have used or had success with newer TLDs

[CleverPhD]

Generally, the .com URLs are more common and therefore seen as more "normal" to users and more likely to be trusted.

It does not mean that the .training will not work, just that it is different and that may cause other issues outside of ranking. You may remember that when .info came onto the scene, it was used by spammers so much that now it has kind of a black cloud over it.

Of course the trick with the foo-training.com domain is that you have to make sure people put in the dash. Consider issues around what if they leave the dash out, should we overtly mention the dash to remind people (think radio and TV and other ads) etc etc etc.

Overall, remember that you do not have to have "foo training" in the URL to rank well. Yes, it can help, but it really does not give you the power it used to have in the old days due to people using it as a way to spam the search engines to get keyword rich anchor text.

I would lean towards the URL with the dash (if you think it will not confuse folks to have the dash) or see about getting another .com URL and getting your keyword in the slug or in other places. I would defer to other Moz folks to see if they have had much success with the newer TLDs.