Will .tel be good for search? I have my doubts.
Checking in at forums and on comments at Domain Name Wire, it’s clear that a lot of people think .tel domain names could be a search engine gold mine. The premise is that the data on .tel domains is very structured, and Google can easily index it. Thus, if you get a good keyword.tel you can get traffic and include links to other web sites.
This is true. But people expecting Wikipedia-like saturation and rankings are missing a couple key points:
1. Google ranks your site in part by the number of links pointing to the domain. How many links do you think will point to any given .tel domain? There’s not much to link to. Compare that to a site like Wikipedia (or even Domain Name Wire). People link to its content all day.
2. Wikipedia has good content. Lots of rich, good, informative content. Most .tel domains will have perhaps 100 words.
But let’s assume for a second that you manage to get a .tel high in Google. The idea is that you can then send traffic to other sites listed on your .tel profile. Take a look at an example web site listing in .tel:
If I received a lot of traffic at my .tel domain, people will likely click on the links there. But they won’t pass on the kind of link love I’d like. The “anchor text” is just the domain name. I’d much rather have it read something like “Domain Name Wire”.
But all is not lost. I see one way .tel domain names could be used effectively in search, assuming search engines like the domain: personal rankings. Most people have few Google hits when someone searches for their name. It would make sense that your own .tel would rank fairly high. Online reputation management services could use these domains as another way to get “friendly” results near the top of search engines.
One other idea: Telnic strikes a deal with Google or Yahoo to include .tel domains at the top of the page for an exact keyword match.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Great article as usual Andrew and very objective!
First lets concede the fact there appears to be some consensus right here that .Tel has serious potential.
Your point about “How many links do you think will point to any given .tel domain?” that is the main flaw in your article. Let me ask you this, how many people do you think will link to Plumber.tel, Hotel.tel or Doctor.tel …?
I think the answer is fairly obvious as long as the .Tel domain is rich with relevant “contact data” that is so so easy to use!
Lets address your Wikipedia comparison, well by the looks of it, not only can you create groups on your .Tel and give users access, I’m guessing you could give collaborative access to say, other hotels to add their contact data to hotel.tel or plumbers to plumber.tel, therefore there is a wiki component right there!
Once all that begins to happen, everyone wants in and google can simply not ignore the intensity! Bye bye typical yellow pages, just like ailing newspapers. Now clever people who get it quick enough can create “Niche” 24/7 real time directories, anywhere for any device! Plus, all those yellow pages buggers left out, can now come on board without html!
Finally, the bit I liked most about your article, is …suppose these .tel guys do a deal with google and get a keyword match at the top on google, like dictionary keywords. Well, that say’s it all! You’re already thinking way ahead of where .tel can go.
Better still, why dose’nt google, struggling yahoo, msn, myspace or facebook just buy .TEL!
Frank Michlick says
Great article Andreww.
The real danger I see here that if too many people stick to the .TEL domain for the SEO potential of the domains it can easily get pushed into the “spammy” corner by the search engines, similar to when Google temporarily removed .info domains from its index.
wannadevelop.com says
“One other idea: Telnic strikes a deal with Google or Yahoo to include .tel domains at the top of the page for an exact keyword match.”
Andrew — That isn’t ever goin down even in a million years.
Google will rank the CONTACT page of an actual company at the top of their results, and not some keyword.tel domain that pops out of nowhere with no history.
.tel .mobi .etc…….. waste of time !
Tomas says
I think this domain may create great opportunities for those who do not want pay for building websites and for local searches I suspect this domain will do more then all right. Combine your .tel with a business listing from google and I suspect you will get something out of it. The structure is solid though I am disappointed that there is no way to chose a title and description. The title is taken from the Domain and sub domains which can be created by adding a new Directory (that’s sort of cool) I have optimised my .tel site for relatively minor keywords now lets see what Google makes of it. If treats .tel like other domains then we will simply have to be patient. Sorry its in German
DotTelFinder.com says
Andrew,
Telnic will shortly solve the “anchor-text” issue you raised.
They published a roadmap for future developments that mentions a new feature:
“Customize the text that displays as the heading of your .tel web page instead of your domain name. You can enter text in any language and use special characters.”
Tomas says
Hi Andrew,
Do you know where I can find out and when they will implement this. This is all that was missing. Now if we could have a description field I would be over the moon.
Migel says
new .tel search engine qwista.com
jason says
How do you add anchored text to the .tel?
Tomas says
I don’t think you can place anchored text as yet
Tomas
Michelle says
How do you register these .tel domains? Haven’t seen them offered through our hosting company.
Michael
Tel domain says
Well you can do more with dot tel now host video and pictures
Mke