GTLD for SEO?

[OscarSE]

Hey guys

Has there been any case studies or does anyone know how the gTLDs are doing in the SERPS? I never see them in the SERPS but that of course doesn't mean anything. Google is saying that they treat them the same as .com or .net. But does anyone have 'facts'?

Cheers!

[Highland]

The only TLDs that get any known different treatment is the ccTLD (which sends a geolocation signal).

The reason non-"standard" TLDs don't show up very often is that most people buy the common TLDs. Most people still associate the ".com" with websites because they are the oldest TLD. I personally own a ".info" for my email (not a new TLD either) and I typically have to spell it out to people (I occasionally get some strange looks handing it out verbally). I can only imagine the looks if I had a more exotic TLD ("Yes, my email is ralph@crazy.ninja... no that's really it"). So other TLDs are basically less popular and less well understood, which explains why they aren't used very often.

The arguments over the years that I've seen that Google is flat out lying about the TLDs being treated equally have never really withstood scrutiny. There has never been anyone who has made a given TLD rank higher solely because of the TLD. The cases I've seen had other factors that could just as easily explain a ranking difference. And an objective test would be very difficult to create, as you would need two identical sites, and from an SEO perspective that's super hard to pull off.

Ultimately, tho, why would Google lie about this? What's there to be gained in telling people it's not a ranking factor when it is?