Microsoft Research Confirms Value of Premium Domains
A new research paper from Microsoft confirms what many in the domain industry have known for some time – high quality domains attract more website visitors. The paper cites experiments the team conducted where users demonstrated a “propensity to believe that a page is more relevant just because it comes from a particular domain.”
The authors call this tendency domain bias. The bias leads users to click on a webpage that is associated with a “quality” domain more often than others.
Domain Bias Joins Other Influencing Factors on Users
Domain bias joins “position bias” and “snippet bias,” which also impact how Internet searchers select a result from a page(s) of search results. Position bias has been studied extensively: it is the likelihood that people will click on search results toward the top of a page more than they will those toward the bottom. Snippet bias is the tendency for searchers to click a search result that displays the text (title + meta description) most relevant to their search query.
The experiments looked at search engines’ influence on user behavior, including displayed vs. clicked results, while factoring out position and snippet bias. Researchers also ran what they called a “Pepsi/Coke style blind taste test” where participants were asked to select from various types of search results, including those showing only the snippets, showing snippets + real url, and snippets + “fake” url.
These experiments were all scientifically rigorous and all confirmed the existence of domain bias.
Premium Domains – Clearly an Excellent Investment
So what does this mean for online businesses/ecommerce sites? Premium domains are a necessary investment for all businesses with an online presence. In addition to the Microsoft study, a study also conducted this year demonstrated that paid ads with quality, keyword-rich domains perform better in PPC campaigns; a serious consideration for companies that invest valuable marketing dollars in Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, etc.
Finally, Search Engine Land summarizes the Microsoft study by saying: “Key takeaway for bosses/clients: rank really doesn’t matter, if you’ve got a quality (trustworthy) domain name.”
Contact a BuyDomains domain expert now by calling 866-846-5160 (US) or +1 339-222-5123 (Int’l) to discuss the best premium domain name for your business.
