Google’s John Mueller mentioned in a Reddit thread that he would personally go along with a standard TLD (i.e., .com) even when it means having to place a hyphen within the area identify. That is as a substitute of selecting a TLD which may be thought of decrease high quality or low cost.
The query was in response to a website proprietor saying he went with a .xyz TLD as a result of his model identify on the .com was taken and did not need to go along with hyphens in his area identify. He additionally added that he noticed Google went with abc.xyz for its buyers and Alphabet holding website, so thought it will be good. Over time, he seen that “cases the place websites will not enable a .xyz URL to be posted as a result of it is thought of “spam” or people think about it “AI,” he wrote.
John wrote partly in his super-long response:
Personally, if I had to decide on between a “conventional” TLD + a site identify with 1+ dashes, vs one among these often-problematic TLDs, I might at all times go along with the dashes (and higher: decide a site identify to your model that is not already taken by others, the place you do not want “the-best-thingamabob” or typo domains).
This isn’t new, as John wrote in his put up, we coated Googlers saying earlier than to not go along with low cost TLDs. We have seen Google wipe out some TLDs prior to now, fully. Google even has a complete podcast on TLDs.
Anyway, right here is John’s full response in that Reddit thread, simply in case Reddit pulls it down:
This shall be fascinating to reply with out hyperlinks (given the filters on this subreddit, hah). Basically, domains on TLDs are related. However, … I might keep away from free / low cost / minimal-abuse-handling / mostly-spammy TLDs, since domains there can include a big burden to beat earlier than they have been acknowledged to be affordable. For those who’re beginning out with one thing that you just need to use for the long term, it is price ensuring you are not attempting to construct a severe enterprise in an “every thing goes” neighborhood. This isn’t new in any respect, and there isn’t any checklist from (afaik) any search engine, however there are some from companies like Spamhaus or different safety / spam organizations. Domains on difficult TLDs would possibly discover that crawling & indexing is slower, even sitemaps might wrestle to be thought of worthwhile (it is advisable present that your website shouldn’t be just like the others within the neighborhood), emails & chat messages would possibly get dropped, and that individuals will bulk-disavow or in any other case filter hyperlinks from all domains on the TLD in an try to filter out spammy hyperlinks. Personally, if I had to decide on between a “conventional” TLD + a site identify with 1+ dashes, vs one among these often-problematic TLDs, I might at all times go along with the dashes (and higher: decide a site identify to your model that is not already taken by others, the place you do not want “the-best-thingamabob” or typo domains). The opposite factor I might be careful for is that the area identify is definitely on a TLD, and never a subdomain from another person’s area identify.
Google for the pages under to learn up extra. Once more, none of that is new.
* “Google: Do not Choose Low cost Area On TLDs Overrun With Spam” (SERoundtable)
* “Google: Don’t Select Low cost TLDs, Keep away from Spam Dangers” (Search Engine Journal)
* “Google Wipes Out Any Web site On CO CC” (SERoundtable)
* “The Perils of an .xyz Area” (Spot Digital)
* “Phish-Pleasant Area Registry “.prime” Placed on Discover” (Krebs on Safety)
* “Fame Statistics registrars & charts” (Spamhaus; eg, the ccTLDs related to phishing)
Once more, none of that is new. None of that is restricted to website positioning. But when spending $2 extra will allow you to keep away from an extended wrestle, I might advocate spending the $2 extra (or regardless of the value distinction between a very good TLD and an iffy one is. I notice value sensitvity differs internationally, however your time shall be price greater than the few {dollars} it takes to make use of a very good TLD.) Are more-expensive TLDs at all times higher? No – a whole lot of the broad utilization relies on how abuse is taken care of by the registrar, which takes time & work, and registrars have to calculate that in. What about really-expensive TLDs? I do not assume you’d see any extra website positioning worth when you get previous the “this TLD is usually okay” threshold.
Effectively, this received a bit longer than WebLinkr’s technically-correct “it relies upon” :-). I hope it is helpful and have a look at that, no hyperlinks (I used to be going to arrange a linktree with hyperlinks, however thought that might be even weirder).
Discussion board dialogue at Reddit.
Replace: Simply to be clear:
Hah 🙂
I believe what additionally received misplaced a bit is that I am not saying .com/net-or-bust, however particularly speaking about abuse dealing with & vital spam on some TLDs. There are tons of non-traditional & good TLDs.
— John Mueller (@johnmu.com) September 8, 2025 at 8:57 AM
