Myths and Facts about .xyz domains

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In this article we cover Myths and Facts about .xyz domains. Dot xyz is a top-level domain name. It was proposed in ICANN’s New generic top-level domain (gTLD) Program, and became available to the general public on June 2, 2014. The domain name came about both because the three letters are the last in the Latin-script alphabet, and to refer to people from Generations X, Y, and Z. According to Daniel Negari, CEO of the registry, .xyz “.gives users maximum flexibility because it has no built-in meaning or connotation. The all-purpose yet memorable nature gives people the freedom to build a platform to express themselves, share their knowledge and innovate without being limited by a label.” XYZ.com and CentralNic are the registries for the domain.

Myths and Facts about .xyz domains

Why are .xyz Domains so Cheap ?

Most of the new wave of domain TLDs have very little to recommend them. People want the common domains—dot com, dot net, and so on.

Some speciality domains have some niche value; a lot of tech companies have embraced dot io, for example, and there are other TLDs with special purposes like dot site that are modestly popular. Dot tech is also popular, for obvious reasons.

And on top of that. the owners made a mistake. They made the name cheap and didn’t put any restrictions on use, so spammers, scammers, and malware writers flocked to it.

In infosec circles, the dot xyz TLD has such a reputation as a wretched hive of scum and villainy I’ve heard of sysadmins who automatically block any email containing a .xyz domain; it’s that bad. It has forever been tainted with association with spam.

Why do people mostly own dot com domains?

That’s because dot com is one of the first Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) dished out to the people. Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google uses abc.xyz as its domain name.

Why Did Google Choose ABC.XYZ for the Alphabet Domain Name?

What is in a domain name? Rather than using one of its many top level domain options, Google took a different approach by making a new address for Alphabet Inc. – ABC.XYZ.

It’s a question many in both the SEO and domain name industry have been asking since it was announced recently.

If you go to ABC.XYZ, there is a letter from Larry Page about Google’s commitment to innovative ideas and why Alphabet Inc. spun off from Google Inc. There are many reasons to speculate on the SEO value of Google choosing this domain name.

In Larry Page’s letter he says:

We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is at the core of how we index with Google search.

With the name and purpose of Alphabet, it nicely ties to the concept of ABC and XYZ.

If you’re going to pick a domain name for that company, it’s actually quite clever to pick ABC.XYZ when a .XYZ top level domain is available. That fits perfectly, which is exactly the opportunity these new domains present to companies in this new era of naming.

What about Spammy .xyz Sites

Recently Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller was approached about the growing problem with spam from .xyz sites and how to handle it. The big question was, can you block a top-level domain in your robots.txt file? And if you block them will it have a negative impact on your ranking?

Unfortunately, you can only affect crawling on your own site with the robots.txt file. But there is a solution. You can put the spammy .xyz sites in a disavow file. It’s also possible to block all of the sites on the .xyz TLD at once using domain:xyz

However, the Webmaster Trends Analyst advised against the latter because you could end up blocking legitimate sites along with the spammy ones. They also acknowledged that spammy sites have been linking out to genuine, highly ranked sites for years as a way to game the SEO system. It’s not a new tactic, and Google doesn’t reward the sites for their bad behavior. Just because the links are indexed doesn’t mean they’re given any weight and affecting your credibility.

So, blocking spammy .xyz sites shouldn’t impact your own site’s ranking. As far as Google analysts are concerned you can just ignore the spammy links.