Are the new TLDs really black holes for SEO?
So I have read this article by Google http://searchengineland.com/google-explains-how-they-handle-the-new-top-level-domains-tlds-225671 which states "There are no TLDs that Google finds preferential to others; they are all treated equally in rankings. There are some geo-specific TLDs that Google will default to a specific country and use that as an indicator that the website is more important in a specific geographic region. But all TLDs are treated equally."
But reading on previous hacker news comments like this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11684696 the top comment suggests the they are SEO black holes.
So which is it? I would love some data comparing the 2.
4 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 21.1 ms ] threadThe top comment in question reads like a Trump tweet and provides no further details, no sources, and no data:
"I have said it before and I will say it again, the new gTLDs are just a money grab by ICANN. Not only that, but they are basically SEO black holes, no thanks!"
Until someone definitely proves that new TLDs are detrimental to SEO, I'm not buying it. Much likelier is that the domains built on new TLDs simply don't have the domain age or link profile of competitors whose domains have been around for years and years.
So, anecdotally, it certainly didn't hurt this sight. I guess it would also mean, and support the building belief, that exact match domains or utilizing keywords in the domain name is also no longer helpful(in the eyes of search engines). If the tld doesn't matter, then I could scour all of them until I found an available exact match.