This is the story of Spot.xyz and their transaction to spotvirtual.com.
Spot.xyz, to its new home at spotvirtual.com.
Read their story here. www.spotvirtual.com/blog/the-perils-of-an-xyz-domain
Spot started their brand with four letters and a .xyz extension that embodied the brand narrative around virtual 3D workspaces in an internet browser,
it seemed like a perfect fit for what they were trying to achieve!
However, they discovered that not all top-level domains are created equal, and the .xyz domain negatively impacts their business.
The worst impacts on their business include lower email deliverability, decreased website accessibility, and negative customer perception.
This is how Spot.xyz learned the importance of careful consideration when choosing a top-level domain to build a business on.
Related: Read new domain name extensions
What Spot noticed with Spot.xyz and their customers:
Spot Company noticed that using the Spot.xyz domain had a negative impact on their brand.
Despite not having the same sentiment internally, they received feedback from users, and here is what they found.
Their users said that using the .xyz domain was unprofessional, and they preferred to use an app with a different URL.
This came as a shock to them as they did not believe the domain would significantly impact how they were perceived.
Also, further investigation revealed that the association of sites using the .xyz domain with malicious sites was common among users, webmasters, and site administrators.
The significant negative perception of the .xyz domain led Spot Company to switch its domain name to improve its brand image and user perception.
Related: Read startups avoid this TDL costs, not obvious reasons and security flaws.
Before and after switching to spotvirual.com affects Spot’s emails.
Spot Company, the founder of Outreach.io, a leading sales engagement platform, has extensive experience with email deliverability.
Despite their previous experience with poor deliverability results from using short .xyz domains for shortened links, they decided to use Spot.xyz.
They made this decision thinking that spam detection algorithms had improved significantly since the early days of Outreach.
However, they soon discovered that including links with URLs ending in .xyz still resulted in poor deliverability.
Also, customers reported that transactional emails, such as password resets, were ending up in their spam folders, and even highly personalized work emails were being affected.
To improve the deliverability of their emails, Spot Company switched to spotvirtual.com.
This switch resulted in a drastic improvement in email deliverability.
Initial email open rates rose from 70% to 86%, second email open rates rose from 50% to 72%, and overall meeting conversions rose from .1% to 3%.
Their success with these massive improvements in their email outreach stemmed from owning a .com TDL version of their brand.
The domain switch proved worth it for the improvement in email deliverability alone.
Related: Read domain tips for startups.
How switching to spotvirutal.com improved their SMS messages.
Spot Company discovered that the mere inclusion of the .xyz domain in a text message resulted in silent delivery failure for many providers.
Leading many of their website links in messages to never be seen by their clients.
This caused some strange text exchanges when mentioning the company or email address.
After switching from Spot.xyz to spotvirtual.com, this issue was resolved.
The same behavior is noted with Google Voice and the domain abc.xyz.
The switch to spotvirtual.com eliminated this issue for Spot Company.
How they were affected on Reddit:
When trying to share their links on platforms like Facebook, and Reddit, the founder noticed that they were either blocked or marked as spam!
This was a major setback as a company trying to market and get new clients on these platforms.
This contributed another reason for Spot to transition from Spot.xzy to Spotvirtual.com.
How Firewalls affected Spot.xzy business:
Using the Spot.xyz domain came with a drawback for Spot Company.
Some organizations had the entire top-level .xyz domain blacklisted, making it inaccessible to their user base.
This was due to the association of the .xyz domain with malicious websites, which led webmasters to seek advice on how to block the entire domain.
Even with their application adhering to the most effective practices, Spot Company still faced difficulty connecting with a fraction of its prospective customers.
The founder of Spot Company saw this when he could not access Spot.xyz while on the campus of the University of Washington.
TThis happened due to their wifi network blacklisting the .xyz domain names.
With the thought that they would not be able to reach their target client, they to switched their domain name to spotvirtual.com.
As soon as they did this, they could reach their customers without being blocked or seen as a malicious website.
The switch to spotvirtual.com allowed them to overcome the limitations posed by the negative perception of the .xyz domain.
Why choosing a TDL for your company is so crucial!
Learning from the pain that Spot.xzy went through to eventually obtain Spotvirtual.com, here are some things to consider.
Deciding on the right top-level domain (TLD) for your website is integral in setting up your digital presence.
The TLD you select can make a huge difference to how people view your brand, how easy it is to find your site, and the expenses associated with keeping it running.
When choosing a TLD, take into account these vital aspects:
Firstly, it is recommended to go for tried and true TLDs such as .com, .org, .net, etc. These TLDs are well-established and widely recognized.
Secondly, TLDs gaining popularity among new businesses, such as .io and .ai, are also worth considering.
Thirdly, avoiding TLDs that are priced exceptionally cheaply is important, as they may be associated with spam and negatively impact your brand’s reputation.
Finally, it is essential to remember that the cost of the TLD, while important, is just a small part of the larger picture of starting a business, and investing in a well-priced TLD can be a worthwhile investment.
Related: Read Using stories to sell your domain name.
For Companies looking to transition to their premium TDL:
Buying the .com version of your domain name for the company is crucial!
As you see above, Spot company had to learn the hard way they needed the .com version of their brand.
Consider that buying the .com version of your brand may be expensive, but how much more expensive is it to fix a company that can’t get leads because of a simple domain extension?
Acquire your brand TDL, today, get started here.
Related: Read offering a vision with your domain name.
