Real Estate Blogging

A "cityof" domain name is simply a domain name with the words "cityof" up front. Here are some examples...

cityoforange.com
cityofscottsdale.com
cityofboulder.com

I believe that Google holds some "magical" value for any domain name that has "cityof" at the beginning, AND, in which the city mentioned in the domain name actually exists. I think Google uses some kind of master list of place names.

Here's my observation on why I think this is so...

I publish a hyperlocal news blog, "Menifee 24/7". In my town, there are a few others who compete with me, publishing other Menifee-related portal sites, and news sites. Thus far, I have the one with the highest traffic volume. However, I don't have the site that ranks #1 for "menifee".

That dubious distinction belongs to a website called, "City of Menifee", using the domain name, "cityofmenifee.com". This website is NOT the official website of Menifee. Menifee is not an actual city, it's an unincorporated area of Riverside County. It doesn't have its own government. But it is found on various lists of place names, including the US Geological Survey, DMOZ, and others.

I think Google gives a great rankings boost for sites that represent the official website for government. Official state websites, county websites, and city websites, are given a big boost, because they're supposed to be highly relevant if someone searches for a particular state, county, or city.

So, since Menifee doesn't have an official government website, Google gave that title to cityofmenifee.com, recognizing that it is an actual place name. I think the Google guys have something in the algorithm that allows each state, county, and city to have one official website, and gives it a big boost to make sure it doesn't get overtaken by unofficial websites.

Here are some facts to prove my point...

• City of Menifee is a PR3, Menifee 24/7 is a PR4


• City of Menifee has 10 backlinks, Menifee 24/7 has 294 backlinks


• City of Menifee gets minor updates about 2-3 times per month, Menifee 24/7 is updated about 20-30 times per month


• City of Menifee mentions the word "menifee" less than Menifee 24/7.


• This only happens on Google. Yahoo and MSN doesn't put cityofmenifee.com at the the top, instead both giving that honor to the Menifee Unified School District

As it stands now, if the guy that runs "cityofmenifee.com" can exploit this Google weakness to his benefit, then so can you. Look for unincorporated communities, with nary a presence on the web. Register a "cityof" domain name, and just publish some content, in my theory it should shoot right up to the top.