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Welcome to our monthly Industry News Digest. Explore new online trends and domain industry news to stay up-to-date. Here’s a summary for June 2026:
John Mueller, Google Search Team Lead, reiterated that the simple presence of hyphens in a domain name doesn’t affect a website’s search rankings. According to Mueller, search engines neither favor domains without hyphens, nor demote sites that use them in their URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), although their presence in domain names was previously considered a hallmark of spammers.
According to the Search Engine Journal’s analysis, in the past, hyphenated domain names contributed to good Google rankings by helping users quickly identify whether sites were relevant to their queries. However, over time, their effectiveness has declined, which is not attributed to the domain names themselves, but rather to the quality of the sites.
Mueller noted that choosing a domain name should primarily be user-friendly and consistent with the brand. The presence or absence of hyphens isn’t a ranking factor, and a site’s success in searches depends primarily on the quality of its content, technical optimization, and overall user experience.
Why should you care? When choosing a domain name, companies often reject successful options because only a hyphenated version is available. Google’s commentary confirms that the hyphen itself doesn’t negatively impact SEO (Search Engine Optimization), so if a suitable domain is unavailable, it's a viable option.
However, it’s essential to remember that a domain name should remain simple, understandable, and easy for users to remember. If a hyphen makes the address more readable or allows for a more logical name to be registered, it may be a reasonable compromise without prejudicing search engine optimization.
Source: Search Engine Journal
According to the research of Check Point, an analytics company, cybercriminals registered nearly 7,000 domains related to the Amazon brand and the Prime Day sale prior to the event’s launch on June 23. A significant portion of these domains showed signs of fraudulent activity or were created to impersonate official Amazon services.
These domains were mostly created for phishing attacks (when criminals create fake websites, distribute false advertising offers, and attempt to steal user credentials and payment information). Major sales are traditionally one of the busiest periods for cybercriminals, as users are more likely to trust emails, advertisements, and websites associated with well-known brands.
Why should you care? Major marketing campaigns and seasonal sales attract a lot of scammers who want to profit from users’ trust and inattention. Therefore, it’s crucial for companies to proactively monitor the registration of domains similar to their brand, especially before launching major promotions. Users, in turn, should carefully check website addresses before entering personal or payment information. Proactive domain protection helps reduce the risk of phishing, maintain customer trust, and protect brand reputation.
Source: TechRadar
The National Internet Exchange of India (Nixi), which manages the .in domain extension, has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform to identify suspicious domain registrations and enhance the security of the national domain space. Domain registrations now require KYC (know your customer) compliance. The WHOIS portal will become the official search platform used to find information about the registration, owner, creation and expiration dates, sponsoring registrar, and availability of .in and .bharat domain names.
The system analyzes new domain registrations and identifies signs of phishing, fraud, malware distribution, and other types of DNS (Domain Name System) abuse. The use of AI allows for automated threat detection and faster responses to malicious domains.
India is also in discussions with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to host a root server to enhance cyber resilience.
Why should you care? The security of the domain industry depends on the efforts of all involved, from domain extension owners to users. Domain protection has become a complex task, incorporating the use of modern technologies. AI is increasingly being used to protect digital infrastructure. Automatic analysis of domain registrations permits the significantly faster detection of potential threats and reduced response times.
Source: The Economic Times
A study by SparkToro, a SaaS analytics platform for target audience and market research, found that 68% of Google searches in the US don’t lead to external websites from January to April 2026. This is a 7.56 percentage point increase from the 2024 estimate (60.45%). This increase is driven by Google’s increasingly providing full answers in its interface, including AI-powered reviews that address users’ informational needs. AI-powered reviews appear in more than 20% of searches, reducing click-through rates by 60%.
At Google I/O 2026 (Google’s annual developer conference), it was announced that the number of AI Mode users has exceeded 1 billion, with search volumes doubling every quarter. This demonstrates the significant potential of AI to reduce clicks.
Evaluating effectiveness now requires considering not just clicks but also brand mentions and brand authority in AI responses. A high bounce rate requires a more comprehensive approach to assessing organic visibility.
Why should you care? Search visibility is no longer measured solely by the number of clicks to a website. It’s essential to adapt content so that it appears in AI-powered search results, rich snippets, and other search features as well as traditional search results. This requires a combination of traditional SEO, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), quality content, and a strong brand that users and search engines trust.
Source: Envigo
Google has begun rolling out the June 2026 Spam Update, the latest tweak to its search algorithm, aimed at reducing the visibility of spam content in search results. The update affects sites in all languages and addresses various types of search recommendation violations, including low-quality, automatically generated content, manipulative promotion techniques, and other forms of search spam.
The company isn’t disclosing the technical details, but notes that its goal is to improve the quality of search results and boost the visibility of useful content, created for users, rather than algorithms. Google’s documentation on the update presents these measures as improvements to automated spam detection systems. Among these, special attention is given to SpamBrain, an intelligent system that uses AI to prevent spam.
Why should you care? Google continues to strengthen its fight against low-quality content and attempts to artificially influence rankings. Therefore, long-term website ranking efficiency is increasingly ensured by high-quality content, transparent SEO practices, and a focus on the real needs of the audience, rather than attempts to circumvent algorithms.
Source: Search Engine Journal
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Google: Hyphens in Domain Names Don’t Harm SEO
John Mueller, Google Search Team Lead, reiterated that the simple presence of hyphens in a domain name doesn’t affect a website’s search rankings. According to Mueller, search engines neither favor domains without hyphens, nor demote sites that use them in their URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), although their presence in domain names was previously considered a hallmark of spammers.
According to the Search Engine Journal’s analysis, in the past, hyphenated domain names contributed to good Google rankings by helping users quickly identify whether sites were relevant to their queries. However, over time, their effectiveness has declined, which is not attributed to the domain names themselves, but rather to the quality of the sites.
Mueller noted that choosing a domain name should primarily be user-friendly and consistent with the brand. The presence or absence of hyphens isn’t a ranking factor, and a site’s success in searches depends primarily on the quality of its content, technical optimization, and overall user experience.
Why should you care? When choosing a domain name, companies often reject successful options because only a hyphenated version is available. Google’s commentary confirms that the hyphen itself doesn’t negatively impact SEO (Search Engine Optimization), so if a suitable domain is unavailable, it's a viable option.
However, it’s essential to remember that a domain name should remain simple, understandable, and easy for users to remember. If a hyphen makes the address more readable or allows for a more logical name to be registered, it may be a reasonable compromise without prejudicing search engine optimization.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Nearly 7,000 Fraudulent Domains Registered Ahead of Amazon Prime Day
According to the research of Check Point, an analytics company, cybercriminals registered nearly 7,000 domains related to the Amazon brand and the Prime Day sale prior to the event’s launch on June 23. A significant portion of these domains showed signs of fraudulent activity or were created to impersonate official Amazon services.
These domains were mostly created for phishing attacks (when criminals create fake websites, distribute false advertising offers, and attempt to steal user credentials and payment information). Major sales are traditionally one of the busiest periods for cybercriminals, as users are more likely to trust emails, advertisements, and websites associated with well-known brands.
Why should you care? Major marketing campaigns and seasonal sales attract a lot of scammers who want to profit from users’ trust and inattention. Therefore, it’s crucial for companies to proactively monitor the registration of domains similar to their brand, especially before launching major promotions. Users, in turn, should carefully check website addresses before entering personal or payment information. Proactive domain protection helps reduce the risk of phishing, maintain customer trust, and protect brand reputation.
Source: TechRadar
India Launches AI Platform to Detect Suspicious Domains
The National Internet Exchange of India (Nixi), which manages the .in domain extension, has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform to identify suspicious domain registrations and enhance the security of the national domain space. Domain registrations now require KYC (know your customer) compliance. The WHOIS portal will become the official search platform used to find information about the registration, owner, creation and expiration dates, sponsoring registrar, and availability of .in and .bharat domain names.
The system analyzes new domain registrations and identifies signs of phishing, fraud, malware distribution, and other types of DNS (Domain Name System) abuse. The use of AI allows for automated threat detection and faster responses to malicious domains.
India is also in discussions with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to host a root server to enhance cyber resilience.
Why should you care? The security of the domain industry depends on the efforts of all involved, from domain extension owners to users. Domain protection has become a complex task, incorporating the use of modern technologies. AI is increasingly being used to protect digital infrastructure. Automatic analysis of domain registrations permits the significantly faster detection of potential threats and reduced response times.
Source: The Economic Times
Study: 68% of Google Searches End Without a Click
A study by SparkToro, a SaaS analytics platform for target audience and market research, found that 68% of Google searches in the US don’t lead to external websites from January to April 2026. This is a 7.56 percentage point increase from the 2024 estimate (60.45%). This increase is driven by Google’s increasingly providing full answers in its interface, including AI-powered reviews that address users’ informational needs. AI-powered reviews appear in more than 20% of searches, reducing click-through rates by 60%.
At Google I/O 2026 (Google’s annual developer conference), it was announced that the number of AI Mode users has exceeded 1 billion, with search volumes doubling every quarter. This demonstrates the significant potential of AI to reduce clicks.
Evaluating effectiveness now requires considering not just clicks but also brand mentions and brand authority in AI responses. A high bounce rate requires a more comprehensive approach to assessing organic visibility.
Why should you care? Search visibility is no longer measured solely by the number of clicks to a website. It’s essential to adapt content so that it appears in AI-powered search results, rich snippets, and other search features as well as traditional search results. This requires a combination of traditional SEO, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), quality content, and a strong brand that users and search engines trust.
Source: Envigo
Google Releases June Spam Update
Google has begun rolling out the June 2026 Spam Update, the latest tweak to its search algorithm, aimed at reducing the visibility of spam content in search results. The update affects sites in all languages and addresses various types of search recommendation violations, including low-quality, automatically generated content, manipulative promotion techniques, and other forms of search spam.
The company isn’t disclosing the technical details, but notes that its goal is to improve the quality of search results and boost the visibility of useful content, created for users, rather than algorithms. Google’s documentation on the update presents these measures as improvements to automated spam detection systems. Among these, special attention is given to SpamBrain, an intelligent system that uses AI to prevent spam.
Why should you care? Google continues to strengthen its fight against low-quality content and attempts to artificially influence rankings. Therefore, long-term website ranking efficiency is increasingly ensured by high-quality content, transparent SEO practices, and a focus on the real needs of the audience, rather than attempts to circumvent algorithms.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Stay up-to-date with digital trends and news - visit it.com Domains blog and follow us on social media.
Continue reading on the it.com Domains blog...
