The article examines several factors associated with domain names of websites to reveal the true role of TLD properties in search engine marketing. Live working websites are used to identify the impact of websites’ domain names on SEM results. Firstly, the article examines the role of keywords presence within domain names in search result generation process. Thereafter, TLD zone’s impact on image search results is analyzed through comparing websites with similar content hosted at different TLD zones. The role of domain age in the website ranking and sorting process is researched next. Finally, the article presents a brief summary of the findings and research implications.
