i.com.pk

Getting a backlinks from government websites has always been a dream of SEO experts. In Pakistan many government websites are linking to a lot of other websites. I surveyed 1072 Government websites of different departments and categorized this into 4 categories:

1. Some company or freelancer made the website for the department and put a link back to their company website intentionally.
2. Company or freelancer used some open source software or components and didn’t remove the links. In some cases the theme or template used to develop the government website was a free template linking back to the original developer.
3. Website working as an online directory and linking to Pakistani banks, newspapers, organizations or telling people that there exist sites like Google, Wikipedia etc.
4. Although a rare case but in some cases some virus infected website contains links added by the hackers.

Although I have the complete list with me but I will be sharing only a few interesting ones:

There are about 1000 domains registered by different departments of Government of Pakistan. Most of them seem to follow no usability guideline. Although, a lot of websites need to improve their usability but this blog post is dedicated to the usability of domain names only.

By looking at these domains it looks like some random guy randomly chooses domain name for the department. There are domains like rdcgp.gov.pk, febgif.gov.pk, qmcbvh.gop.pk There are a lot other domains which seem like random characters.

There is a very nice article on usability of domains (http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/032007news.html). A few of the characteristics of usable domain name are:

• short (12 characters or less)
• guessable
• easy to spell
• easy to type
• easy to say and pronounce
• memorable

Unfortunately, there are a very few Government domains which have all of these characteristics. As mentioned before most of the domains are abbreviations or short forms of the department they represent.

Most of them use the name of province in them, when they could have used the ccTLD of their own province. e.g. advocategeneralsindh.gos.pk could have been advocategeneral.gos.pk, financedeptsindh.gov.pk could have been finance.gos.pk Why do they need to mention dept in domain name? chiefministerpunjab.gov.pk could have been chiefminister.gop.pk or cm.gop.pk or both

Many use punctuations in domain names making it harder to remember. e.g. sindh-katchiabadies.gov.pk, minister-wpcc.gov.pk

More than 20% domains are longer than 12 characters. e.g. khyberpakhtunkhwapolice.gov.pk could have been police.gkp.pk, infokhyberpakhtunkhwa.gov.pk, visitgilgitbaltistan.gov.pk

I don’t know why but most of the government websites do not open without appending www. before their domain name.

There needs to some government or semi-government agency which defines guidelines for the usable domain names and helps the department in choosing a usable domain name.

Here goes the list:

1. Oye Extra Pen hei Kya. 1153652 fans
2. Ali Zafar 938829 fans
3. Muhammad Ali Jinnah 785143 fans
4. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan 654660 fans
5. Allama Iqbal 608943 fans
6. I Love Hazrat Muhammad ( PBUH ) by … 605598 fans
7. KAL SAY Paaaakaa parheingay. 539493 fans
8. Pakistan Zindabad 536365 fans
9. We Want Imran Khan To Be The Next Prime Minster Of Pakistan 490823 fans
10. Dulha & Dulhan 480511 fans
11. THREADS AND MOTIFS 445828 fans
12. Ufone 436760 fans
13. I Love MY Pakistan 424510 fans
14. MARIA.B 419856 fans
15. Top Pops 417856 fans
16. HSY 416835 fans
17. Asim Jofa 409039 fans
18. Imran Khan (official) 406648 fans
19. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 388421 fans
20. Imran Mirza ♔ 387313 fans
21. Gul Ahmed Fashion 386962 fans
22. Strings 385812 fans
23. Azizi 381676 fans
24. Zong 370637 fans
25. Stylo Shoes 347446 fans
26. Pakistan Army 330979 fans
27. Urban Design Concepts 327481 fans
28. Jaago Pakistan 326203 fans
29. Generation 324229 fans
30. Hina Khan Collections 317639 fans
31. Bankay Mian 315272 fans
32. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 294552 fans
33. Ulloo Ka Patha 289194 fans
34. Ali Moeen Nawazish 283297 fans
35. BnB Accessories 272548 fans
36. Design3r Dress 266242 fans
37. Samsung Pakistan 265686 fans
38. Imran Abbas Naqvi 265096 fans
39. Boom Boom Afridi 258544 fans
40. NESTLE FRUITA VITALS 258305 fans
41. Dr. Sana Tariq 254940 fans
42. djuice pakistan 249884 fans
43. Zeb and Haniya 247249 fans
44. Ashfaq Ahmed 246875 fans
45. Khaadi 242125 fans
46. Rahet Fateh Ali Khan 240160 fans
47. Gloria Jean’s Coffees 233339 fans
48. OOY baaz aa ja 230703 fans
49. Amanat Ali 228153 fans
50. Hina Khan 224435 fans
51. Javed Chaudhry 222398 fans
52. Daaman 222153 fans
53. Justice For Imanae Malik 221611 fans
54. Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre 221113 fans
55. Hadiqa Kiani 220724 fans
56. MIRAS Bridal Salon 219616 fans
57. Islamabad 218909 fans
58. Alpha Bravo Charlie 218837 fans
59. The Legend_Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 213204 fans
60. Dell Pakistan 211651 fans
61. Lahore lahore aey | Official 211395 fans
62. Vaseline Pakistan 208311 fans
63. Urdu Poetry 207115 fans
64. TEAM AFRIDI 205065 fans
65. KFC Pakistan 200449 fans
66. Bilal Khan 194864 fans
67. STONEAGE Jeans Co. 192258 fans
68. Qubee Pakistan 191270 fans
69. Mirza Ghalib 186311 fans
70. Needle Impressions 181082 fans
71. Luscious Cosmetics 176818 fans
72. Fawad Afzal Khan 173976 fans
73. Lahore Is Da Best 173589 fans
74. Jazba 170807 fans
75. Junoon 169529 fans
76. Olivia Shukria 168071 fans
77. Intel Pakistan 165978 fans
78. Shughal Mela 163568 fans
79. Cricket Pakistan…! 163033 fans
80. Sana Safinaz 161774 fans
81. Nando’s Pakistan 161580 fans
82. Urdu 160962 fans
83. Faisal Qureshi 158500 fans
84. Lahore, Pakistan 151252 fans
85. Nazia hassan 150034 fans
86. Masala TV 149998 fans
87. Newsweek Pakistan 149681 fans
88. noori 148848 fans
89. Nescafé Pakistan 147715 fans
90. MAGGILICIOUS 147629 fans
91. Mall of Lahore 146971 fans
92. PAKISTAN 145473 fans
93. Lala 143116 fans
94. Shoaib Akhtar 138154 fans
95. OPTP 136839 fans
96. Express News 136296 fans
97. Style 360 TV 135005 fans
98. Vj Syra 130410 fans
99. Pakistani Police 130410 fans
100. Young Pakistan 128935 fans
101. Jaagutho 127950 fans
102. Telenor Pakistan 127671 fans
103. Change 126508 fans
104. Pepsi Pakistan 126496 fans
105. Capital Talk 126001 fans
106. Axact 125579 fans
107. Haroon 124521 fans
108. Karma 124395 fans
109. NADEEM MALIK 123902 fans
110. Facebook Pakistan 122366 fans
111. Gujranwala Rocks 120660 fans
112. LALS Chocolates 120096 fans
113. جنت کا پھل عجوہ 119534 fans
114. U.S. Embassy Pakistan 117645 fans
115. Umar Gul 114660 fans
116. Pizza One 113990 fans
117. Ayesha Khan 111786 fans
118. Mian Shahbaz Sharif [Official] 110787 fans
119. Pantene Pakistan 110161 fans
120. Pampers Pakistan 108768 fans
121. Express Tribune 108452 fans
122. RoXeN The Band 108270 fans
123. Pakistan 107973 fans
124. Express News 107967 fans
125. Cricket Pakistan 107860 fans
126. Aisam ul Haq 105835 fans
127. One on One 104983 fans
128. Dr. Shahid Masood 104646 fans
129. Kamran Khan 104381 fans
130. UBL First 103672 fans
131. Pakistan 103660 fans
132. Chen One 103443 fans
133. HKB 103299 fans
134. LIVING ON THE EDGE 102434 fans
135. Bareeze 101731 fans
136. Shafqat Amanat Ali 100839 fans
137. The DawnNews Profile Page 100718 fans
138. Iman Ali 99791 fans
139. FAHAD SHEIKH 99154 fans
140. Cinepax Cinemas 98841 fans
141. Dr. Israr Ahmad 98677 fans
142. Subway Shahbaz 97971 fans
143. PAK ARMY 97786 fans
144. PUNJABI TOTAY 96990 fans
145. Mobilink Infinity 96714 fans
146. Outfitters 95453 fans
147. HP Pakistan 94258 fans
148. Servis 93858 fans
149. Easy Paisa 92856 fans
150. Simply Mobilink 91292 fans
151. we HATE Sahir Lodhi..! 90777 fans
152. Needlez BY Shalimar 90439 fans
153. Chughtais Lahore Lab 89164 fans
154. Mahnoor Baloch 88799 fans
155. HUB 88498 fans
156. Pakistan Navy 88476 fans
157. JoSH 88393 fans
158. Omore 88210 fans
159. HBL 88182 fans
160. Bhai 20 ka load kr do 87386 fans
161. GPA doesn’t MatTeR 87109 fans
162. Annie Khalid 86927 fans
163. Pakistan Air Force 86815 fans
164. US Consulate General Lahore 86348 fans
165. VJ Fatima 85178 fans
166. Dawat 84218 fans
167. Dawn news 84154 fans
168. Abida Parveen 83558 fans
169. Nomi Ansari 82603 fans
170. Fun Club :) 82283 fans
171. Raintree Mini-Spa 82176 fans
172. Gloria Jean’s Coffees Pakistan 82155 fans
173. Kayseria 80752 fans
174. Yahsir Waheed 80042 fans
175. Telenor talkshawk 79673 fans
176. Candi 79569 fans
177. Saeed Anwar 79411 fans
178. Tena Durrani 79041 fans
179. Sabs The Salon 78923 fans
180. TeRii mEheRbaAniii :p 78850 fans
181. Ali Azmat 78724 fans
182. Red Tree 78711 fans
183. AQ Power Yoga 78622 fans
184. Pakistan Zindabad 78250 fans
185. guddu shani 78090 fans
186. Tum Mile To Jeena Agya 77858 fans
187. wi-tribe Pakistan 77089 fans
188. Javed Chaudhry 76313 fans
189. Hasb-e-Hall 76093 fans
190. ARY music 76075 fans
191. Deepak Perwani 75798 fans
192. Heroes of PakistAn 75688 fans
193. Gun Smoke 75460 fans
194. Pakistan- Go Green 74940 fans
195. Cosméceutique Circle 73543 fans
196. FASHION KA GHAR 73056 fans
197. Fun Masti 72576 fans
198. Diamond Jewelry | Bilals 72444 fans
199. UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI 71422 fans
200. Shoaib Akhter..! 71417 fans
201. Vj Sehrish 71247 fans
202. Murree 70778 fans
203. FNKASIA 70649 fans
204. Mast FM 103 70519 fans
205. EP 70208 fans
206. PMA Kakul 69812 fans
207. Pak Champions 69666 fans
208. Cliché 68979 fans
209. Pakistan 68808 fans
210. Cine Star 68691 fans
211. Shoaib Mansoor 68415 fans
212. Aaj TV 68008 fans
213. Uzair Jaswal 67908 fans
214. Chinyere 67640 fans
215. PAK ARMY 67465 fans
216. DressRepublic 67325 fans
217. KARACHI 66543 fans
218. Mountain Dew PK 66025 fans
219. Aliya’s Collection 65174 fans
220. SANIA KHAN 65163 fans
221. EBH 64881 fans
222. Pakistan Air Force 64720 fans
223. Moin Akhtar 64181 fans
224. Call 63851 fans
225. WOH KIA HAI? 63733 fans
226. maria’s collection 63416 fans
227. JAAGO PAKISTAN 63244 fans
228. Faisla Aap Ka 63215 fans
229. United Mobile 63159 fans
230. Advance Telecom 63080 fans
231. NEELAM MUNEER 62576 fans
232. THE SKETCHES! 62291 fans
233. i2 Pakistan 61403 fans
234. M9 by ZONG 60011 fans
235. Vogue Towers Lahore 59868 fans
236. Nouman Javaid 59824 fans
237. Latte Lounge 59703 fans
238. SAEED ANWER 58767 fans
239. Shairi * 58030 fans
240. Rashid Minhas 57966 fans
241. Diva 57780 fans
242. Malabis 56640 fans
243. Base Rock Cafe 56629 fans
244. ilmkidunya 56226 fans
245. Portia 56210 fans
246. Punjab college 56108 fans
247. Vital Signs 55868 fans
248. Lays Flavour Cup 55337 fans
249. waqar zaka 55084 fans
250. Cheapmunks 55029 fans
251. Sarak Chaap 54938 fans
252. Golden Pakistan 54448 fans
253. RIVERSTONE 54388 fans
254. wake up pakistan 54056 fans
255. EDGE 53326 fans
256. Mantra 53235 fans
257. Mohammed Ali Jinnah 53184 fans
258. Meena Bazar 52782 fans
259. Tonight with Jasmeen 52624 fans
260. BEECH TREE 52505 fans
261. Nadda 51809 fans
262. Motors.pk 51697 fans
263. VJ URWA 50805 fans
264. Karachi Rocks!!! 50727 fans
265. Radio Contact Pakistan 50473 fans

Today I did an analysis of more than 1000 Government websites (.g**.pk). Sadly more than 70% of websites are hosted out of Pakistan.

Most of the resellers in Pakistan have their servers abroad and they host sensitive government data there. I noticed a reseller is hosting government websites including one website of a security agency on a server hosted by a US based Indian company. In my opinion all Pakistani government websites or atleast governemnt websites containing sensitive data should be hosted within the boundries of Pakistan.

Here are a few top countries hosting Pakistani Government websites:

• United States (442 websites)
• Pakistan (202 websites)
• Canada (28 websites)
• Singapore (17 websites)
• United Kingdom (12 websites)
• China (6 websites)
• Germany (4 websites)
• Eurpean Union (3 websites)

Some of the top companies hosting Government websites are: (Note: These are the end host companies, so this list does not include resellers)

• SoftLayer, Inc.(88 websites)
• Hosting Services (52 websites)
• ThePlanet.com (38 websites)
• Server4Sale LLC (36 websites)
• PTCL (34 websites)
• Netriplex LLC (23 websites)
• Go Daddy (22 websites)
• SQUARE BROTHERS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES (16 websites)
• Dedicated Services (15 websites)
• Fiberlink (15 websites)
• COMSATS (Commission on Science and Technology (14 websites)
• HostGator (14 websites)
• National Telecom Corporation (13 websites)
• Micronet Broadband (Pvt) Ltd. (11 websites)
• iWeb (10 websites)
• Brain Telecommunication Ltd. (10 websites)
• SingleHop (10 websites)
• Hosting Made Easy (10 websites)

Today I found some very interesting server names in the glue records of .pk domains. Some are really funny names like bonga, ghori, heer, mishi (server must be dedicated to mishi khan :-P) etc. Most of the server names are related to the planets and space. It seems that the sysadmins love to keep their servers above ground (arsh, chand, dragon, hawk, jannat and even rooftop :P).

Here is a list of all interesting server names:

• arsh (عرش)
• apna (اپنا)
• best
• bonga (بونگا)
• bronze
• chand (چاند)
• calipso
• columbia
• comit
• copper
• dani
• deus
• dinar (دینار)
• dirham (درہم)
• dolphin
• dragon
• duster
• eagle
• edison
• geek
• genius
• ghori (گھوڑی)
• gold
• hawk
• heer (ھیر)
• hubble
• iapetus
• iqbal (اقبال)
• jannat (جنت)
• jinnah (جناح)
• kashmir (کشمیر)
• lahori (لاہوری)
• maximus
• mishi (مشی)
• nelofer (نیلوفر)
• newton
• pathfinder
• pluto
• puma
• ravi (راوی)
• rooftop
• shaheen (شاہین)
• silver
• sirsyed
• sooraj (سورج)
• spine
• sun
• tabuk (تبوک)
• tipu (ٹیپو)
• titan
• turbo
• uqab (عقاب)
• venus
• zeus

Now its time to see what software Pakistanis are using to build their websites.

NOTE: All results are autogenerated. Please feel free to report if you find any error.