Ranking with .info domains

[John Hixson]

I know, I know, it's a subject that's been done to death right?

But in all the threads I read very little gets said on actual experience in ranking with .infos, just a lot of theories and best guesses. so i was wondering - what experience have you in ranking with .info's?

Have you tried and succeeded?
Have you tried and failed?

I ask because right now I have very little to add to the debate but I am interested. The reason I am interested is I have been following a couple of the adsense threads and have taken action with about 5 sites so far that are going well and went to target a keyword that looks very promising but the .com and the .net have gone.

Now usually if the .com has gone I move on or maybe add another word to it, but this time I have decided to try test the .info domain. As with all marketing it's all about testing right?

This site has very similar numbers of competition, PR of ranking sites, backlinks etc as 2 of my existing adsense sites so I think it would be interesting to test it against those

So over the next month I will be seeing how well I can get it ranked using the same linking systems I have with the other 2 - and seeing if there is a difference.

Obviously it won't be exact, they are targetting different keywords etc, but it should give me a good base to build my own opinions, and obviously I will check back here with the results.

But whilst I am doing this I'll ask again - what are people's experiences with ranking .info domains? Experiences, not theories.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

I've got probably 200 .infos, they rank just fine. I use them for creating authority sites to link to my main sites. The human element seems to factor in though, its' harder to get people to link to a .info.

[Raphael1]

I mostly use .com / .net or .org - I did experiments with SEOing .coms vs .infos (wanted to see what works) - the .coms always win... - only use info if you want to test or don't have another choice

[John Hixson]

Hmmm, my initial look suggests that there is some issue. following much teh same process I used for my .com as my .info I am indexed BUT I don't rank at all for the keyword in the domain and rank 159 for the other main keyword I am targetting. The .com entered at around 11 for the main keyword and 20 for the other keywords with only basic backlinking.

Will continue seeing how much effort it takes to rank

[wolfmmiii]

I have a few .info's that rank just fine.

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

I have a few .info's that rank just fine.

did they take any more effort? Did they rank from the start (assuming non-competitive niche)?

I had no real idea whch is why I am split testing this one. I know one isnt enough by itself but its a start.

[DireStraits]

I've ranked .infos in the past and never noticed (nor even considered at the time) any difference. That was a couple of years ago, however.

Since then I've bought, indexed and ranked a couple of .me (country TLD for Montenegro) domains and again I had no problems with that - they rank well both in the UK, US and many other countries SERPs).

Googles spam detecting algorithms/methods are (I think) good enough to detect and filter out most spam and excessively crappy content on a case-by-case basis, without the need for them to resort to holding mass prejudice against the whole of a TLD and penalizing every domain off the bat -- that would be somewhat foolish.

In my experience it just so happens that most people don't bother to put much effort into building sites on .info and other "lesser respected" TLDs - probably largely because they simply aren't as desirable (in terms of look, sound and overall respectability), as the other, longer-standing TLDs such as .com, .net and .org.

[lastname]

i never try . info but some my friends said hard to get them indexed

[JMartin]

I think it seems harder because not many people put in the effort to rank them to begin with (expecting a $1 domain with KWP in it to magically trump the rankings).

I've had some .infos rank fine. In fact, I'm going after a KWP right now with a .us in the top 3.

Personally though, I do .com or .org or move on.

And part of that is just thinking down the line. I've sold many sites over the years and I tend to think that most people devalue a .info site.

That said, if there's a real juicy KWP and no real domain options but the .info. I'd take it and run with it. Never know and it's under $1 to try. LOL

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by JMartin

That said, if there's a real juicy KWP and no real domain options but the .info. I'd take it and run with it. Never know and it's under $1 to try. LOL

Exactly my thinking!

As for teh rest - well I am developing this site just like the others but whilst it is a little behind them it is too early to tell anything serious right now - the Google dance has all sorts of odd patterns before it settles down, going to be a few weeks yet before I can give any sort of definitive results

[waihon]

I think the content of a website is way more important then the domain name, and Goolge has the technology to differentiate a genuine content site from a spammy site. Having said that, if the .com version is still available, I would choose that one over a .info.

[Louise Green]

There was a time when .info domains would rank faster than a .com because Google thought .info sites were less spammy.

Not sure if it's still the same today.