Is It Wise To Use A .INFO?

[MusicisMagic]

Hi all,

Is it wise to use a .info for adsense or product sites? I'm wondering what kind of reception they get from Ggl. in terms of indexing and ranking? Any experiences would be helpful...

Thanks.

[dvduval]

I don't believe google has anything different in their algorithm for this extension. However, it is true that because these are cheaper, you see more made for adsense type sites, so make sure you make a site that is worthwhile, and I'm sure you will do fine.

[MusicisMagic]

Thanks for the tip!

[Gale10]

Hi there,

John (Xfactor) and others recommend .com .org and .net for faster indexing.

I had a .biz for three months and Google never ever indexed it at all. It was pre-owned and I think they may have sandboxed it previously.

All the best,

Ruth

[MusicisMagic]

Thanks Ruth

[sndrsndv]

i bought a .info 4 days ago and it got indexed fine. well thats just me . But you need to get links from websites that are constantly getting crawled by google..

[karlhadwen]

I have to agree with Gale. Google likes .com/org/net a lot better than .info's. It's a lot faster for indexing and ranking.

[sndrsndv]

double post [delete]

[Ryan6]

Type "PageRank" through in Google and look at that second spot. Doesn't matter what you use, if you want to rank well then focus on backlinks and content.

[dhex]

I'm also using .infos for building websites for adsense and they are indexed and ranked well. Among the five domains i have only two of them, i think, took more than a week to get indexed. The rest got indexed in less than a week.

FYI .com and .org are considered as high level domains and they are given some sort of priority. If you search Google's help file you can find more information. You may also find some info on Google webmaster tool.

[MusicisMagic]

Some Great Information. Thanks everyone...keep it coming!

[freudianslip27]

In the past I've gotten okay performance from .info's, though if I am working on a project that is somewhat serious, I definitely go for the .com.

I don't think you'll find official proof that its harder to rank for .info's, but the logic does make sense. There are A LOT of .info's out there that are spam and made for adsense sites, and google knows it.

Matt

[MusicisMagic]

So how is it that .org has such a predominant position?

[MusicisMagic]

Thanks everyone for all your help!

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by freudianslip27

There are A LOT of .info's out there that are spam and made for adsense sites, and google knows it.

There are also A LOT of .com's out there that are spam and made for adsense sites, and Google knows it.

[MusicisMagic]

That's a good point bgmacaw...

There are a lot of .com sites that have terrible content. Perhaps extension is not as important as solid content and good backlinks. Although I can't say i've seen a lot of .tv or .mobi at the top of ggl. lists

[All Night Cafe]

I have used .info's for affiliate products and have had good
success with ranking on Google.

[MusicisMagic]

Originally Posted by All Night Cafe

I have used .info's for affiliate products and have had good
success with ranking on Google.

Did you produce a lot of extra backlinking or was it the same for .coms?

[SuccessPoint]

You guys remember when Google purged ALL info domains from it's index? Do you think they would ever purge all the .coms?
(read here: Google Temporarily Purges .info Domain Names | SEO Book.com)

Google is definitely keeping track of infos on a different level than coms, orgs, and nets.

Can an info domain rank well?... sure it can. But we have enough problems as it is trying to establish trust on the web... why make it harder by using an .info domain?

My personal recommendation is to stay away from .info domains for any web property that is not a "throw away" site.

[All Night Cafe]

I got a good amount of backlinking and have made 8 sales for a total
of $376.00. I look for .com first, but I will always test .info to see
if I can rank for the product.

It will work, as always you have to test.

[MusicisMagic]

Originally Posted by SuccessPoint

You guys remember when Google purged ALL info domains from it's index? Do you think they would ever purge all the .coms?
(read here: Google Temporarily Purges .info Domain Names | SEO Book.com)

Google is definitely keeping track of infos on a different level than coms, orgs, and nets.

Can an info domain rank well?... sure it can. But we have enough problems as it is trying to establish trust on the web... why make it harder by using an .info domain?

My personal recommendation is to stay away from .info domains for any web property that is not a "throw away" site.

I kind of find that hard to believe that they would "purge" all .infos. they probably had a selection process/criteria to delete certain .infos. I don't think such a sweeping format would have been implemented.

[SuccessPoint]

Originally Posted by MusicisMagic

I kind of find that hard to believe that they would "purge" all .infos. they probably had a selection process/criteria to delete certain .infos. I don't think such a sweeping format would have been implemented.

Find it hard to believe? Did you read the blog post from Aaron Wall at SEObook that I referenced? Did you look at the comments or research others that got dropped at that time?

Maybe you need another reference from Webmasterworld: My .info traffic is 0 - 300 Keywords stopped working

Not sure how long you have been doing search marketing... but maybe others here can chime in that lost .infos when it happened (I was one of them). I still use infos for things like catch all email domains and feeder sites. But I would never use them for a primary site that I cared about.

Are you trying to get good advice or are you trying to get reassurance about info domains that you already purchased?

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by SuccessPoint

You guys remember when Google purged ALL info domains from it's index? Do you think they would ever purge all the .coms?

I remember when they marked all the .coms as hazardous sites, does that count?

Originally Posted by SuccessPoint

But I would never use them for a primary site that I cared about.

MTA Home Page
Regular-Expressions.info - Regex Tutorial, Examples and Reference - Regexp Patterns
Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank of any web pages

Hmmm....I guess they just didn't care about these sites.

[sweetfranky]

My fear with .info is that google could discount them by some means in the future so I don't use them personally. However, if you are making a massive amount of mini sites then this might be the way to go.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by sweetfranky

My fear with .info is that google could discount them by some means in the future so I don't use them personally.

There are far too many .info authority sites, like the ones I listed above, for them to do any blanket discounting of them. Bing did this at first and had to back off of it when they realized that this, along with discounting subdomains including those on Blogger and Wordpress.com, hurt the quality of their search results.

[paulgl]

Google doesn't give a flying squirrel what your extrension is.
It neither helps nor hurts. If it were only that easy.

I'll use the same example, yet again. You guys care about PR.
Do a search on google for google pr checker or something
similar. The site that rules, and I mean RULES, is a dot info.
Drives those dot com conspiracy theorists nuts.
In fact, just retried my experiment and did a search for
best pr checker
dot info again! Man those people rock! In fact it normally
gets the top two slots!

But hey, keep your dot coms. Your competition is actually thinking
about things that matter instead of website extensions.

Paul

[danieldesmond]

Top Level Domain .info is actually non commercial site but adsense and another affiliate program can be placed in the site.
Based on my experience, .info site is hard to get position in top 10 google if the site places affiliate in it, but as long as you supply your site with high quality backlinks, it is possible to make your site visible in top 10.

[Darius Greindl]

.com domains are experience to be the best in ranking. If you have a .com domain they will outrank the other ones if you have kind of the same amount of traffic. I know that many are already taken, but trust me, it's really worth the work. Go with a .com domain! Best for SEO!

[NicheCowboy]

I only like to use .com, net or org. info's have never "stuck" for me.

[michaelmac]

I have one of my adsense sites at number 2 out of 3.5 million sites broad search. I get 200-300 uniques per day and make reasonably good money from it. Guess what it is a dotINFO!

[tjcocker]

One of my .infos is #2 for it's term and was just made a PR4. I have a couple 3's, a 2, and a bunch of PR1's that are also .info. My .coms, .nets, and .orgs also got PR boosts in about the same amount, I didn't see any difference.

Ranking is another matter. Google likes to give my .infos the dance a lot longer. Patience is a virtue.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by danieldesmond

Top Level Domain .info is actually non commercial site but adsense and another affiliate program can be placed in the site.

What the ...?!?

Based on my experience, .info site is hard to get position in top 10 google if the site places affiliate in it, but as long as you supply your site with high quality backlinks, it is possible to make your site visible in top 10.

So you are saying, if you do the normal SEO, it is possible?
EXACTLY! So, what's the argument?

The politics of domain extensions today is nonexistent.
I think the only extension left with any "political" connotations
is the dot edu. And by political, I mean any meaning to the extension
left. Dot org's went commercial years ago.

Paul

[CloudTap]

in my honest opinion:

any time you are not registering a .com , .net , .org you are being unwise :P

[lee schmidt]

Google probably stereotypes .info domains. It's a fact that a very high percentage of .info domains are spam. Yes, there are plenty of .com/.net/.org domains that are spam as well. But I'd bet that Google will be a lot quicker to punish a .info because it's simply more likely to be spam.

If you were Google and you knew that 80% of all .info domains were spam - would you not treat them differently?

Additionally, Google has temporarily purged ALL .info domains from it's index in the past. Apparently it was accidental, but I assure you this would never happen with the .com TLD.

Finally, Matt Cutts himself is quoted as saying "A top-level domain (TLD registry) will offer domains for under $4. The result will be another TLD blighted by spammy domain registrations."

So, by all means I think you should use .info for all your projects

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by lee schmidt

Additionally, Google has temporarily purged ALL .info domains from it's index in the past. Apparently it was accidental, but I assure you this would never happen with the .com TLD.

No, they just marked them all the .coms as dangerous malware sites during a similar software glitch.

Oh, it helps if you take the time to read the whole thread before you jump in.