Is it harder to rank for Not .com Domains?

[pana]

Just wondering if its harder to rank for domains ending with like .me or .ws? Has anyone had any experienced with it? Thank you!

[talfighel]

I am not really sure but the best thing you can do to look more professional is to get a domain name with .com at the end because a lot of people recognize that more then the .me or .ws

The most ranked sites on Google and Yahoo are the ones that end with .COM so this should give you an idea.

Tal

[bgmacaw]

Did you know this topic is discussed here over and over again, if not daily, at least on a weekly basis? http://www.warriorforum.com/search.php

[Jill Carpenter]

Extension has no bearing on potential for ranking.

[Ishan Soni]

Personally for me (experience wise), .org rank really well for me similarly to .com

I've don't buy any other extensions.

Its just $5 or $6 a year extra investment worth making

[Jill Carpenter]

Originally Posted by Ishan Soni

I've don't buy any other extensions.

If you don't buy any other extensions, how can you back up your statement without proper testing?

If you are just looking to rank a site - not looking for "type in" traffic, are you sure you are not wasting an extra 5-6 dollars per domain you buy and have to renew?

[KlikApps]

Not really...

I'd say that .info's are a bit harder, but not massively.

If you do your basic SEO, you can get pretty much any TLD to rank.

[JennSpencerIM]

I would take a look at the keywords you are trying to rank for and see what kind of sites are in the top 10-20 spots in google. That might give you a better idea of the answer to this question for your niche.

[Jill Carpenter]

Originally Posted by KlikApps

Not really...

I'd say that .info's are a bit harder, but not massively.

If you do your basic SEO, you can get pretty much any TLD to rank.

Again, this is total miss-information.

Ranking depends on content, relevance, backlinks, and a lot of other factors - but SE's don't care if it's a dot info or not.

Domain name extension has no bearing on how a site will rank.

The only point in purchase of a dot com is if you are looking for the added benefit of type in traffic, or if you are looking to brand yourself as this could give you a more serious/professional appearance.

If you are getting a long tail keyword that no one is going to type in with a dot com or even remember, I wouldn't worry about extension.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by KlikApps

I'd say that .info's are a bit harder, but not massively.

I was waiting for this bit of BS to show up in this thread.

Google on the bold terms...

This does beg the question, have you ever searched for info on Noam Chomsky? How about regular expressions, roman coins or craft ideas? Maybe you've never needed to do some research to find out if New York was a sanctuary city or to find out something about New York transit. Oh, and have you thought about moving your money to a local bank before you go shopping on Black Friday?

[Ridgway]

I've had tremendous success with .us TLD's, I will always grab them if the .com is not available.

.info has a bad rap due the low price to register and the sheer volume of absolute garbage throwaway PPC (pills, porn, and casino) sites that flood the net.

[Ash67]

I have found that all my .info sites rank well on yahoo but not so well on google. So because of this I tend to go for .coms

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Ash67

I have found that all my .info sites rank well on yahoo but not so well on google. So because of this I tend to go for .coms

Originally Posted by Ridgway

.info has a bad rap due the low price to register and the sheer volume of absolute garbage throwaway PPC (pills, porn, and casino) sites that flood the net.

Second time around in this Groundhog Day thread. Google on the bold terms...

This does beg the question, have you ever searched for info on Noam Chomsky? How about regular expressions, roman coins or craft ideas? Maybe you've never needed to do some research to find out if New York was a sanctuary city or to find out something about New York transit. Oh, and have you thought about moving your money to a local bank before you go shopping on Black Friday?

Are we going to go for 3 times in this one?

[MichaelBenz]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Second time around in this Groundhog Day thread. Google on the bold terms...

This does beg the question, have you ever searched for info on Noam Chomsky? How about regular expressions, roman coins or craft ideas? Maybe you've never needed to do some research to find out if New York was a sanctuary city or to find out something about New York transit. Oh, and have you thought about moving your money to a local bank before you go shopping on Black Friday?

Are we going to go for 3 times in this one?

Yea I think we are because you are not 100% right. Yes .info domains may be at the top of those results, and probably thousands of others.

But that alone doesn't mean its not tougher to get one ranked than a .com of the same keyword.

This is from both personal experience, and the experience of colleagues who are SEO experts like Keith Baxter, Aaron Wall, etc

The reason they are initially tougher to get ranked was brought up above -- porn, pills, and ppc.

Because they are cheap, lots of spammers and link farmers would buy them up to put up massive link farms and adsense sites.

Surprise, surprise -- Google caught on.

Try it yourself (we have)

Put a .com up against the .info of the same keyword, same links in, etc and the .com will likely win 9/10 times

[Daniel Brock]

I can say from my personal experience, .com, .net, and .org rank better than the other TLDs.

I have tried a number of .us domains lately to see if I can rank exact match for them - no luck what so ever.

Very low competition keywords but no rank boost.

Meanwhile, the .net, .org, .com exact match names rank top 4 pages with no work.

There is definitely a boost with the TLDs.

However, I have noticed that country specific domains rank really well - if you are trying to rank a product in the German market, you would want a .de domain name.

If you are trying to rank a keyword in the UK market, you would want a .org.uk, or .co.uk domain name.

Regards,
Dan

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by MichaelBenz

The reason they are initially tougher to get ranked was brought up above -- porn, pills, and ppc.

Because they are cheap, lots of spammers and link farmers would buy them up to put up massive link farms and adsense sites.

Surprise, surprise -- Google caught on.

Surprise, surprise, you're regurgitating nonsense that you've heard second or third hand from some SEO 'guru' who probably hasn't built a new site from scratch in 2+ years.

Actually, those kinds of sites are dominated by .com/.org because they believe the myth that you can't rank with a .info. Some of them even think the same is true of .net domains.

Originally Posted by MichaelBenz

Try it yourself (we have)

Put a .com up against the .info of the same keyword, same links in, etc and the .com will likely win 9/10 times

Total and complete BS that I've tested out many times and that I've seen in action with other people's sites.

You can believe the Cargo Cult SEO BS artists who have products to sell and affiliate commissions to earn selling rehashed nonsense to their 'list' of noobs to make money online and no longer build new niche sites if you want.

I know you're wrong about how quickly .infos can rank and others have figured this out too. It's just a matter of getting past ritualistic thinking, unfounded assumptions and having a SEO 'expert' who's selling products doing your thinking for you.

[Fermina]

From what i learned so far from website forums and niche builder to get good search engine position the com/net/org always ranks well

[MichaelBenz]

Ok i'm not gonna get into a pissing contest with you. I'm not "regurgitating nonsense that you've heard second or third hand from some SEO 'guru' who probably hasn't built a new site from scratch in 2+ years."

Its strange how while knowing nothing about me, you could make such wild assumptions throughout your post.

I'm speaking from personal experience, and the experience of friends. Baxter is hardly a 'guru'. He's a VERY smart affiliate, and he makes a lot of money doing it. Real affiliate marketing - not touting make money courses.

I really can't see why you'd lash out in such a way. I was simply giving input to the OP about what myself and my associates have found. Not by reading about it, by actually doing this stuff.

Just because you've seen different results doesn't mean your answer is the only answer.

The fact that you would slam me and completely write off what I said for everyone because it's not the way you see things does however say a lot about your character though.

I wish you the best of luck in your business.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Actually, those kinds of sites are dominated by .com/.org because they believe the myth that you can't rank with a .info. Some of them even think the same is true of .net domains.

It never ceases to amaze me that in all these Groundhog Day Revisited (for the 229th time) threads, so few people ever manage to work this out. The fact that so many .com domains are so high-ranking is "evidential", alright: it's evidential of the effect of such widespread misguided beliefs in the urban myths of internet marketing.

Your persistence in correcting misapprehensions on this matter and your ongoing stuggle to try to set the record straight (thankless task though it so often is!) is greatly appreciated and welcomed, Bgmacaw - thank you!

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

It's just a matter of getting past ritualistic thinking, unfounded assumptions and having a SEO 'expert' who's selling products doing your thinking for you.

Very neatly put - and, as ever, unerringly accurate.

[sbucciarel]

I haven't found any difference in my rankings if the SEO is done. I just got a .co to rank on page one and many in the WF said they would never rank because .co is the extension for Colombia. Guess again. Google is indexing and ranking them the same as any extension based on content and SEO factors. I've had plenty of .info's ranking well also.

[connorbringas]

Personally, I think .orgs, .coms, and .nets work better...and yes that is from experience. Everyone knows that..

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by connorbringas

Personally, I think .orgs, .coms, and .nets work better...and yes that is from experience. Everyone knows that..

Guess you haven't really read the thread. There's plenty of us who know better than that and that is from personal experience.

[Marhelper]

I have found that .org and .net do fine.

[timpears]

Everyone has an opinion on this question, but they are just opinions. I can't see how any of them are based on facts or testing. But everyone is going to come here and give you their opinion. And you know that opinions are like a$$holes. Everyone has one, and they all stink. Sorry if I offended anyone. But I believe it is the truth.

I don't think that Google cares a damn about what your domain extension is. (yes, my opinion) Why would they care about that? What relevance has it got to anything? If you just use a little logic to answer the question, I don't see how it matters what the extension is.

But that is just me.

[connorbringas]

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

Guess you haven't really read the thread. There's plenty of us who know better than that and that is from personal experience.

I read the thread. I just have never seen anything else ever rank. I could be completely wrong, but have you ever seen a .tv make it organically? or a .me? I havent..

[howinfo]

From personal experience .info ranks very well and so does any other extension I have used. If someone can not get a domain name to rank very well and they don’t want to admit that their SEO ability is not up to scratch then they can always blame the domain extension.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by connorbringas

I just have never seen anything else ever rank.

You might like to spend a minute reading, for example, post #13 above, and having a look at Google, then?

[connorbringas]

niceeee didnt check that

[John34]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brock

I can say from my personal experience, .com, .net, and .org rank better than the other TLDs.

I have tried a number of .us domains lately to see if I can rank exact match for them - no luck what so ever.

Very low competition keywords but no rank boost.

Meanwhile, the .net, .org, .com exact match names rank top 4 pages with no work.

There is definitely a boost with the TLDs.

However, I have noticed that country specific domains rank really well - if you are trying to rank a product in the German market, you would want a .de domain name.

If you are trying to rank a keyword in the UK market, you would want a .org.uk, or .co.uk domain name.

Regards,
Dan

Same goes for .us domains as wel, they rank well in US market.

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by connorbringas

I read the thread. I just have never seen anything else ever rank. I could be completely wrong, but have you ever seen a .tv make it organically? or a .me? I havent..

Here's an example. My father is an old man now, but a well known National Rifle Shooter and gunsmith of match rifles. His name is tossed around all over shooting forums. He wrote an ebook about accurizing the M1Garand, no small task for a man his age who types with one finger.

I put it all together and built him a site in 2008 on m1-m1a-ar15 dot com. Only problem was that a "friend" of his built the original lame site that was there so that he could benefit from my father's name and sell his own guns. I fixed all that, however, he had registered the domain and would not transfer it to me, even though my father paid for it and all the hosting.

The domain expired and I tried to get it, but some SEO person bought it and built a site on it, not using my dad's content, but using his site structure exactly. The domain had plenty of traffic and PR3. It also came up #1 when you typed in Clint Fowler, my dad's name.

So I purchased gunsmithing.CO <---- .co ... not .com
Did a bit of SEO on it and now it is rising on page one, not for my Dads' name, but for the exact domain name of the original site. My father's blog is also rising along with it and all of his traffic is now back. I'm now working on the blog so that I can get him ranking #1 for his own name. His blog at http://clintfowlerrifles.com now ranking number 7 for Clint Fowler with the pretender in #1 spot. If you type on Clint Fowler Rifles, the .co is now in #5 spot and the blog in #3. Naturally, my goal is to rank #1 for my father's name and company name.

But this shows fairly well how a brand new .co can quickly compete with an established .com with pagerank, and yes, I've seen tvs outrank .coms numerous times.

[Clyde]

SEO-wise,

.com > .org > .net

Fact as of today.

[Spivey]

.info's don't rank too well in Google.

[Dellco]

For what it's worth, I have a .info ranking just below Wikipedia and having very few links built to it. The term is a major term and Google has ranked it 2nd for years.

The key is to earn the trust from Google (and not forgetting your visitors).

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

SEO-wise,

.com > .org > .net

Fact as of today.

Originally Posted by Spivey

.info's don't rank too well in Google.

Third time for non-thread readers and blind 'guru' followers...

Google on the bold terms...

This does beg the question, have you ever searched for info on Noam Chomsky? How about regular expressions, roman coins or craft ideas? Maybe you've never needed to do some research to find out if New York was a sanctuary city or to find out something about New York transit. Oh, and have you thought about moving your money to a local bank before you go shopping on Black Friday?

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Third time for non-thread readers and blind 'guru' followers...

Google on the bold terms...

This does beg the question, have you ever searched for info on Noam Chomsky? How about regular expressions, roman coins or craft ideas? Maybe you've never needed to do some research to find out if New York was a sanctuary city or to find out something about New York transit. Oh, and have you thought about moving your money to a local bank before you go shopping on Black Friday?

Guru follower? pfftt..

Please learn how to do a proper experiment. Your examples are flawed. For you to prove your point the experiment needs to be replicable and yields the same results every time.

Just to show you how wrong your logic is, Google any popular terms and you will see .com ranking #1 BUT guess what, IT DOESN'T PROVE ANYTHING.

I know for a fact that if the owner of blackfriday.info bought the .com/net/org version, built the same backlinks to all of his sites, have the same content on all of them, the .com will out-perform the rest. I've done this experiment at least 10 times now and don't just quote me, the guy behind seobook.com did it too.


Of course Google can change the way they weight TLD's but I have serious doubt they would want $1, cheap and heavily spammed .info's cluttering up their SERPs.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

Of course Google can change the way they weight TLD's but I have serious doubt they would want $1, cheap and heavily spammed .info's cluttering up their SERPs.

Nor do they want cheap and heavily spammed .com's, .net's or .anythings cluttering up their SERPs. It's all about authority links and basic off-site SEO, not the TLD. What don't you get about that?

Stop practicing cargo cult SEO...

YouTube - The waiting is the hardest part

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Nor do they want cheap and heavily spammed .com's, .net's or .anythings cluttering up their SERPs. It's all about authority links and basic off-site SEO, not the TLD. What don't you get about that?

Stop practicing cargo cult SEO...

YouTube - The waiting is the hardest part

What don't you get about Google valuing certain TLD's more than .info's? It's a fact.

.info's are heavily used by spammers? FACT.

.info's are 1/4th the price of its counterpart com/net/org? FACT.

and I never said you don't need backlinks. We're just talking about TLD's here as a single variable.
Everybody knows ultimately backlinks play a major factor. I thought this was a given so I didn't mention it.

Stop practicing, "I have more posts therefore I know more" SEO.

I draw conclusions based on experimental results, not the other way around.

[insert your favorite YouTube video here]

[dburk]

Hi Warriors,

Here some food for thought. This is a report about what Matt Cutts said on the subject at the 2008 Domain Roundtable Conference:

"The question came up about whether it matters which TLD (top level domain) you’re using. For example, do .com domains carry more weight than a .net, .us, .info, etc. He said that TLD doesn’t matter–that’s the way Larry and Sergey originally designed the Google algorithm. The algorithm doesn’t care where the page is located, it’s all about pagerank (LINKS) of the particular page. At the end of answering this question he did admit that they might have started to look at particularly cheap (and spammy) TLDs differently than other TLDs–or they might start considering TLD in their algorithm if they’re not already doing so."

Source: http://www.seo.com/blog/conferences/...in-roundtable/

I'm not sure how accurate this report is since it seems to imply that Matt contradicts himself. Usually that is just the spin the author places on an article when he chooses not believe what is said. I wasn't there so I would take it with a grain of salt.

[howinfo]

Originally Posted by Spivey

.info's don't rank too well in Google.

Interesting? My info domains rank very well in Google. I wonder what Google has against your info domains then

[howinfo]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

What don't you get about Google valuing certain TLD's more than .info's? It's a fact.

.info's are heavily used by spammers? FACT.

.info's are 1/4th the price of its counterpart com/net/org? FACT.

and I never said you don't need backlinks. We're just talking about TLD's here as a single variable.
Everybody knows ultimately backlinks play a major factor. I thought this was a given so I didn't mention it.

Stop practicing, "I have more posts therefore I know more" SEO.

I draw conclusions based on experimental results, not the other way around.

[insert your favorite YouTube video here]

Could you send me a link where Google says that they are valuing certain TLD's more than .info's. I have been looking for it and can not find it, would be interesting to read that and it would eliminate lot of arguing in the future.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

What don't you get about Google valuing certain TLD's more than .info's? It's a fact.

False and has been proven false many times over.

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

.info's are heavily used by spammers? FACT.

False. .com domains are a lot more heavily used by spammers because they believe the .info myth and aren't willing to invest the time and effort into making a site rank well .

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

.info's are 1/4th the price of its counterpart com/net/org? FACT.

The first year only.

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

Stop practicing, "I have more posts therefore I know more" SEO.

Post count doesn't enter into it unless you're showing your own insecurities about your lack of experience and knowledge when it comes to SEO in general and .info domains specifically.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by dburk

At the end of answering this question he did admit that they might have started to look at particularly cheap (and spammy) TLDs differently than other TLDs–or they might start considering TLD in their algorithm if they’re not already doing so."

That's what I was referring to earlier in this thread about 2 year old or older SEO 'knowledge'. So many people hang their hat on this offhand comment when it really doesn't mean anything.

The truth is that the web spam team hired additional visual inspectors to help them manage the work load and had no need to have a "throw the baby out with the bathwater" algorithm. My key point is that if they did a blanket penalty to .info domains this would result in less relevant search results. The thing is that if you're doing something spammy enough to draw notice, regardless of the domain extension, you're likely to get penalized or deindexed. If your site is clean, you're fine.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

False and has been proven false many times over.

If you say so, it has to be true right..

False. .com domains are a lot more heavily used by spammers because they believe the .info myth and aren't willing to invest the time and effort into making a site rank well .

If you say so..

The first year only.

Thanks for agreeing with me, although that wasn't my intention.

Post count doesn't enter into it unless you're showing your own insecurities about your lack of experience and knowledge when it comes to SEO in general and .info domains specifically.

It doesn't, and you haven't proven anything.

Everything you said HAS and will always BE based on SPECULATIONS.

Open up your mind and perhaps you can learn something.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by howinfo

Could you send me a link where Google says that they are valuing certain TLD's more than .info's. I have been looking for it and can not find it, would be interesting to read that and it would eliminate lot of arguing in the future.

Of course, Google will pay Matt Cutts to teach you how to dominate their SERP's. It makes perfect sense.

..not

Look, I'm a practical guy, I based my "opinion" on results that are replicable.

Want a source?

Next time you get into a niche, buy both the .com and .info variation and see which one ranks faster/better with the same amount of links. Do it 5x more and there you have it.

Fun Facts about Mr. Cutts:

1. Mr. Cutts has nothing to do with Google's algorithm, he's part of the web-spam team.

2. He is in the business of NOT letting you dominate the SERPs.

[howinfo]

No link then?

Anyway, I have done lot of testing with various different domain extensions and I have found that if applying proper SEO I can get any extension rank well or maybe Google just loves me.

And I have found Matt Cutts very useful, nice looking fellow, I hope he keeps my .info's ranking well.

[TheRetiredBuilder]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

Next time you get into a niche, buy both the .com and .info variation and see which one ranks faster/better with the same amount of links. Do it 5x more and there you have it.

Well you could do that

Or alternatively you could just make 10 different websites and make more money rather than waste time trying to prove a point to a few forum freaks

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by howinfo

No link then?

Anyway, I have done lot of testing with various different domain extensions and I have found that if applying proper SEO I can get any extension rank well or maybe Google just loves me.

And I have found Matt Cutts very useful, nice looking fellow, I hope he keeps my .info's ranking well.

I never said you can't rank a .info but rather it would be easier with .com/net/org.

You can rank any TLD's with enough links, this is a given.

The OP asked,

Is it harder to rank for not .com domains?

The answer is YES, it IS harder.

[howinfo]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

I never said you can't rank a .info but rather it would be easier with .com/net/org.

You can rank any TLD's with enough links, this is a given.

The OP asked,


The answer is YES, it IS harder.

It is not harder for me.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

Open up your mind and perhaps you can learn something.

Perhaps you should take your own advice instead of spouting regurgitated nonsense that you have never tested.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

The answer is YES, it IS harder.

No it is not.