.ws domains - DO NOT stand for 'website'!

[mikeid22]

Many of you guys here at warrior forums probably know this, but I have seen people trying to sell .ws domains and sites, claiming that .ws stands for 'website'!

This is not true...

Despite many people saying .ws stands for 'website', in actual fact it is the country specific TLD for Samoa (see: hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.ws) - swap hxxp for http!

So, if you choose to use a .ws tld for ranking in UK or USA, you won't be able to do things like set country-target in google's webmaster tools, and your site *may* be seen as a Samoa based site...

It would be the same as going with a .co.uk domain when targeting USA...

Consider a .co domain, recently these switched from being a country based domain (Columbia - hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.co ) to a non-country specific tld. swap hxxp for http!

Hope that helps to stop any newbies getting blagged!!!

Mike.
Ps. Sorry for the hxxp! - I can't post URLs yet!

[Carl Brown]

Originally Posted by mikeid22

Many of you guys here at warrior forums probably know this, but I have seen people trying to sell .ws domains and sites, claiming that .ws stands for 'website'!

This is not true...

Despite many people saying .ws stands for 'website', in actual fact it is the country specific TLD for Samoa (see: hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.ws) - swap hxxp for http!

So, if you choose to use a .ws tld for ranking in UK or USA, you won't be able to do things like set country-target in google's webmaster tools, and your site *may* be seen as a Samoa based site...

It would be the same as going with a .co.uk domain when targeting USA...

Consider a .co domain, recently these switched from being a country based domain (Columbia - hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.co ) to a non-country specific tld. swap hxxp for http!

Hope that helps to stop any newbies getting blagged!!!

Mike.
Ps. Sorry for the hxxp! - I can't post URLs yet!

Thanks, I did not know this (but I'm not surprised)

I did a website for an apartment complex that wanted .ws--not sure why.

[JamesM]

This is a good point. The same is true for 'domain hacks', where country specific TLDs are used - for example hxxp://deli.cio.us - they're not targeting US markets only.

One thing that I don't believe is true though - I'm pretty sure you can still use Webmaster Tools to set the locale of your website, regardless of extension. There are loads of companies out there that operate from one country but primarily sell to another.

[duia]

Yes, some people think that .ws stands for 'WebSite', in fact, .ws domain names is the Western Samoa ccTLD domains.

[mikeid22]

One thing that I don't believe is true though - I'm pretty sure you can still use Webmaster Tools to set the locale of your website, regardless of extension. There are loads of companies out there that operate from one country but primarily sell to another.

Register a .co.uk domain, and try to change the country target...

Or, if you don't believe what I say is true about not being able to set country target in webmaster tools for country specific tld's (fair enuf, so much hear-say in the IM world!), maybe listen to what Google say: hxxp://google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399 - (Sorry again for hxxp over http!)

Specifically, this bit:

You can only use this feature for sites with a generic top-level domain, such as .com or .org. Sites with country-coded top-level domains (such as .ie) are already associated with a geographic region, in this case Ireland.

Hope that clears things up.

[jazbo]

It is the TLD for Western Samoa, god I thought anyone would at least check that before buying.

As for trying to rank in various national Google's, I have been trying to knock a .ws off the top of google.com with my .com domain for three months now. Just because you use a geographical domain, does not mean you cannot rank well in multiple versions of Google.

[Adam H]

Whilst you are correct about the .ws TLD , What you say about not being able to target another country with country specific TLD's is total rubbish , unless i misunderstood what you were saying the way you wrote it was not correct.

There are many ways to tell search engines what gio location you wish to target regardless of the TLD , which includes where the majority of your backlinks are coming from , the Meta tag :

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb">

The Lang part on the end will tell search engines exactly the area you are targeting, not only that but alots of small differences too like where you site is hosted , although there is very little influence imo on where your site is hosted.

Of course its always good to have your sites TLD targeting the origin of the TLD , hosting also from the country of origin etc etc but its not 100% necessary.

[mikeid22]

Originally Posted by Riverwire

Whilst you are correct about the .ws TLD , What you say about not being able to target another country with country specific TLD's is total rubbish , unless i misunderstood what you were saying the way you wrote it was not correct.

Nah, you got me wrong.

I do know you can rank country specific TLDs in the international arena without issue...

What I said was SPECIFICALLY that you CANNOT set the geo target in webmaster tools

I am not saying its much harder to rank country specific TLDs over non-country specific ones...

JUST that people should NOT be mislead into thinking .ws is an international TLD, when it is a Country specific one...

It is just I recently saw a few people selling domians/sites, saying .ws was international, and I don't like to see folks trying to mislead others, especially when selling them something for their hard earned $$...

I myself have sites that are on .co.uk domains, that rank VERY well in Google.com Google.es and others... Was just trying to clear things up to help avoid folks getting mislead, thats all

[Adam H]

Originally Posted by mikeid22

Nah, you got me wrong.

I do know you can rank country specific TLDs in the international arena without issue...

What I said was SPECIFICALLY that you CANNOT set the geo target in webmaster tools

I am not saying its much harder to rank country specific TLDs over non-country specific ones...

JUST that people should NOT be mislead into thinking .ws is an international TLD, when it is a Country specific one...

It is just I recently saw a few people selling domians/sites, saying .ws was international, and I don't like to see folks trying to mislead others, especially when selling them something for their hard earned $$...

I myself have sites that are on .co.uk domains, that rank VERY well in Google.com Google.es and others... Was just trying to clear things up to help avoid folks getting mislead, thats all

Fare play, i did wonder if id just read it in the wrong way

[mikeid22]

Originally Posted by jazbo

It is the TLD for Western Samoa, god I thought anyone would at least check that before buying.

As for trying to rank in various national Google's, I have been trying to knock a .ws off the top of google.com with my .com domain for three months now. Just because you use a geographical domain, does not mean you cannot rank well in multiple versions of Google.

Oh, I agree! People should check things before they buy... but in a couple or more instances, the seller was actually claiming that .ws stands for website! Which got my back up a bit. I just wanted to post here, to help people understand what the .ws really is!

[mikeid22]

Originally Posted by Riverwire

Fare play, i did wonder if id just read it in the wrong way

Possibly a bit of you reading the wrong way, and me writing it poorly!!!

[FrankBowman]

BTW, anybody remember google's new url shortener, goo.gl, well ---.gl--- is the country extension for Greenland.

[DireStraits]

This is true, and the same goes for any TLDs which have been branded/marketed for particular forms of usage.

.WS (and I heard some people referring to them as "world server" as well as "web site"), was touted as being the next .com.

The recently "launched" (or at least opened up for public/general worldwide registration) and much-hyped .CO is the country-code for Colombia, and .ME (branded as being the perfect domain for personal websites -- websites about yourself / me) is the country-code domain for Montenegro.

Most of these TLDs are country-codes, the fairly low internet adoption rates, small populations or other possible factors which result in lower demand for the domains in their respective countries has led them to be opened them up for worldwide registration. In addition, they're often branded as being intended for some other purpose, when the truth is they're not intended for any specific purpose at all other than to be for websites residing in, relevant to and/or focused on that TLDs respective country, much like .UK domains are intended to be used for UK-focused or UK-residing websites, etc.

[mikeid22]

Exactly! Although, with the recent change in .co domains, Google has now said they are preparing to change their way of treating these domains, and see them as international domains (inc. allowing the setting of country target in webmaster tools) - which I find interesting (source - Yup, post count is enough to post links now, no more hxxp ones, LoL)

Originally Posted by DireStraits

This is true, and the same goes for any TLDs which have been branded/marketed for particular forms of usage.

.WS (and I heard some people referring to them as "world server" as well as "web site"), was touted as being the next .com.

The recently "launched" (or at least opened up for public/general worldwide registration) and much-hyped .CO is the country-code for Colombia, and .ME (branded as being the perfect domain for personal websites -- websites about yourself / me) is the country-code domain for Montenegro.

Most of these TLDs are country-codes, the fairly low internet adoption rates, small populations or other possible factors which result in lower demand for the domains in their respective countries has led them to be opened them up for worldwide registration. In addition, they're often branded as being intended for some other purpose, when the truth is they're not intended for any specific purpose at all other than to be for websites residing in, relevant to and/or focused on that TLDs respective country, much like .UK domains are intended to be used for UK-focused or UK-residing websites, etc.