Exact match .biz vs exact match + .com

[XtremXpert]

I'm not really good with domains so here is my question:
I found a relatively easy 3-word keyword with more than 10,000 local monthly searches but almost all exact match domains are taken (com, co, net, info, us org), the only ones that I can take are .me, .biz and .co.uk. Which one do you think would be better?
Or a buykeyword.com would be better?

[junilerick]

Originally Posted by XtremXpert

I'm not really good with domains so here is my question:
I found a relatively easy 3-word keyword with more than 10,000 local monthly searches but almost all exact match domains are taken (com, co, net, info, us org), the only ones that I can take are .me, .biz and .co.uk. Which one do you think would be better?
Or a buykeyword.com would be better?

lol weren't you just replying to my other post?

Anyway, I think that overwhelming general concession seems to be that always get .com if possible, as it does provide some sort of SEO advantage. Even if you can't get keyword.com, you can always get (prefix)keyword.com or keyword(suffix).com or key-word.com. I've been hearing from many experienced SEOs that these all rank just as about as well as an EMD.

Now go and answer my thread lol.

[Jimmy AL]

I was in the same situation as you some time ago and chose the .com option. I saw some .biz domain names scoring #1 but they were few compared to all the .coms that generally occupy the first spot!

[NastyBlast]

I would stick with.com or.net as much as possible. Something short and easy to type in sounds like the way to go for you. Even hyphens in a.com or.net I think are better then resorting to.biz or others.

If it's just some kind of mass portal where people won't have to type the domain name then it doesn't matter at all.

[XtremXpert]

Originally Posted by NastyBlast

I would stick with.com or.net as much as possible. Something short and easy to type in sounds like the way to go for you. Even hyphens in a.com or.net I think are better then resorting to.biz or others.

If it's just some kind of mass portal where people won't have to type the domain name then it doesn't matter at all.

From the details I gave I think you could have known it is for a website where the traffic comes from search engines.
I'm looking for exact match domain because it helps when ranking for some keyword so your advice is relevant for this thread.

[faceblogger]

If I were you, my choice would be in this order .com, .net, .org, .biz

[XtremXpert]

Originally Posted by faceblogger

If I were you, my choice would be in this order .com, .net, .org, .biz

As I said, .com, .net and .org are already taken, I have sent an email to ask about the .net one as it is for sale. Anyway, none of them are used for a website so they won't be my competition(At least not yet).

In the first page there are 2 youtube videos, amazon, bestbuy and other pages from some website. There are only two top domain results, #1(with only around 250 backlinks) and #7 (totally irrelevant for this niche).

So you are saying that .biz is still good? I mean better keyword.biz than (prefix)keyword.com or keyword(suffix).com ?

[Julie McElroy]

Get a .com almost all of the time. If it is a niche site, maybe a little more flexible. However, if this will be an authority site - for SURE .com. words like "a" and "the" don't really matter in search engines - so thekeyword.com or keywordplus.com or bestkeyword.com, etc.

Also, look at the .com, .net. .org versions of this keyword and you will be able to see your competition. Good luck!

[Dr.faizan]

.com is the king.. go with it

[XtremXpert]

Originally Posted by Julie McElroy

Get a .com almost all of the time. If it is a niche site, maybe a little more flexible. However, if this will be an authority site - for SURE .com. words like "a" and "the" don't really matter in search engines - so thekeyword.com or keywordplus.com or bestkeyword.com, etc.

Also, look at the .com, .net. .org versions of this keyword and you will be able to see your competition. Good luck!

It is a niche website, not an authority one. I looked at the com net and org but all of them are just parked, not in use.(two for sale, sent an email asking the price)

As someone suggested, I think keyword.co.uk is still better than bestkeyword.com. The keyword is already 18 characters long.
But will wait for more advices. Thank you.

[scott g]

Originally Posted by XtremXpert

I'm not really good with domains so here is my question:
I found a relatively easy 3-word keyword with more than 10,000 local monthly searches but almost all exact match domains are taken (com, co, net, info, us org), the only ones that I can take are .me, .biz and .co.uk. Which one do you think would be better?
Or a buykeyword.com would be better?

Throw in a hyphen or two somewhere and you're in business! I'm designing a new site and the owner is determined to keep his .info domain... When I talk to other people about the project (you know... normal people who don't know anything about this stuff) the common response is ".info? What is that? I don't like that... It doesn't even sound like a real site." LOL!!!

No Joke! I've heard other Warriors say the same thing... We know they all can rank... Hell, anything can rank! BUT that's not to say that that will not stop search engines users from visiting a site... Then again maybe it will!

Put it out there... Put some effort into a domain and see what happens. If you don't like the end results then start over... It's what WE do!

Don't go with .co.uk unless you want to rank in the UK...!


CHEERS!

[InTheMaking]

Well since Exact match domains have such an impact on rankings I'd actually go for the exact match .biz

People may not agree with me but I previously registered a .biz exact match domain and I'm doing very well with it.

but then again, what do I know? It's just from experience.

[MSFB]

.com is taken people.. read!

go for.co.uk sounds like weak competition so u may well rank for international searches too. .biz is so low down the pecking order

[tucan]

As far as I know, Google only adds extra value to exact match domains that are .com, .org, .net

keyword.biz gets no bonus

[XtremXpert]

Originally Posted by scott g

Put it out there... Put some effort into a domain and see what happens. If you don't like the end results then start over... It's what WE do!

CHEERS!

You're right, at least if I try something I'll know for sure if it works or not.
I will get the .biz domain (the keyword is somehow a small business) and see how it will rank. All the other websites from the first page are .com so it will be an interesting test. I'll let you all know how it goes.

[XtremXpert]

Just received an email from the owners of the exact match .NET domain, they are asking for $990, it was registered in 2006.

[Jgregory]

Before I comment on exact match domains...

Domain Extension for TLD - In all my experience and for all my clients, Google is color-blind for search engine rankings when is comes to domain extensions. A lot of experts agree. Google don't weight the algorithm scoring for a .com domain any higher than a .biz There are 100's of other factors in play for rankings.

People typing a URL versus People clicking a clickable URL

In our experience, visitors find the site by clicking on a clickable link... about 98%. Few people are typing URLs. Which means People have to go out of their way to notice the Extension anyway.

Many of them do however, so... IMO...

.COM is worth more to your site if the searcher/buyer/consumer should recognize your website as a business. But it means nothing to Google's ranking algorithms.

.ORG - I'd say 50% of the population still considers a dot org to be a non-profit organization. So, keep that in mind if you are asking them to spend money or send them to Amazon. And if your ORG site gets a manual review from Google by getting to the tippy top of a money keyword ranking, I wouldn't be blatant about the miracle cure you are selling. Acne.org - Acne treatment and community pulls it off, because the sales component is not in your face, and 99% of the is high quality original content much of it user-generated

see the .com domain for acne below

.NET .BIZ, .INFO - Frankly its impossible to say definitively, but I've had clients go with a brandable domain name not available in .COM and succeed with no problems whatsoever using the same name with .BIZ Both SEO and consumer awareness seemed unaffected .INFO has 4 letters which some searchers might think odd. and yet INFO means INFO to most of us. BTW, 1000's of those MFA sites were succeeding with info domains in the past. Not any of them are working now, as far as I can tell this is a dead strategy.

.EDU - While we're at it... ignore all the advice that Google loves EDU domains and a backlink from EDU is worth more. Never seen this empircaly proven. EDU in the US and Europe are generally handed out to secondary level... universities.

But that includes a lot of small community colleges that wind up with totally spammed out pages that are un-moderated. Does Google overlook loads of negative factors and all the low quality content? Why would they score higher backlinks solely the EDU extension and ignore other factors?

Your Own EDU website

Did you know you can buy your own EDU domain down in Peru. For real, it is SA after all. Do you really think Google will give extra brownie points for your peruvian edu websites? Matt Cutts speaks out on EDU. This video is a few years back but I had it in my files. Lightning Round!

* Exact match domain vs Brandable Domain Name.

In all my experience, if you are building a commercial business online, you should consider a brandable domain name first. Get .com certainly.

* Brandable Domain Names - LandsEnd.com is memorable, easy to spell and type, sounds cool and was already recognizable from catalog sales... that's a brandable domain, as is FaceBook and MySpace. I've made almost as much buying brandable domains early in the game, to sell years later... as from all other online activities in 14 years.

Brand is very important for long-term success. Recognizable brands work... FaceBook was a perfect choice for a new concept because the 2 words implied the purpose of the concept/website within the domain. Pepsi became recognizable by constant repitition.

IMO, long term business building is the only reason to be online anyway, or to worry about search engines. If you create a website about a popular subject You love and know a hell of a lot about... you will get a large share of the traffic over time naturally if you can write. If it also happens to a monetizable topic, you can make a lot of bank too.

* Exact Match Domain Names. Go ahead in the right circumstances. What is your strategy? Are you doing a simple MFA site with 5 to 10 pages? Are you thinking long term or short term?

* Exact Match Product Names. You get cumulative Scoring Weight with that exact keyword phrase contained "InUrl" anyway as compared to the domain name which is basically the same thing... its InURL. There is no google operator for InDomain. Tip that they are not scoring domains alone

Acne Again

The dynamic lady is killing it in the acne market. She only started about 19 months ago with a brand new blog. Acne — High on health
Not an exact match domain. But there is loads of original content she changes daily. A loyal following provides tons of user-generated comments. She's morphed that blog out into a complete skin care store. She has a new video every 48 hours and engages her visitors. That's way more cause and effect for success and high rankings than an exact match domain name.

[Zeb]

My god! That's probably the longest post i've ever seen

[Jgregory]

Yeah... I'm a fast typist, plus I was in a Sunday funk... so it got me out of my mood.

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by Jgregory

I've been at this a long time, with many clients since 1998. And Matt Cutts recently ...

Most impressive. Experience tells me opposite some of what has been stated but overall, a good treatise on the topic.

[faceblogger]

Jgregory - Interesting post. Thanks!

[faceblogger]

Originally Posted by XtremXpert

As I said, .com, .net and .org are already taken, I have sent an email to ask about the .net one as it is for sale. Anyway, none of them are used for a website so they won't be my competition(At least not yet).

In the first page there are 2 youtube videos, amazon, bestbuy and other pages from some website. There are only two top domain results, #1(with only around 250 backlinks) and #7 (totally irrelevant for this niche).

So you are saying that .biz is still good? I mean better keyword.biz than (prefix)keyword.com or keyword(suffix).com ?

I have not tried with .biz and I usually go for a keyword(suffix).com if I could not get a .com / .org / .net domains and that works well for me.
However I am not sure if keyword(suffix).com is the best option over .biz or not.

[seoforu]

If you want to flourish your business on the UK only then .co.uk would work the best.If you want success globally and you can provide services globally then .com would be a better option.