Exact Keyword Domain and a .co domain

[Latsyrc]

I recently purchased a new domain. It is a career with over 6,000 exact searches a month, high cpc. I purchased a .co domain that seemed to fall through the cracks when everyone rushed to buy a .co.

Anywho, the competition is competitive on the front page but I had to buy this domain...it was calling my name, lol. There is a domain on the top 10 who I believe I can beat with time. I realize that the extension doesn't mean a whole lot with ranking from what I've read (just how well I backlink, SEO, etc). However, I've heard things about .co domains...some people think they are not easy to rank. What has been your experience?

Thanks for your input.

[Charles Washington]

Originally Posted by counselormom

Anywho, the competition is competitive on the front page but I had to buy this domain...it was calling my name, lol. There is a domain on the top 10 who I believe I can beat with time. I realize that the extension doesn't mean a whole lot with ranking from what I've read (just how well I backlink, SEO, etc). However, I've heard things about .co domains...some people think they are not easy to rank. What has been your experience?

Thanks for your input.

The extension DOES matter. If you do not have a .com, .org and to an extent .net, you are fighting an uphill battle. You would have been better off getting a brandable .com vs an EMD .co.

I would scrap it and start over. One thing you have to take into account is TRUST. Forget SEO for a minute. Even if you got that domain to the 1st page of google, you would have a low ctr. People trust .com .org and .net. If you are surrounded by those type sites, yours will look like spam, just by the odd extension.

[sbucciarel]

I've had the same luck getting them to the top of the serps as any domain that I do SEO on.

[AUKev]

As far as ranking goes, I have had great success with EMD .co domains for local searches (example 'keyword city'). In fact I have SEVERAL .CO's in the top spot for some medium sized cities (pop. 250K-500K).

The caveat is that I really do not have any metrics to see if I am losing clicks because of the .co extension. I have been happy with the results, but again my top position may be getting 'out-clicked' by position 2 if it is a main TLD.

Decide for yourself. As far as Google is concerned, I have ranked EMD .CO's extremely fast but cannot quantify if the .CO has a problem with being skipped over due to the extension.

[Doot]

All in all i believe it to be a true toss up while .com has an advantage you can still rank with others. I would keep the domain and just ride it till it breaks

[Latsyrc]

Thanks for the input. I never thought of the CTR considering I always thought people would glace at the site and accidentally presume it is a .com at first glance although I didn't buy it for that reason. I just wanted the keyword in the domain. My main concern is how some people have said they were unable to get a .co ranked well no matter how much SEO they did. Again, I'd assume it is about the skill and competition. Glad to hear some people have had success with it.

[Maddmula]

Not that related to your thread, but I read this interesting article yesterday. It's about this guy Kevin Ham who has been using .co (Columbia) to make a ton of money. A bunch of you have probably read it, but just thought it was very clever.

[Latsyrc]

Originally Posted by Maddmula

Not that related to your thread, but I read this interesting article yesterday. It's about this guy Kevin Ham who has been using .co (Columbia) to make a ton of money. A bunch of you have probably read it, but just thought it was very clever.

Very interesting! I see a lot of lawyers coming after him.

[Alyona The Publicist]

I have noticed that Google promotes different search engine results in different countries. In the long run your website will probably be very high and achieve better results only in columbia!!! ....yes only in columbia because the .co domain is for the country of columbia, therefore google will rank your site high... but only in columbia!!!

it's always better to buy a .com or .net site to get international traffic

[Latsyrc]

Originally Posted by alyonafrendo

I have noticed that Google promotes different search engine results in different countries. In the long run your website will probably be very high and achieve better results only in columbia!!! ....yes only in columbia because the .co domain is for the country of columbia, therefore google will rank your site high... but only in columbia!!!

it's always better to buy a .com or .net site to get international traffic

I was under the impression that a .co is now considered a non country code like a .com, .net, and .org. I don't think it is ranked like that anymore. Anyone?

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by alyonafrendo

I have noticed that Google promotes different search engine results in different countries. In the long run your website will probably be very high and achieve better results only in columbia!!! ....yes only in columbia because the .co domain is for the country of columbia, therefore google will rank your site high... but only in columbia!!!

it's always better to buy a .com or .net site to get international traffic

This is false. Google made a decision to treat the .co domain as International, just like .com. I get top search results in the US serps for my keywords using .co domains.

In addition, you can geotarget any domain in webmaster tools, so if you want the .co to be dominant in Columbia only, you can specify that.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/359704/g...ernational-use

[Latsyrc]

Thanks Suzanne!

[kuma456y]

Hi I too just purchased some .co domains they came with a pr4 domain and it is true that they are now treated the same as .com etc. I have a question though do people find that .info's rank well?

[mori22]

here is my two bits.....

i stick with .com, .net and .org only!!

[Submit5]

Search engines do account for domain extensions while assigning SERP rankings. It's not just .com,.net & .org - extensions that have proven history of quality sites are ranked well - eg., co.uk, com.au etc.

[imsas]

This is completely false!.. The domain extension really has NOTHING to do with rankings.. The only reason .co domains are currently not ranking high in the search engines is because most of the sites that use .co are brand new sites (.co was released about 1 year ago).. .com, .net & .org websites have been around for years, so they have been indexed for longer..

In addition, Google treats the .co extension as INTERNATIONAL, not from Colombia.. If you own a .co website and you go into your Google Webmaster control panel, Google gives you the option of specifying your target country (you DON'T have this option for other extensions like .ca, .co.uk, .com.au as those are country specific)....