Better to have a older .info site, or a brand new .com site?

[danielakunz]

I am building a lead generation website. I purchased a domain name which directly relates to my site but it is a .info. Since its giving information and quoting for a service, it could be considered an informational website, but does Google not like .info as much as .com? Would it be better to just buy a brand new .com site or better to have an older .info?


Thanks

[Hardik Jogi]

older .info is better.

[MikeFriedman]

Google does not care about the TLD.

.info, .com, .net, .whatever... it is all the same for SEO.

[danielakunz]

Even if its only 1 year old?

[ultraffiliation]

Currently, Google has no regard for the top-level domain. However, I would be more concerned about the traffic potentially seeing your website in the SERPS. *.com websites tend to hold more trust than *.info sites, and some potential clients may pass of the website simply because it is a *.info. I generally stick to only *.com, *.net, *.org websites for this reason, as the overall perception is better.

Since your *.info domain is only 1 year old, I would probably er towards just picking up a *.com as the age is not substantial enough a factor at this point, and I assume it has no, or limited PR.

[robdavids]

Completely agree that sticking with the .com, .net and .org is the only way to go!

[budhaya]

very rarely .info sites can compete with .com sites only after lots of work.

[outwest]

.infos rank well on non competitive terms
with a competitive term always go for a kw name variation .com
IMO

[JamesGw]

Usually the older site is better, but it depends on what your goals are overall. .com is usually better for long-term branding.

Domain age doesn't really matter that much and extension doesn't matter at all.

[lovboa]

I think saying ".info is the same. TLD does not matter!" is becoming the new fad. Funny thing is, these people will still go after the .com's, .net's, .org's, first and... .info as a last resort.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by lovboa

I think saying ".info is the same. TLD does not matter!" is becoming the new fad. Funny thing is, these people will still go after the .com's, .net's, .org's, first and... .info as a last resort.

True.. because as it's always stated, .com is better for branding, but as far as SERPS go, it simply DOES NOT MATTER. Some people build sites for search engines, others for people and some for both so you need to understand the difference. It's not the new fad, it's the facts and we tell people this to try and help them with the facts.

[gxfcrjdj]

I think an older domain has more value.

[vvsingh]

Although Google does not differentiate between TLDs yet it is suspicious of new info domains as in past it has been mostly used by spammers. An old info domain can be quite helpful for your purpose.

[ichl13]

I would go for the .com

Go for a few searches in google yourself and see how many .com websites are at the top spot and how many.info ones are on page 1

[jindalmedic]

I would suggest you to go with .com domain..

[LakiPolitis]

.com beats .info - every day
1 year old and 6 months old - not that big a difference
5 year domain length vs 1 year domain length - 5 year gets points

Buy a new .com for as long as you possibly can (3, 5, or 7 years). You'll be more trusted. Google perceives lengthier domain ownerships to be less likely to spam.

[georgehofmann]

what are the domains that should be avoided though? as I see .com is very popular, but not always the cheapest.

[LakiPolitis]

avoid country codes when your server isn't in that country. For instance a .co.uk for an American business with a business server. (Just a usability point). Also, .co.uk will be indexed in Google.co.uk more than it will google.com, country codes get weighed in international searching.

Avoid domains with short registration periods. Most TLDs get the same respect, but .com is the way to go. mywebsite.com will always beat out mywebsite.tv (unless the mywebsite.tv SEO is stud)

If you don't go with a .com, you're starting the race a second behind to begin with.

[JMartin]

[insert incorrect stuff about .info domains here]

As to age, I personally don't think the age of the domain itself matters. It's the age of the site. And no they aren't one in the same.

I'd buy the .com if it's a great name you want and build.

[Terrybear]

personally i always go for .com, not because of the seo but it was "default" on the our mind. if you can get good domain name in .com, go ahead although it is brand new

[Alexa Smith]

"Older" is better, in principle, than "newer" for a domain-name.

If anyone tries to tell you that ".info" is any worse than ".com" for SEO purposes, then I'd ignore completely both that assertion AND anything else that same person might tell you about SEO, because their source is clearly the mindless repetition of urban myths without any awareness of the facts, and whatever they're saying might always just be "random".

Meanwhile, if the facts interest you, they're in all the threads like this very recent one.

There are, of course, several other potential advantages of .com domain-names over .info, but SEO certainly isn't one of them. Apart from in a twisted dream-world, perhaps.

[LakiPolitis]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

There are, of course, several other potential advantages of .com domain-names over .info, but SEO certainly isn't one of them. Apart from in a twisted dream-world, perhaps.

In a sense where SEO is simply on-page optimization, then no, it doesn't make a difference. In a world where everything involved in your website requires SEO then yes. GZip compression is SEO. Content Distribution Networks are SEO. Graphic design is SEO.

People trust .coms more than they trust .infos. You'll likely have more people traffic your site because people remember .coms more than they do .infos. You'll have a lower bounce rate, and more click throughs, making Google perceive your site as more useful. Always go with the .com, and not the .info for user experience, and user experience is SEO.

[ppcer]

My vote would be to invest in the .com for credibility.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by LakiPolitis

People trust .coms more than they trust .infos.

That depends whom you ask.

My experience is that marketers prefer .com's but customers actually trust .info's more.

I asked all mine. In several different niches.

Most of my successful, growing business is deliberately and intentionally based on .info domains.

I do buy the .com's as well (just to make sure that nobody else can own them) but I simply redirect them to the .info ones I'm using for my business.

I do it that way round because my customers prefer to see ".info" than ".com". Understandly, too. They tend to feel that ".info" is for an "informational site" (people respect this), whereas ".com" is "just someone trying to promote and sell things" (people don't respect that as much).

Customers don't think like marketers.

This whole thread is a good read, for anyone who wants to think about this issue rather than mistakenly assuming that people prefer to see ".com".

[Newbieee]

lol.

again this discussion.

just go for media buys. hahaha safe u all this trouble.

u just need to have money.

with that u can buy data.

then u just bash ur way tru.

its not rocket science.

[TheFBGuy]

Originally Posted by lovboa

I think saying ".info is the same. TLD does not matter!" is becoming the new fad. Funny thing is, these people will still go after the .com's, .net's, .org's, first and... .info as a last resort.

It's wise to go for .com, .org or .net first since it gives you more flexibility if you wanted to sell the domain to PEOPLE later on since they are the most popular extensions and have high perceived value to PEOPLE. But as far as the search engines go, all extensions are equal for SEO.

E.g: .coms will always be sold for more than .info, .me, etc.