.CO domains SEO factor. Has anyone Ranked .CO Domains?

[Dr.faizan]

Hello Warriors,

I have got a question.

I wanted to know do .co domains are treated the same manner as .com, .org or .net? Especially if the domain is exact match?

Has anyone experienced any difficulty ranking for .CO domains?

I have done some googling related to my question but most of the answers were based on assumptions. Some were even saying that .CO is global but they are treated as .info not .com .net or .org. I don't know how true it is.

Can anyone please answer my question?

Answer from warrior who has practical experience in ranking or working on a .co site is very much appreciated

[MikeFriedman]

If there were issues with ranking a .co, I don't think Overstock.com would have changed to o.co.

[UpMarketing]

Stick with Exact-Match-Domains for ranking purposes on Google and other major search engines. While EMD's predominance may change later on; right now, they are the easiest by FAR to rank.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

If there were issues with ranking a .co, I don't think Overstock.com would have changed to o.co.

LOL! That's what I would say. But I would also add that .co has
been a big, fat bust. Cyber squatters and speculators took
that into the stratosphere. Unfortunately, lots of people
probably lost money on that deal.

There's nothing wrong with a .co, but anyone who jumped on
the bad wagon expecting to get some boost out of a .co
has been sadly mistaken. Just like all the rest who say that
one particular extension gives a boost. They don't.

But it keeps domain resellers rich.

See, .co was supposed to be the next .com.

Never worked out that way because extension just does
not matter.

Plus, logically speaking, a .co just does not seem right. It
begs for something more. Like an m on the end.
Before you scream..., yes I know, that has nothing to do
with SEO. Exactly.

Off topic, but I do a ton of offline marketing. Fliers, business
cards, etc. I can't see me putting a domain.co on anything
like that.

Paul

[KevinRichardsonMD]

I find what many have found: EMD is the way to go. .co doesn't rank well.

[Dan277]

I think .co domains are perfectly fine. Even though they are Colombian domains, they are accepted world wide. Domain names can make a difference. We all know that .edu and .gov domains rank better. I think it's down to the restrictions on the domain that affect rankings. When there are no restrictions it shouldn't make the slightest bit of difference. I've bought a few .co domains, mainly because the .com domains I wanted were taken, but also because it is short and easy to remember.

I tried to get a .co domain ranked and I did have problems with it but I am certain that it's because I cannot get relevant backlinks. Competitors simply will not link to me unless I pay them and forums that are relevant either use nofollow links or don't like me putting a site that is competing with them in my signature. I've had 0 positive results from paid services, so I am left with writing dozens of unique articles to promote, which I have not yet done.

[MikeFriedman]

Originally Posted by Dan277

I've bought a few .co domains, mainly because the .com domains I wanted were taken, but also because it is short and easy to remember.

.co is easier to remember, but .com might be too tough for you? wow.

[Domsa]

Yes, Matt actually discussed it.

GoogleWebmasterHelp's Channel - YouTube

[NYC SEO]

.co is the antithesis of what you want for ranking highly in the serps.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by KevinRichardsonMD

I find what many have found: EMD is the way to go. .co doesn't rank well.

Soooooooooooo a .co cannot be an EMD?!?!?!

Better stick with that day job, E "MD."

If they don't rank worth a darn, which is just BS, why do domain
sellers put a premium price on a .co? Because it's junk?

People used to call .infos junk because they were so cheap.
Even though they're not. So, logic would hold, there must
be something magical about a .co as you pay more for it
than a dot com from most sellers.

But the whole logic of some extensions being magic is just BS.

Paul

[NYC SEO]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Soooooooooooo a .co cannot be an EMD?!?!?!

Better stick with that day job, E "MD."

paul

Lighten up, man. Quit playing semantics. He means .com .net .org as is quite evident.

[Natlex]

I ranked .co websites, they rank as well as any other of the 3 main TLDs but don't expect tog et an EMD bonus, thats reserved for .com/.net/.org.

[John Williamson]

Here:

.info or .com for SEO purposes?

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by NYC SEO

Lighten up, man. Quit playing semantics. He means .com .net .org as is quite evident.

Unfortunately, Mr. MD has made some crazy-spam-like posts...

But, what would the WF without the fun these people seem
to want to inject?

Paul

[thebitbotdotcom]

Theoretically, any extensions should rank (except dot co dot cc or course). However...

Keep in mind that part of SEO now is behavioral metrics as measured on a site by Google in particular.

In my experience and speaking personally, it seems that people trust dot coms, orgs, and nets more so...and this may influence the answer to your question.

I have no hard data to back this up, but that is the gut feeling I get...that being that (long term) com, org, net will be "easier" to rank.

[Dr.faizan]

ok I see lot of related replies here but guys I mean let us keep aside the offline marketing factor or easy to remember factor. Let us only focus on SEARCH ENGINES and like we all know that exact match domains still hold a big value and are easier to rank than other domains for instance if I want to rank for a keyword called WARRIOR FORUM and warriorforum.com .net .org is already taken and the only extension remained is WARRIORFORUM.CO in that case what is better WARRIORFORUM.CO or WARRIOR-FORUM.COM ? A hifen (-) should be fine for .com or exact match .co holds more factor? I see few warriors posting they had difficulty in ranking .co can you please explain a bit more?

[Scritty]

The only extensions I've ever found "slow" were ".me" and ".biz"
Look on the internet for money searches. "Insurance", "Loans", "Warcraft", "Diet"..loads of .orgs, .infos and dot almost everything else.
But not one ".me" could I find on any of them - and very few ".biz" - the rest?
Fine.
If it's the right prefix and not one of these two - buy it.
I know guys who build a micro site a day based on on .info only for adsense - they make plenty of cash.

[Dr.faizan]

Well I found few guys outside this forum today and they were saying they managed to rank exact match .co domains on page 1 with minimum efforts in low competitive niche.. it took almost the same efforts which should be for .net or .org..

[ASCiiDiTY]

I personally would stay away from these and other such domains unless the .com, .net, .org all had very bad or dead sites on them.

[WakondaMarketing]

Trust me. They both work. Domain extensions will not be a huge ranking factor in an SEO campaign. It will always boils down to the quality of backlinks. I have ranked and even outranked typical domain extensions such as .com, .net, etc. just by making use of a .co extension. I thought this issue was long dead?

[warhammer]

Originally Posted by Dr.faizan

I wanted to know do .co domains are treated the same manner as .com, .org or .net? Especially if the domain is exact match?

"Yes – .CO Ranks Just As Well As .COM"

[outwest]

Personally having witnessed 100s, probably 1000 kws I researched the top 10 competition on google, the last month

I say
Domain does not matter

Period

I think we all see EMDs out there ranking and say AHA! SEE! EMD is why this guy is ranking

To that I say Poppycock and BS
Its not true

Most of the sites I see rank 1,2 and they do not have the kws in the domain name and they dont have it in the url either. Heck one site that drives me crazy has about 100 different kws, thats only the ones I have found so far...............that rank 1 and 2 on Google. how can they put all those kws in their domain? its impossible. The domain name is a totally unrelated name. Why do they rank so high? These pages have 10s of thousands of backlinks. not the domain. the pages. Its all about Backlinks and to a smaller extent Onpage SEO

Why is that,? how is it possible?
Because Domain name makes no difference in Ranking

Even a EMD .com....................makes no difference in ranking. The reason you see these EMD.coms ranking? is because sure
if they go out and buy BigBlueCars.com
of course they are going to go and put 1000 backlinks with
Big blue cars in the anchor text
THAT IS WHY they are ranking high.........................not the EMD

Thats my Statement

[warhammer]

There are cases where .CO ranks higher than any other TLD: if you search for Charlotte Church on Google, CharlotteChurch.CO, the singer's official website, is second on page 1, while the .com and .co.uk are nowhere to be found.

[Scritty]

Google have said .co is a premium suffix. I've ranked with .co just fine.
EMD's still seem to count for a lot no matter ho much the SE owners say they don't.
Also - content on site has a far greater impact these days than it did even 12 months ago.
I'm not saying LSI is taking over from linking - but quality unique content, lots of it and updated regularly is now an even bigger thing than it was 12 months ago. (And I HAVE had sites rank for local - but competitive search terms on LSI alone - not a single link)

Scritty

[crazyamit]

GOOGLE prefer .com domains more then .co ...
Google rank faster .com domains comparing to all other domains.

[Justin Lewis]

I ranked an exact match .co earlier this month faster than the same .com website. Of course the content was different, but the niches were the same.

I feel .co is just another addition to the family.

[ddDonPaul]

the only things that matter in the ranking of a website is the competition, unique content, quality backlinks and an exact match domain name. it doesn`t matter if it is .co or .com or .info...
i created a website .info for my highschool and ranked 1# on google in just 2 days, because of the low competition...

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by KevinRichardsonMD

I find what many have found: EMD is the way to go. .co doesn't rank well.

This makes no sense at all.

EMD referrers to the keywords themselves, not the extension.

[Yara]

My EMD.co domains ranks pretty well in google, but no where to be found on bing and yahoo.

While my Keyword+suffix.com ranks well on google, yahoo and bing. But getting them to rank took a bit more work.

Just speaking from my experience so far. Any suggestions if I should keep getting .co or just stick with .com?

[pjp007]

Example from the gaming niche: car games.

The .co holds a nice top 5 position in google.

[warhammer]

Originally Posted by pjp007

Example from the gaming niche: car games.

The .co holds a nice top 5 position in google.

It confirms what we already know: .CO is treated exactly as a gTLD like .com and .net

[Cheeth]

Cargames.co, that's awesome first time I've seen a .co rank in google to be honest. So the conclusion is that all TLD's are ranked equally?

[WilliamBlah]

I've recently worked on ranking a .CO and having reached page 1 it was exactly as I would have expected ranking any other TLD to be.

No difference, in my opinion.

Regards
Will

[warhammer]

Originally Posted by Cheeth

Cargames.co, that's awesome first time I've seen a .co rank in google to be honest. So the conclusion is that all TLD's are ranked equally?

There are other examples. Search on Google for Domain Security and Used Cars Austin.

[zabalex]

Since it is not more than a year .co has hit the market, also the price of the domain is too high as compared to .com, .net and ther TLDs so it is not much popular. Just because it is not in the market and not too old you may not be seeing the sites in the SERP.

Gone are the days when TLDs play the role in ranking factor, now all TLDs treated the same way. You only need to work on them. Once there is enough work they will appear in the SERP.

[warhammer]

Originally Posted by zabalex

the price of the domain is too high as compared to .com, .net and ther TLDs

GoDaddy has been selling .COs for $7.99 since the end of January. If you're interested in buying one, the promo will end on February 29th.

[damon79]

My .Co's rank Page 1. Perhaps there are idiots that don't understand SEO? Great for me, as it's easier for me to dominate.

[damon79]

Originally Posted by paulgl

LOL! That's what I would say. But I would also add that .co has
been a big, fat bust. Cyber squatters and speculators took
that into the stratosphere. Unfortunately, lots of people
probably lost money on that deal.

There's nothing wrong with a .co, but anyone who jumped on
the bad wagon expecting to get some boost out of a .co
has been sadly mistaken. Just like all the rest who say that
one particular extension gives a boost. They don't.

But it keeps domain resellers rich.

See, .co was supposed to be the next .com.

Never worked out that way because extension just does
not matter.

Plus, logically speaking, a .co just does not seem right. It
begs for something more. Like an m on the end.
Before you scream..., yes I know, that has nothing to do
with SEO. Exactly.

Off topic, but I do a ton of offline marketing. Fliers, business
cards, etc. I can't see me putting a domain.co on anything
like that.

Paul

Missed the bandwagon hey buddy? I have over 60 .Co's and have pulled in profits of over 200K in nearly 2 years.
While you're poo pooing the domain, I'm making good $$$.
I'm glad people in general are ignorant and sheepish, makes it so much easier for me to dominate. Had this wanker that lived across the road from me. Supposed to be a SEO Marketing expert an a maths genius. Told him to invest. He ignored me. He found out about the sales I've been making. Now he feels as tiny as his brain!
Lolz.
Seriously though, don't listen to this fool. He contributes nothing to growth or innovation. .CO is already utilised in dozens of countries ccTLD's. This person is either a noob or just lonely and wants attention.

[damon79]

Originally Posted by paulgl

LOL! That's what I would say. But I would also add that .co has
been a big, fat bust. Cyber squatters and speculators took
that into the stratosphere. Unfortunately, lots of people
probably lost money on that deal.

There's nothing wrong with a .co, but anyone who jumped on
the bad wagon expecting to get some boost out of a .co
has been sadly mistaken. Just like all the rest who say that
one particular extension gives a boost. They don't.

But it keeps domain resellers rich.

See, .co was supposed to be the next .com.

Never worked out that way because extension just does
not matter.

Plus, logically speaking, a .co just does not seem right. It
begs for something more. Like an m on the end.
Before you scream..., yes I know, that has nothing to do
with SEO. Exactly.

Off topic, but I do a ton of offline marketing. Fliers, business
cards, etc. I can't see me putting a domain.co on anything
like that.

Paul

_______________________

Missed the bandwagon hey buddy? I have over 60 .Co's and have pulled in profits of over 200K in nearly 2 years.
While you're poo pooing the domain, I'm making good $$$.
I'm glad people in general are ignorant and sheepish, makes it so much easier for me to dominate. Had this wanker that lived across the road from me. Supposed to be a SEO Marketing expert an a maths genius. Told him to invest. He ignored me. He found out about the sales I've been making. Now he feels as tiny as his brain!
Lolz.
Seriously though, don't listen to this fool. He contributes nothing to growth or innovation. .CO is already utilised in dozens of countries ccTLD's. This person is either a noob or just lonely and wants attention.
You beg for something more? Perhaps a non sheepish mentality?

[tsx]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

If there were issues with ranking a .co, I don't think Overstock.com would have changed to o.co.

I don"t think overstock is the best run company to be honest.

However I am also weighing between a .com or .co domain name.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by damon79

_______________________

Missed the bandwagon hey buddy? I have over 60 .Co's and have pulled in profits of over 200K in nearly 2 years.
While you're poo pooing the domain, I'm making good $$$.
I'm glad people in general are ignorant and sheepish, makes it so much easier for me to dominate. Had this wanker that lived across the road from me. Supposed to be a SEO Marketing expert an a maths genius. Told him to invest. He ignored me. He found out about the sales I've been making. Now he feels as tiny as his brain!
Lolz.
Seriously though, don't listen to this fool. He contributes nothing to growth or innovation. .CO is already utilised in dozens of countries ccTLD's. This person is either a noob or just lonely and wants attention.
You beg for something more? Perhaps a non sheepish mentality?

Poo poo because extension does not matter. Note I never said don't
get a .co domain, of course you missed that. Just the idiocy of thinking
some domain extension is going to be some panacea for website marketing.

It's not.

Your post could be written by someone with 60+ .coms, .infos, .nets,
.WTF, who cares?

A .co is not worth the extra money. Period.

Repeat: .co's have been the biggest internet bust since MS took
over yahoo search results. Scratch that. MS will always be the
biggest internet bust...you can add cellphone bust to that
ever growing MS stupid list.

Paul

[kenneth1982]

Originally Posted by Dr.faizan

Hello Warriors,

I have got a question.

I wanted to know do .co domains are treated the same manner as .com, .org or .net? Especially if the domain is exact match?

Has anyone experienced any difficulty ranking for .CO domains?

I have done some googling related to my question but most of the answers were based on assumptions. Some were even saying that .CO is global but they are treated as .info not .com .net or .org. I don't know how true it is.

Can anyone please answer my question?

Answer from warrior who has practical experience in ranking or working on a .co site is very much appreciated

Just go to google.com and search with keyword "2 player games" .co #2

[SEOChemist]

TLD makes no difference in my experience. Exact match domains are preferable.

I have had no trouble ranking .co, .me, .us, etc.

[JodyRossDeane]

Thanks to the comments here and some quality articles on the subject, I will be buying .co's

Cheers guys

[warhammer]

Originally Posted by JodyRossDeane

Thanks to the comments here and some quality articles on the subject, I will be buying .co's

Cheers guys

Wise decision, I agree. I recently bought some at GoDaddy which has currently .COs for sale for just $7.99, you just need to use coupon cjc799CCb1 at checkout. This will surely make you save some money.