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Would you say that a .com holds more power?

by mun
22 replies
I was just looking over the prices for buying a a domain name and a .com name is £19.98 for 2 years while a .co.uk is £5.98 for 2 years.

Would it make any impact on the customers if they saw a .co.uk instead of a .com. I am of course talking about those not native to the co.uk region

What are your opinions?
My first thought was to buy both and redirect the unused ones to the one being used. If i am not mistaken , the unused ones are called "parked".
#holds #power
  • Profile picture of the author GregGarrison
    From my experiences, the .com seems to hold a little more weight.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kieron
    Effectively, the .com extension is recognized as commercial hence the com bit and was regarded as the universal url for commerical business. Well actually US business but now with a shift in focus regional search is ever more important these days so if you are focusing only on the uk then .co.uk but personally I would go with both. If you decided to go with both register the .com in the states and the .co.uk in the uk this will help not get you excluded from user and search filtered searches. Kieron
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  • Profile picture of the author dtang4
    I've heard from a SEO perspective, it doesn't make any difference what your extension is. In my opinion, as a customer/visitor, I find a .com gives a much more professional/reputable impressionl
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    • Profile picture of the author tommcsherry
      Personally I'd opt for .com if you're marketing globally. As others have mentioned it just gives that slightly more professional look. It has more of a global feel to it, in a sense that .co.uk has the connotation of a "UK site" whereas .com has the connotation of an "international site." It depends on your niche too, but the difference is probably pretty minimal in the final analysis.

      As you said you could just buy both. The price difference shouldn't be an issue since you're going to be making thousands anyway.
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      • Profile picture of the author SledgeHammer
        IIRC, TLD's are not having any advantage as far as SE rankings are concerned.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jim Gillum
    I have to join the both group.......small investment...
    I would consider a separate UK home page...depending on the offering..
    If they are on the same host the links would be invisible to the user.....
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  • Profile picture of the author reynoldscorb
    In my own research, I've figured out that a .us, .net, .org, .info, and .com can all rank just as high as one another.

    By choosing a domain name ending in .com, you are giving your visitors a website that is much easier to remember. .com's are the most common endings. If people visit your .org site only to return later, they may make the mistake of going to the .com instead of your .org.

    In my opinion a .com looks better to the eyes, but is also much easier to remember if your visitors are looking to return to your website.
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    • Profile picture of the author lerxtjr
      From my experiences, the .com seems to hold a little more weight.
      This is an age-old debate among forums. I know I know I know that google looks at all url's the same, yada yada yada. So, will someone please give me a search phrase where a .net outranks a similarly optimized .com site? I've never been able to find an example to really study.

      Or, another example you could provide here would be a .com site that outranks a .org.

      I've always believed that there is this secret little heirarchy that google pays people to say it doesn't exist or something. My vote would be the priority is something like this:

      .gov
      .edu
      .org
      .com
      .everything else
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    When is the last time you remembered a domain that ended in .net or .uk, etc.? Even if you tell someone blahblah.net they are going to type in blahblah.com.

    Doesnt matter on SEO but it sure matters on branding.
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    • Profile picture of the author NicheMayhem
      Originally Posted by RentItNow View Post

      When is the last time you remembered a domain that ended in .net or .uk, etc.? Even if you tell someone blahblah.net they are going to type in blahblah.com.

      Doesnt matter on SEO but it sure matters on branding.

      I agree, and the same goes for if you will ever sell the site. Never able to predict if you might decide to sell the site in the future and regardless of SEO, rank, or links, people associate more value with .com.

      Many times I have typed in Craigslist.com, its actually a .org but they must have bought the .com at some point and redirected it.

      I think its because when you see a .net, .org etc you just automatically think the .com was taken, might just be my opinion though.
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      • Profile picture of the author mun
        Yes, I did think as much, maybe that is why the .com names are more expensive to buy. They are positive influence and the "default" i suppose when it comes to people trying to remember web addresses.

        Thank you for clarifying what parked meant, I thought a name would still be parked if it had a re-direct on it, but i guess im technically still using the domain so it wouldn't be "parked".

        Im glad that my thinking of buying both the .com and .co.uk is on the right tracks, however in my case, the name which I have chosen to buy is available in all extension .net . org. .info, they are all available.

        I don't think I would buy all of them as it may not be a necessity, so I am thinking of maybe purchasing the .net one along with the .com and .co.uk.

        Good idea? or would it probably not make much difference at all?
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  • Profile picture of the author Geoff101
    Go for .com. One of my teacher who has like 200 websites experienced drop in rankings during recent Google Algo Change. .com and .org were least hit.

    He does not have .co.uk domains so, cant say much about those.
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  • Profile picture of the author justcrowd2010
    Register at Namecheap, it will make a change
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    • Profile picture of the author rhythmofthecosmos
      Go for .com..

      I read today in the art of SEO that many people (shockingly) still think that .com is the only one there is..

      Is you're targeting a more specific area though, say UK shipping only then go for .co.uk domain as google knows it's UK based.
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  • Profile picture of the author Louise Green
    Google counts the 'uk' in .co.uk which can be very powerful if you're using 'uk' in your longtail.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cardsearch
    You can get a global domain with a global extension and make money in the process. See my signature.
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    • Profile picture of the author zaki
      If your main target market is international,then go for the .COM but if your main market is just the UK then buy both the .co.uk and the .COM
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  • Profile picture of the author reynoldscorb
    I would say a .com holds more power, but only for one reason.

    Because .com is the most common website ending, that is what people remember the most. If your website is doglovers.org and someone visits your site and wants to return later, but seems to be a little hazey on the url they may try .com first.

    If that happens, you just lost traffic to doglovers.com. That's just my theory that I've seen from my own experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author Online Bliss
    Search Engines aside, people will remember a cool website name
    but will always assume it ends in dot com.
    Especially the less computer savy surfers.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisDouthit
    A .com domain holds the most weight in everyway possible. Not only is it going to get more juice with the search engine its a must if you want to compete in a global market.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Tees
    I haven’t really had any problems with .net or .org extensions as I often give them out in written form on business cards/fliers so the person has the site in front of them. I do of course prefer a .com if its a name I want, and I’m sure others think the same way. Even after all these years .coms are still the first choice for most people, even though .nets and .orgs have become slightly more common in recent years.

     There are some occasions where I wish I would have made some sort of a variation to a .com that was taken as opposed to going with a .net or .org but this is more of a preference and one that I feel hasn’t really cost me.
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