.com? .org? .something else....?

38 replies
Hi All,

As I'm on the cusp of building my very first site, I was wondering what the general consensus was re domain name extensions? I'm using Andrew Hansen's Forever Affiliate where he specifies either .com or .org so I'm pretty sure that they'd be good ones to go for, but does anyone have any other ideas or viewpoints as to the possible impact of using one extension or another?

Cheers

TC
#org
  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    Get the .com/net/org in that order, and use something that is easy to remember. Don't even bother with the other extensions IMO.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      I, for one, only purchase the dot com extension. It's the standard for commercial domains. It's the first choice of most businesses.

      If you ever go to sell your domain, you will be glad it's a dot com.

      And don't worry, there are plenty of good short names available in every niche.

      Here is a tool to help you:

      Impossibility

      and here is another:

      Lean Domain Search

      The best to you.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author shazbat
        Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

        I, for one, only purchase the dot com extension. It's the standard for commercial domains. It's the first choice of most businesses.

        If you ever go to sell your domain, you will be glad it's a dot com.

        And don't worry, there are plenty of good short names available in every niche.

        Here is a tool to help you:

        Impossibility

        and here is another:

        Lean Domain Search

        The best to you.

        Steve

        Bustaname is also a great resource for finding good domain names: www.bustaname.com

        It lets you put in a list of relevent keywords and then combines them into domain name suggestions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Elisson
    I would say .com and only .com.

    Its much better to come up with a new name that has the .com available than it is to try and brand a site with .net or .org.
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  • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author Sgt Kraut
    .com/.net/.org are most trusted by internet users. Country specific domains make sense when you target a specific country. In some rare cases it looks cool when the domain ending belongs to a phrase, like "find.me" for a search engine for persons etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Tandan
    .com and only .com - even if you have to slightly modify the domain name
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  • Profile picture of the author amcg
    As others have said, get .com and only other tld's where it makes sense i.e for ecommerce, choose your country's specific tld.

    To get your .com if its taken, add a prefix or secondly, a suffix.
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  • Profile picture of the author rakhwas
    Hey,

    Basic explanation, if you want to make SEO on your homepage, then go for .com .net or .org, as Google's algorithm sees these pages as a Best Practice, meaning that Google choose to rank these sites better than other domains.

    If you won't use SEO on your homepage, i would say go for what ever you like or what your budget reach for..
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  • Profile picture of the author JMBusiness
    Hello, definitely go with .com, all the SEO gurus recommend it,
    it's supposed to have the most SEO value, around4 times more than .net or .org.
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  • Profile picture of the author DURABLEOILCOM
    .com or .net the only time you should be using .org is if you are the government or an organization.
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    • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
      Originally Posted by DURABLEOILCOM View Post

      .com or .net the only time you should be using .org is if you are the government or an organization.
      That's "old school" thinking. It hasn't been this way for 20 years or more. Look around at the .orgs that are out there. Many of them are NOT a government or an organization.
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    • Profile picture of the author Meharis
      Originally Posted by DURABLEOILCOM View Post

      .com or .net the only time you should be using .org is if you are the government or an organization.


      Where have you been?
      Google .org domains and see the results.

      Meharis
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  • Profile picture of the author dana67
    I always vote for a .com if you can find one with a good, easy to remember name that matches your niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    the only time you should be using .org is if you are the government or an organization.
    A common myth that actually gives .org more trust among the masses. One of my first successful sites was a .org. Most people were surprised to find I wasn't a government entity. I wanted the domain and was too new to know any better.

    Now I would say .com only.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick Logan
    .com, if you want to rank well. But it really depends...if you want just a website per se, not bothering SEO, than any other extension will be ok too.
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    • Profile picture of the author RSK3000
      The danger of developing on a non .com domain is that people will find it harder to remember which extension your site has. There is a danger that people will just type the name of your site, followed by '.com'. Bad news if you have developed the .net.
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  • Profile picture of the author absolutelee
    Easy answer... .com. I use .net's when I can't get a .com for anything resembling what I want the domain to be. I use .org's only when I'm having a site built for a non-profit client. Although there are other reasons to use them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron0669
    Go for .com if you can get it. It is easier for people to remember if it is .com.
    My next choice is either .net or .org.
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  • Profile picture of the author wndrshare
    .com represents the word "commercial," and is the most widely used extension in the world.
    so you should try to go with that.
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  • Profile picture of the author linathinfotech
    According to me .com is the best but if you want to target local clients then i think local domains like .co.uk , .co.in, etc. are also a very good choice.
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    • Profile picture of the author marketingdynasty
      In my opinion .com is the best to brand your website, blog, and business with.
      I believe that .com shows authority and they are much easier to rank if you are focus on SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gold2Naira
    .com is the best for blog. Alternative is .net
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  • Profile picture of the author mathewboly
    According to me, .com extension is better for you as your business type.
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  • Profile picture of the author TomCrick
    Wow! Thanks everyone for posting your thoughts, all of which seem to marry up with each other. I've had a bit of off-thread advice, too, and it's all beginning to make a lot more sense than it did before. Definitely going to go with the .com for business purposes

    Cheers folks!
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  • Profile picture of the author w13
    Just go with .com. As far as i know .com is the great extension for domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Roll with ".com". Remember, YOU and your marketing make the site successful.

    Not a pretty page with a catchy name... and bad marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    It depends largely upon your intentions.



    I bet you a quality steak dinner... That if you market ANY domain correctly, the URL wouldn't matter much. (within reason).

    That being said, at the end of the day... .com's are superior.

    (It's quite possible that perception will change as generations pass and advance, but for this second .coms have the most authority for a business).

    Just my two cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author ssparks81
    Always go with a .com. It is without a doubt the #1 choice. The only other extensions I would even consider are .net and .org.
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    • Profile picture of the author wordwizard
      Thanks for the link to the article...

      Like everyone else around here, I too will get the .com for obvious reasons,
      provided it's available.

      However, I also have quite a few sites on .info - including one in a pretty competitive niche, and it's doing VERY well. I believe what the article says that the extension has little to do with how well it ranks. As long as people don't have to remember what your site's name is (i.e., as is often the case for lead generation sites), .info can work great (and it's often available for fabulous keyword combos)!

      I also find that .info can make a lot of sense for certain domains, i.e., something like healthcare.info or bestweightloss.info and such - I mean, the .info spells out Info - and that's what people are looking for, isn't it?

      Occasionally, I've also bought a .me - that one's kind of fun for certain domains... and can be memorable too.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alice12345
    It's common sense that .com is the best extension. But some of the popular keyword don't have .com extension. So you have to choose in order for .net or . Info. Or other popular extension. If no, u have to start re-name your domain keyword. Add in the, -, and *s. Hope this help!
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  • Profile picture of the author vouch
    .COM is KING! Sorry for the caps but had to make a point. Think about it. Look at this scenario. Let's say you go with .net. You setup up your site. It looks sharp. Money starts coming in. Then guess what? The person who owns the .com sees all the money you're making. And decides to make a very similar site. I don't care what any one says. The owner of the .com will be siphoning your traffic. You will just be creating more traffic for them and for free.

    Why? Because no matter what - it is ingrained in the American psyche (and many other parts of the world) to defer to the .com when they are looking for a site.

    For example, I tell a friend I found this great site called Awesomewidgets. What do you think my friend will type in as a url to find the site? I will bet 100 to 1 it will be Awesomewidgets.com. Then if not found on to .net followed by .org (if they even get that far).

    If this is something you are serious about and has lots of potential. I would most definitely get the .com, .net and .org. It's cheap and will save you from others trying to mooch off your success. And trust me, if you don't get the .net or .org now. If your site becomes big. And you will later want the .net and .org. You will pay through the nose.

    One last thing, when it comes to domain names. I'm going to probably state the obvious. But it goes without saying. .Com is king. The shorter the better. No hyphens or numbers (if you could avoid it). And always try to get something that makes sense. Because if not then you will have to spend a lot of money and time to brand that domain name. Get something that infers or implies what you are offering. A lot of people make this mistake. Thinking that they could get a crazy domain because it's available like ZarJah.com (which is available btw). And make it an online storage site. What do you think people (more importantly potential customers) will associate with online storage; ZarJah.com or something like DropBox or Box. Put yourself in the mindset of your potential customers. How do you think they will try to associate and find your site? Now is it possible that a non descriptive domain work? Sure. But you better pray you have a killer site and it goes viral. And there are many examples such as Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy, etc. If a site like Twitter didn't have a killer app that became main stream. It would not have existed. Remember, if I told you only 10 years ago, yeah I use Twitter. Tweet me. You would have told me to go f* myself. Best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author oymate
    Absolutely .com if you can get it, but then geo-local (.ca, .co.uk) can also trump .com if your content is sufficient, and you're going for real targeted traffic for certain campaign(s).

    Try to get short URLs, and there is a rumour (don't know if it's true!) that Google also penalizes many dashes (-) in a domain name, separating words.

    Hope that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Trummer
    I personally go for .com only, - that`s what i hear from every guru. Some of them also recommend .net and .org. but for a business website i would go for the .com.
    If the domain you want is already taken, try to add something like: ...tips,...guide,...training.. I am sure you can think of a lot more.
    Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author LiveChatSoftware
    Hmm.
    Some people say not to get other extensions ( CC domains.. )

    I personally get the .com's for my domain ( with some spelling mistakes ) I then get the CC domains for lets say the UK ( .co.uk ) and the have separate domains for each..

    If they are from the UK.. Then i redirect to the UK site, If not, then the .com site.

    From what I have read, Google like you to use the CC domains where possible for local services.

    So if you sell to a single country, the country domain will perform better than the non country domain.

    You would also get more targetted traffic rather than a bunch of useless traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author skillacademy
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    • Profile picture of the author Meharis
      Originally Posted by skillacademy View Post

      you have to know that .org is used for any organization and .com is used for commercial.

      Your "skillacademy" flunk the test about .org domains.

      Meharis
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