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What about .ws / .me domains, SEO-wise?

by JeffNormand
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I've got some great domains with main theme keyword but with domain extentions .ws and .me ... am I shooting myself in the foot if choosing those? I've never seen those at #1 of google.

I'm aware that you must stay away from the regional ones (.in, .mx... luckily .co is an exception to this rule!), but I've never considered .ws & .me.


Thanks guys!
#domains #seowise
  • Profile picture of the author Exfilius
    .ws, .me, .co, .tv - all of these are regional domain name extensions. Having keywords in your domain name is over rated.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mitro
    If you want to stay away from "regional" domains, stay away from .ws and .me too, since they're both ccTLDs. Let me see... .ws is for Samoa and .me is for Montenegro.

    Of course it is possible to rank well with any extension, but it is arguable how big a ranking-effect different extensions cause. I like to stick with the "big three".
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    I've had several .tv domains make it to the top of the mountain. I don't know for sure if Google gives more juice to the .com's or not. It may just appear that way, because .com has been around the longest, and therefore automatically gets a boost from age.
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  • Profile picture of the author rzillowman
    I saw a video interview w/ Matt Cutts recently where he basically said that domain name extensions are just one factor taken into account by their algorithm.
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    • Profile picture of the author JeffNormand
      RE: .co, this is what I'm referring to:


      Domain Name Wire News Google to Treat .Co as International Domain - The Domain Industry's News Source

      Domain won't be pigeon-holed to just Colombia in search engine's eyes.

      [Update: since some people asked, I successfully confirmed this with Google.]

      One of the concerns registrants of .co domain names have voiced is if Google will treat the domain as specific to Colombia instead of a generic, international domain name. This is a valid concern given that country code domain names are the top factor Google considers when figuring out who content is created for.

      According to a story at PCPro.co.uk, a popular computing site, Google has confirmed that it will allow .co to be treated as an international domain name.
      While the .co domain is still assigned to Colombia at the moment, a Google spokesperson said that would soon change. "We will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted. Webmasters will soon have the functionality to be able to specify this by using the geotargeting options in Google Webmaster Tools."
      This will give .co a big boost, as it was one of the most frequent arguments I've heard in recent weeks against registering .co domains.
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  • Profile picture of the author divx22
    I actually tested this once by creating two similar sites using the same SEO tactics. The .com achieved 2nd page for a high competitive keyword phrase and the .ws going for another keyword phrase with the same competition only made it to page 25 of the results. It was only one test and of-course there could be other reasons but nevertheless my experience with this.
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