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.com vs .net/ .ws . ???

by Tom Harvey
11 replies
Has anybody have any sense whether it makes any difference in today's world whether or not the .com has as much weight as it once had ?

Now we are seeing .ws, .net. .us, .mobi

I think that my question goes to the credibility of the website? Does it make a difference anymore?

thanks
#net or
  • Profile picture of the author jayveen
    I'm pretty sure that the gold standard is still the '.com' domain. I've almost never found the .com available for anything I want, so I either have to go to hyphens like 'my-domain.com' to get a .com or else I buy the 'mydomain.org' or 'mydomain.net'.

    Now if you go to estibot.com and evaluate domains, they will give you wildly varying values, with the .com at about 10x or more than the .net, which is usually about 2x the .org. Yet I've heard people say that the .org is the first to get over the .net. I don't really know which of the two is best.

    I do know that even a newbie like me can get to the first page of google with either a .net or .org, but I'm having a real hard time ranking for hyphens. So I don't really know what to say, except that if you're following some program that says to only get 'mykeyword.com' domains, you're going to have a hard time finding them, because everyone else has the same idea and they are all snatched up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Josh Anderson
    If you cannot get the .com then don't register anything else if you have big plans for the domain.

    If you can get the .com and you have big plans for the domain register the .net .info as well.

    There is no point in registering a hyphenated version of the domain name nor a .net version if another company is already successfully using it unless you plan on squatting or competing with the keyword.

    But for a main brand it just does not make any sense at all.. get your own identity... with an available .com because when people try and recall your ulr... unless you have serious brand marketing they are usually going to type .com from memory even if your domain is a .net

    There are still great names to be had. It may not be easy... but I score domains all the time that I am surprised no one else had registered the .com for.
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    • Profile picture of the author Charles Washington
      Originally Posted by Josh Anderson View Post

      If you cannot get the .com then don't register anything else if you have big plans for the domain.

      If you can get the .com and you have big plans for the domain register the .net .info as well.

      There is no point in registering a hyphenated version of the domain name nor a .net version if another company is already successfully using it unless you plan on squatting or competing with the keyword.

      But for a main brand it just does not make any sense at all.. get your own identity... with an available .com because when people try and recall your ulr... unless you have serious brand marketing they are usually going to type .com from memory even if your domain is a .net

      There are still great names to be had. It may not be easy... but I score domains all the time that I am surprised no one else had registered the .com for.
      I respectfully disagree. From what I see most all good keyword .com's are already taken. (Sure there is some argument on this, but for generalized purpose most of them are gone.)

      The thing is, most .com's are taken by parked domains. If I find the .com is just a parked domain, no matter how old, I will get the .net and destroy the .com in the SERPS. For some reason, those parked .com's, even with SEO, never seem to rank on the first 5-10 pages.

      So, buy the .net.
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      • Profile picture of the author Josh Anderson
        Originally Posted by Charles Montgomery View Post

        I respectfully disagree. From what I see most all good keyword .com's are already taken.
        That may be true in really popular highly competitive niches...

        But I am able to register keyword rich highly targeted domains all the time in my niches and I constantly rank in the #1 and #2 positions on google for many.

        But my suggestion was not really geared toward keyword targeting... but rather brand identity.

        If all you are doing is keyword targeting and brand identity is not important then it does not really matter what you choose.

        Just remember that for word of mouth, recall, and brand identity nothing beats a .com and if its not available and those things are important then don't register it unless you can get a .com or else you will be sending traffic to whomever does own the .com when people try and recall your url.
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        • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
          As far as search engines go, I don't think it matters much what the TLD is. Ditto for hyphens.

          For human traffic, I would stick with a .com name, no hyphens.

          They can sometimes be hard to find, but they are still out there. I don't even remember the last time I registered a non-.com domain (where I didn't also register the .com).

          For branding, Josh Anderson is right. You need a .com. In most cases, people may remember YourKeywords or YourBrand, but then they'll tack .com at the end of it, or their browser will. So, if you rely on any form of human traffic, and you register a non-.com domain, you are likely giving the .com owner some free traffic.
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        • Profile picture of the author jayveen
          Count me suspicious. One of my favorite procrastinating tactics is to do keyword research for hours and hours, and everything, ever, in the few months I've been doing this, with over 1900 monthly searches (Google keyword tool), has the .com already taken. And I jump around from niche to niche all the time.

          I suppose if you're talking about those 20 - 30 searches a month (exact match) keywords, then maybe there are some .coms available, but for anything in the 4 digits, I haven't found a single one thats free.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Harvey
      Hey Josh, thanks for the thoughtful answer..Gave me a new perspective on the .? situation.
      Good advice and thanks again..
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  • Profile picture of the author askloz
    all domain names hold the same weight, but not so much info was given by matt cutts on info domains as the others like .com, .net, org, .edu, .gov which all have the same weight applied to them now.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Harvey
      If I am fortunate enough to get the .com, i always reserve the .net and .org and .info as well. figure for short money I can own the niche.
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      • Profile picture of the author Darren Cottingham
        We use this trick:
        For SEO purposes, get a .net or .org domain with the right keywords in it - people finding it in search engines generally click because of the page title and description, not because of your TLD.
        Then, if you have to advertise offline or want an easy-to-remember domain, register that as a .com (or whatever you want), and redirect it to the site with the .net. People will remember the domain you tell them, not necessarily the one it redirects to.
        Also, if you're using PPC to drive traffic to landing pages, it's not so important what TLD you have.
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    offline world are more familiar with .com, than other extensions. i think that alone makes the .com > the rest
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