.INFO .NET & .COM

it is pretty well known that .com 's are ranking better than the rest. Then most people see the next best choice as .net As for .info their original purpose is for information websites, but many people use .info for other things too. If you work a bit on it it can easily outrank a .com ... it only depends on you

.com is the best when it comes to domain names. .info catches a lot of flack nowadays because it is cheap and many spammers buy them in bulk to push their junk. I have heard many people say that .info will not rank as high as a .com or .net because google knows of this situation. Most people avoid .info like the plague.

A .net should be your second choice if you are unable to get a .com for a key phrase. They tend to rank almost as well as a .com.

Having said all that, the extension isn't the only factor when trying to rank. Make sure you post quality content and get good backlinks as well.

Well done Gmoney38. I suspect that there is so much guff spoken about the ranking capabilities of these domains on both sides of the arguement.

Let's hope someone who really knows (if there is anyone outside of the search engine's inner circles) can chime in on this thread.

As far as I can tell, the only advantage of having .com is that people think of this when they think of the internet. So some non-savvies may add .com onto searches or even use the browser address bar, not knowing the address of what they want and will just throw .com at the end of what would be a long tail keyword.

It all depends on what your using your site for really.

.com is always better than the rest but if you are after a domain name and it's taken then you can look for the other suffix's in order of .org, .net, .co.uk, .biz, .info etc.....

If you are using the domain purely for link building then there is nothing wrong with going for .info.

it's been known that .org and .net sites do better than some .com sites but if you can get .com then go for it.

No, it's utter nonsense.

Different TLD extensions don't affect SEO at all. It's just an urban myth of internet marketing.

Google's own Matt Cutts has made this very clear.

He's said it repeatedly and consistently.

He's said it in interviews, on video and in writing.

He's said it "on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets, and in the hills". And he's invited people to quote him on it.

But there are still some people who don't accept it, of course, and apparently they genuinely believe that a .info/.biz/.whatever domain is going to be "harder to rank" than a .com. It's complete nonsense. The reason so many people believe it is actually not that difficult to understand, though: they see that (for example) very few .info domains rank in Google's number 1 position compared with the number of .com domains, and instead of realising that that's the inevitable outcome of a belief-system that says "they're harder to rank" so that very few people will use them in the first place for sites they want to rank well, they make the mistake of imagining that it's because they don't rank as well! Once you think about it, it's actually pretty easy to understand - but a lot of people don't think about it: they just accept what's always been widely believed, and so much so that even Google themselves can't make people collectively believe the truth.

People believe the opposite, and it "must" be true, because they read it on the internet! They don't look at the other evidence that tells them they're wrong.

We discuss it here about three or four times a week.

The recent discussions include this thread, this thread, this thread, this one, this one, this one and then there are about 50 others.

I'm certainly no SEO expert, so I can't speak to how .infos stack up against .coms in the SERPs. However, to real people (you know, the ones with the credit cards?) I think .com will win out every time. If I'm looking for a solution to a problem, and I'm presented with a number-one ranking .info domain versus a number-two ranked .com - or even a number-five or seven - I'm going to avoid the .info every single time.

Maybe it's just me. :confused:

For business, .com or .inc is more trustworthy.

For making money from online blogs etc, .anything will do. It doesn't matter the extension, its just SEO urban legend. But there is strong proof that a well aged domain or a domain helps.

My deciding factor in which to choose is..... the cheapest I can get as long as it has my keyword in it without a lot of the "-", "the", "site", "blah, blah blah" added to it!! And that's another subject that I've heard mixed opinions on --- whether to include other words alongside the keyword!
EX: "dating service .com" as opposed to "the dating service site .com"

dot com has many advantages i think (eventhough i did not know about all of advantages). first of all: easy to remember. because dot com is the firstly domain that made.. if we see the price different from dot com and dot info, we can see what result would we get. more price we sow, more advantages we will reap..

I always use .COM. Most domains that rank well are .COM. I know some people say they have had success with .INFO, but I've never used it.

In my situation, when a keyword domain name is already taken in its basic form, I just add a number or another word to the beginning or end to make it unique so I can use the .COM. There are so many word combinations that I haven't found a reason to bother with those others.

I have done well with .info sites also.

BUT even though I have a lot of extensions, I sometimes find myself inadvertantly typing in the .com version for my own non .com sites. And people tend to think of the .com extension first.
In addition, since there is the perception that .com's are better, it is possible that a .com might sell for more.

.INFO - for informative sites like directory sites or yellow pages site
.COM - for commercial sites or this is the one used generally by all websites
.NET - ( have not experienced and tried the usage for it so pardon me)

According to my experience Google do treat the domains differently. So whever possible opt for .com and then if that is not available go for .net otherwise rest.

.com is more widely known, so it does rank higher in my opinion. now choosing between .INFO, .COM, .NET really depends on what your site is about.

George, the bottom line is that it doesn't matter. What matters is getting the keywords you want to rank for in the domain (exact match is best), and in many cases the .info is your only available option. With everything else being equal, an exact match .info domain is going to outperform a .com that isn't an exact match for the keyword any day, and that is a fact.

Paul

Thanks everyone this is a good review. Like I said before there was so many different threads about each individual one I thought I would merge them together and get the story on them all

It's another argument about domain extensions... lol

I have .com, .net and .info domains ranking well for their targeted keywords - and YES, the .net and .info names are ranked above competing .coms from others.

If you're NOT talking pure SEO - i.e., people are going to TYPE IN your web site address, then IMHO, .com is always better because people will type that out of habit (in my experience!)

Have an awesome day!

Gary

I wonder why some people tend to hurt others just for having a different opinion on the topic...
Isn't this the place to share our experince???

Regarding the original question:
info can be as good as com what regards SEO, on the other hand if you want to reach worldwide don't choose co.uk which is for UK market only. It all comes down to the question what you want to use your site for.

There is another interesting topic here when choosing the url: most internet marketers would warn you not to have hyphen in there as it is bad for SEO ranking. One of my sites has got two hyphens in and still ranks first, second in google.

.com is obviously the best choice and this is very friendly to the search engine...

Over the last week I started looking for new domains so that I could outsource a system (course) that I bought for my team to use.

I did a lot of reading on the .com/net/org versus "other" top level domains and I looked up what Matt Cutts said about it. He did indeed say that Google does not care what TLD you use, but he also seems to have said they "might" care at some point.

Anyway, for whatever it's worth, I bought a .biz domain last week and I'll not hesitate to do so in the future (along with .info).

I follow a technical industry where a well known industry expert runs a .info site and it has massive PR because of its quality content. I can't see Google ever punishing a TLD en-masse. It would go against what they stand for.

My bet is Google will continue to evaluate your content as the primary indicator for ranking (along with quality of links, of course).

I have like 30 domains, all mixed with .com, .info, .net and not one of them out-shines the other....
Because each site is ranking according to the work I put into them.

so to answer...it doesn't matter what the tld is as the biggest baddest .com site won't rank worth a crap either if the work isn't put into it for it to rank high.

It's best if you can get the .com since the view (nmt necessarily from the search engines) but from users is that info domains are usually low quality

Don't take the risk on using .info/.net

Just pick a .com and you'll be fine

Cheers,

~Gary

No.

But people are stupid and can't figure this out, so if you are SELLING a site, you will get more and better offers if it is on a .com domain.

As for me, I think it is best to use other extension when a dot com is not available. Remember, people tends to assume that all website ends with a dot com.

Alexa, do you ever get a headache beating that logical brain or yours against the wall daily on the WF?

You seem to be one of the few with a shred of common sense. Just sayin'.



Rob

.com will always rank better than the rest.

One should always prefer .com domain, if it is not available then you can go for .net, .org

.info and rest are very difficult to get ranked.

This thread is full of....

I went with .info. Perfect match with my keyword so I highly doubt there was a better alternative.

By the sounds of it the only downside with a .info is peoples opinions of it. But hey, googles the one ranking me not them!

Interesting thread!...I predict a lot of .info EMD's being suddenly taken!

I use .com, net and org. Some people also like .info.