Hi there yea I thought of testing it myself, but then it will take me some money and some time which I can't afford right now. That's why I'm trying to find someone who tested the results themselves.

I have no scientific proof, expect none and need none.

It's hard to prove a negative, and little stands up to my scientific scrutiny anyway, in my capacity as a skepchick.

I've decided to believe Matt Cutts and Caliban Darklock.

Matt Cutts says repeatedly and vociferously that domain extensions don't affect SEO. He says it in writing and on video. He says it on his own blog and on Google's main blog. He says it in the fields and in the hills, on the plains and on the beaches, at sea, in the air and on the landing-grounds. And he invites people to quote him on it.

Caliban, who has worked on the algorithms for several different types of search engine, has further explained it to me in a way which helped me to understand that domain extensions shouldn't, couldn't and wouldn't affect SEO.

And then of course there's also been my own former, albeit limited testing (which actually came before I learned about either of the above), which has certainly never suggested or implied the contrary.

That's good enough for me. I have bigger fish to fry.

I need some more people to anwer this. Please help me if you tested this yourself.

Isac,

What Alexa is saying is that inasmuch as your site has good quality, fresh and regularly updated content, Google will fall in love with it irrespective of the domain extension. There's no preferential treatment.

Your domain extension has nothing to do with your page rank. It has nothing to do with your being on the first page or not.

You can have .com and not be found on the first 300 pages on Google Search while a .info or even a free blogger blog will be found on the first page.

If you want to be there, you have to show some targeted commitment. You understand what I mean?

Maybe I didn't explain it well but I think I tried my best.

Back when I thought it mattered, I tested .com vs .net vs .org. result = no difference.

I also tested the various UK extensions. Result = no difference.

Then I stopped bothering. Why spend so much time worrying about something so volatile. What works best with Google today might be your downfall tomorrow if you rely on it.

Country specific domains definitely make a difference. If you are pushing for the UK market, for instance, then get a UK domain.

The .com, .net and .org are generic and non region specific so are always a good choice but not essential. You can easily rank these top level domains for any country. In my experience, a top level domain will easily compete with a local domain but not the other way around. So in other words, if I'm marketing for UK then a .co.uk or a .com will do about equal. But using a .uk domain to get US traffic is much harder. Still possible though. I have a UK domain that gets around 50K visitors a month, about 35k of those visits are from the US.

To me personally I would only use the top level domains. For starters even if it doesnt make a difference in the search engines it does if you ever plan on selling the domain. The top level domains will get you the best prices in the long run.

I really do not think it matters too much though. For I have actually seen my .net domains do better then some of my .com domains. This however is not difentive proof. If you do a little more scrubbing through keywords though you should beable to find a few high target keywords that are not taken yet. Another trick you can do when looking for possible domains is simply add an e to the front or a letter at the end. I have found several good keyword rich domains this way. And since you are only adding an extra letter it does not hurt it one bit in the eyes of the serps.

This was a question that I had trouble getting answered too but I thought about it & came to the conclusion that it shouldn't matter.

Google's all about returning the best & most relevant results for a keyword or keyword phrase.

Wouldn't it be silly if Google favoured a .com over a .info?

Just imagine for a second that someone types into google “weight loss” & Google returns a .com on page 1.

Lets say this .com has a crap 300 word article that's not very helpful on the subject of weight loss.

But there's a site on “weigh loss” that sitting on page 10 of Google & it's the most Amazing 1000 word article ever written on the subject but it's been put on page 10 because it's a .info

That wouldn't be to smart on Googles part - Googles just went against its whole purpose – to return the best results

I think Great relevant content & quality back links are the most important things in getting ranked well.

People talk, talk, talk about this non stop. The proof is in testing and seeing results.

Unless people have solid proof that domain extensions don't matter then I'd completely disregard their opinions.

Through doing SEO myself, I've definitely seen difference in ranking between .com's, .net's and .org's. The difference isn't incredibly huge but it's definitely noticeable on the rankings.

To anyone here who says that the domain extension doesn't matter, then given the choice what would they rather choose a .com or a .me? If it doesn't matter, put your money where your mouth is.

Step back and look at this for a moment.

Is their any logical reason why Google or any search engine would discount a domain and therefor by choice rank it lower because of its extension?

No there is not! And any one telling you otherwise with any type of proof is only providing anecdotal evidence, which means squat.

There simply is no reason to get into a huge discussion about this.

The IMUMF (Internet Marketing Unsolved Mysteries Firm) has an extensive breakdown on this matter. It is an unsolved mystery that they're looking deep into.

About the only .info that ranks well that I know of is for a term that gets 6,600 searches a month and is a PR4 when I checked. Thing is, the URL is SO true.

Another way to look at this is that your content needs to be sticky any way if social media matters. Maybe all of this argument truly has a shelf life of 6 to 18 months. I believe that what is proven is that the SE will become less objective and more subjective due to 'competition' from Facebook, Diaspora and other networks. These networks already have in them a treasure trove of search-able results. As soon as somebody can make them available in a meaningful way, people will use them. Thus, the focus of .info vs. other stuff is really kind of moot for the long run anyway.

Why is this relevant? Let me explain.

I don't think Facebook and Diaspora will take visitors away from good SEO, but if you content is not sticky enough for somebody to share then you are probably leaving money on the table.

When I share an article with someone on a social network, I am not looking at the extension. When something goes viral, it just has to not only be "good" and "fresh" but it should also be interesting.

I can only guess that Facebook is working on its own search engine that will be social in nature. What happens when people begin searching for content on a subject that that other people in their network find interesting?

Again, no reason to be alarmed, but just because you had the foresight to have some really boring content written by some folks in the Phillipines does not mean that it will meet the test of sharable.

All that is to say is that being found in the search engines with a particular kind of extensions is and should be down on one's list of priorities. I think that as we step our game up as content marketers or information marketers, we need to get not only the search engine traffic, but that traffic that comes from having something worth somebody's time to read.

Will Google kill made for adsense websites and content sites? I don't know and don't care really. If my website is properly structured, I will get my traffic. What I have turned my attention to is whether or not if somebody reads or sees something I write, would they or could they share it with somebody. Social networks have caused Google to retrench and you can bet that the SE will become more adaptable to that kind of model instead of a semi-objective process that they own of deciding what is worth reading. In that respect Google's monopoly has already been broken and at some point what they think will not be and should not be your only concern, yes?

I realize this is off the topic a bit. I just think that if all of our focus is on this stuff, we could be leaving money on the table. Candidly, since my writing is my money, I don't want to leave any money that I could get, on the table.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled debate and argument on search engine results.

CT

PS...to my point, you have no way of knowing how or whether or not your .info or .com shows up in somebody's personalized search results, which is just the first step in making search engines a little bit more subjective. So, to me, make your content findable, but also make it sharable.

And this whole discussion is why the .info matter will forever be an unsolved mystery.

The biggest unanswered question I have on the subject is
why anyone thinks Matt Cutts has any reason to lie about it.

What motivation could he possibly have?

On the one hand, I have a gaggle of anonymous posters on
various forums making unsubstantiated claims. On the other,
I have Matt Cutts saying it doesn't matter.

Like Alexa, I think I'll go with Matt Cutts for the win.

Tsnyder

I have to disagree with what seems to be the majority in this thread. I will always sticks to hyphens and .com's, .net's and .org's simply because that is what you see in the search engine results 9 times out of 10. Yes, .info appears sometimes, but .me and all of those other country code domains (exception .co.uk) rarely get a look in.

When someone can find numerous examples of .me's etc ranking highly for competitive keywords, I don't mean ridiculous long-tail keywords then I may start thinking about other extensions, as I've never seem them in my experience.

p.s. I'm not actually asking someone to do that!

[DELETED]

To answer the seller's actual question, yes, here is one test which shows com vs net vs org vs info:

SEO Test 11: .com vs .org vs .net vs .info | Search Engine Optimization SEO Empire

They mysteriously finish in the order that "rumor and speculation" would place them in:

fulldragon.com at pos 2 25th of July
fulldragon.net at pos 3 26th of July
fulldragon.org at pos 5 3rd of August
fulldragon.info at pos 10 28th of July

Why test to see if other extensions rank as well as a .com, when you can just buy a .com in 2 minutes.

If you plan on having the domain in 3 or 5 years, get a .com. Don't know if you'll have it for 3 or 5 years, then get the .com.

.info and .us extensions are for throwaway domains. At least in my book.

Thank you warriors.
I appreciate all your inputs.

Now I'll need some more time to decide lol

My advice is that you use a country specific domain extension if you are targeting a particular country, but if not.... use any domain and simply make sure you do the right on-page and off-page SEO work.