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Are .com domains that important?

by vojohn33
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
So this probably hasn't been the first time that this has been asked. But what do you guys usually opt for if a .com domain is unavailable? do you try to keyword different domains until you get a .com or do you settle with the next best thing? ie: .org, net, biz, info

cheers
#domains #important
  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    I usually tend to settle for a .org or .net if I can't get a .com.
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    • Profile picture of the author petemcal
      Originally Posted by rmolina88 View Post

      I usually tend to settle for a .org or .net if I can't get a .com.
      Second this... I noticed that these three domain types were the ones that weathered the EMD algorithm update better back in 2012. Where as the .info .biz and other domains tended to take more of a beating.

      I see this as potential proof that Google doesn't value these domains as highly as the aforementioned .com/net/org. However it could just be correlation and not causation... i.e. the sites using the .info/biz domains were using spammier SEO tactics and so took at hit on that basis (not necessarily directly linked to their domain extension).
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      • Profile picture of the author FivestarHB
        as far as SEO goes, plenty of people have reported that .com .org .net performs better - but this may of course be a rumour. I have seen others say that .info or .biz works just as well.

        The most important thing is that the general public, your readers, general surfers, tend to have a preference for .com - we have been conditioned to to think that .com is more reliable and a sign of a real business. So, we perpetuate the view. I always go for .com or .net or .org.
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  • Profile picture of the author SheaK
    For SEO reasons you may need to have a specific keyword in your domain (depending on your approach) therefore you would probably go to a different domain extension. But if you're just getting a domain for other uses always try get a .com trying different combos of words until you get one, otherwise people that forget that your domain might of been a .net or .org are just going to naturally type or go to .com first.
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  • Profile picture of the author curationsoft
    .net would be a great alternative to .com
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  • Profile picture of the author ninatsa
    com, net, org are better for international traffic, for the local traffic the extension of the country would be best, for examle, it for Italy, de for Germany and etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by vojohn33 View Post

    what do you guys usually opt for if a .com domain is unavailable?
    I don't build a business on a domain-name of which the .com variation already belongs to someone else. There's very little sense in that - it's all downside and potential future downside, however you look at it. :p

    I actually build almost all my own niche sites on .info domains, because my subscribers and customers strongly prefer that - it speaks to them of an "informational" site, which carries a lot of credibility with them - and not on ".com" extensions (which they say looks to them like "just another marketer trying to sell something") but I do register the .com domains in each case, and I simply redirect the .com I'm not using to the .info I am using.

    Some marketers dislike .info domains (some are even ill-informed enough to imagine that they're somehow "harder to rank", which is completely wrong), but customers tend to like them, and that's what matters to me.

    But I certainly wouldn't want someone else owning the .com (and probably wouldn't ever be able to sell the site/business for as much, in future, under those circumstances!). That's a non-starter, for me. If I can't register the .com, I need to re-think the name.

    For all ranking purposes, all the international TLD's are the same, as Google has consistently and openly been explaining for many years, in every possible medium at every possible opportunity. Theories out of line with that fact are pure myths from the Urban Myth Scool of Internet Marketing. But this decision isn't about SEO, of course. It's about much more important business issues like branding, credibility, traffic-loss, appearance and resale.
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  • Profile picture of the author usfemail
    For me, I prefer the .com's if you will be building up the site into an authority site. I have used .net and .org and .info in the past.

    It all just depends on what you plan on using the domain for.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoace
    For SEO - no.

    For branding - not really.
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