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Planning to buy a new domain or migrate from blogspot to your own domain ? Then you’re sure to come across this question. Let’s see what is best for us.
Search Engine Optimization and domain names have a long friendship to share. Though, sometimes I feel that people take it too seriously. So the question everyone asks is – Does domain name extensions have any effect on SEO ?
That’s a fair question. Its like you are building your new house and you want to select the best plot, so you would definitely want to go through the best choices.
Normally, we have three choices. .com, .net and .org
From what we have seen, out of the three domain name extensions, .com and .net TLDs do well on the SERPs.
Now, don’t take it as a statement. Normally, I think Google wouldn’t think twice if it spots a .com or .net domain name, provided it has the authority and backlinks.
But when it spots an .org or regional domain name (like .in or .nl) then it might think about more variables to decide whom this website will best fit. Although, I’m not sure what exactly these variables are. We have clues though.
Let’s say the query on Google is “Indian culture” (Assumption)
And we have more than two sites with a possible match.
Site A – www.red-indians-community.us
Site B – www.indian-culture-stories.in
Site C – www.indian-culture.com
Lets also assume that all sites have the same number of backlinks, from the same sites, same page rank, same authority etc. (That would make things tough, yet an example is an example)
Now, which site would show up on the SERPs ? Before generalizing it, also think about from where the search is made. Let’s take three options here.
Guy A – Searching from the US
Guy B – Searching from India
Guy C – Searching from the Middle East
Now, Guy A would get a SERPs similar to -
Rank No.1 – Site A
Rank No.2 – Site B or C
Now, Guy B would get a SERPs similar to -
Rank No.1 – Site B
Rank No.2 – Site A or C
Now, Guy C would get a SERPs similar to -
Rank No.1 – Site C
Rank No.2 – Site A or B
This is just a pure sample, and all I want to explain is how the SERPs might change according to where the search is made from.
Typically, .coms tend to be popular among users, so more backlinks and traffic tend to associate with them rather than the regional ones. And Google I suppose should think about a lot more variables before ranking a site over another based on TLDs.
So essentially,
- If your content is intended for all and you want a worldwide audience go for .COMs
(In the preferential order of .com > .net > .org > others)
- If you want to focus on regions, go for regional domains like .ins
Apart from this, a lot more factors go into considering what is a preferred domain on the SERPs. Like the number of backlinks, which TLD’s link to them, your server co location advantage and the n number of other variables.
So rather than asking which is better, you’d rather ask – What do you want to be ?
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I think most people think that a domain name ends with .com. As if a website can have only dot coms at the end.
For instance, if you say that your blog is named DailySEOBlog to 10 people, atleast 5 of them would get the impression that its DailySEOBlog.com.
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.Com is and will always be King.
Most websites use the .com extention (TLD) as it is the most recognisable and universally accepted.
Content is also king. So it is all about the content on your website and the relevance it has to the user doing the search.
The search engines will always try to deliver the right search results. It does not necessarily have anything to do with domain extensions.
However, Google.co.uk for example will return UK websites where appropriate, and most of these websites may use the .co.uk domain extension.
Anyway, the article has been food for thought.
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The dot .com will always be at the top of the tree.
@Kevin, quite right, it is content that attracts traffic.
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wel…after having many researches done I can tell that:
1. dash in URL is not good for SEO (though it is not vitally important…with properly made seo campaign and lots of backlinks you can get your site in top 10 even with dash)
2. dot com is obvious for 90% of this planet population that pays online (all the rest use dot CN =) also it is not that hard to run a simple experiment – type whatever you want in google and press “search” button. dot coms will be like 90% or even more. so I do beliebe Google favours dot com…really…even though you can see other results also (dot NET or even some local ones)
Greetings from Toronto,
Alex / Toronto Web Design & SEO
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Dot Com is great !!!
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.org are in front of everything, but as long as you don’t post any comercial links.
Matt said .org has some “magic” on it.
anyway, i would go for the usual .mycountrycode
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Interesting post as I am considering my new domain’s TLD recently..
I personally own a .co.za Domain that is #1 all over New-Zealand search results, while in others (Co.uk.. etc.), it is missing.
You should write a post about using dashes or not in the domain names…
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You are ALL WRONG.
.gov is most powerful
.edu is second most
.org is third
.net is fourth
DEPENDING on YOU HOSTS LOCATION .US (for USA) is better then .Org –
Then .com comes.
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.com is best according to SEO
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