So, what do you think the pros and cons are of having something other than a .com? I think most companies use .com and it seems more "official" for some reason, but are there are real detriments to using a .info or .org or .net or something like that?
.coms are obviously better as most people know of the .com so your more likely to get type in traffic if you have a memorable domain name that has a .com extension. I don't really mind what extension I get, I aim for better SERP position than trying to get type-ins.
I don't think there are any real detriments for using something other than .com, except that the general public is more used to seeing .com than anything else. I think one of the biggest advantages with .net and others is the possibility of getting a good domain name with those extensions that might not be available with .com anymore.
I have .info more than 1 year and earn $50/m through adsense, also index well in SE. I don't see the negative.
i think .com strikes easily to mind than .org or .info since .com was reputed since long and i heard in some forum that many people think .info are mostly scams. but i don't believe it
Yep, I think the main reason is for branding purposes. Let's say your website is DigitalPoint.com. Somebody might know the name "Digital Point" but not the extension. .com is the most popular, so most people will type in whatever.com in the address bar. People are less likely to type in .info or something else, so .com is best if you want people to easily know and remember your full URL. However, if you are just doing SEO, article marketing, etc, then I don't see any bad reasons for not having .com domains. When you use anchor text, or direct search engine results, people don't look at the url as much and they will still go to your site. A .info domain would work fine, but it depends what you want to do with it.
In terms of SEO there are no pros or cons. There is a debate that not owning a .com results in people automatically going o the .com version, though as people get more used to alternative TLDs this is happening less.
Ok, I think I can get much more relevant .info, etc. domains than .com and I am mainly hoping for the online traffic, especially SERP. I appreciate your input on this. Thanks!
.com is the leader of the pack and is the beneficiary of type-in traffic from the other extensions since surfers are very conditioned. we have seen very good results with our .org's as compared to out .net's and other extensions. .biz has been the poorest performer for us.
I always figured .com gets all the free traffic from the folks who forget to type in there favorite 2nd rate ___. although if I had to pick .net or .org would be a close second...all the others are the sam IMO
A report was recently released that showed, in numerical order, which extensions serve up the most viruses/ spyware. I don't remember who posted the report but the more obscure the extension obviously the greater the threat and the less credibility you have when using one. I remember that .info was pretty high up there in terms of negative sentiment.
Its about trust to the user, but I have had just as much success ranking ".info/.in/.cc" as I have with ".com/.net/.org"
Most people think .com is the only possible TLD. So if your competitor has the .com and you promote .net - you're in trouble.
Comparisons of domains have been a topic of discussions from a long time. In fact, "domainphobia", a new term can be used to describe the fear of registering domains other than .com. I really don't understand why people fear registering domains other than .com....it has nothing to do with SEO, PR, or search engine acceptance or penalization. I run a few websites with .info domains and i can tell you, the traffic, PR, etc is of the same quality as of similar websites with either .com, .net or so called "good domains". Its not the domain, but how much time and energy you dedicate to your website that matters
.com should be the priority, if it is not available then .net should be the second option and if that is also not available then go for any other extension you like.
If you use non .com than you will loose some traffic because people remember domain name without extension. Than they write www.yourdomain.com in browser instead www.yourdomain.net. .net is better if you have some network/computer/internet related site. Net i short name for network. Computer related people will not forget the extension. If site is non computer related, than many of people will forgot the extension. In that case your trafic is goint to .com domain owner.