TO BE .com OR NOT TO BE .com ??!

Hi to everyone,

So... now that it seems hopeless to find a really attractive .com URL - what do you marketers think? Is it that important to have a .com or is it just as good to have an even better .org or .biz URL?

I mean, I know that .com is considered the best.. but do people really look at that this way? Do customers actually care??

It would be interesting to see what people here think, and maybe we will even have some insights...

As for me - I do not care about it.. it does not mean anything to me as for the reliability or professionalism of the website.

Thanks!

Korena

 

Well .com domains are very popular because it is the most used domain extension and every "average" internet user will type something.com but .info .org and .net are also very good IMO.

 

It really depends on what your website is if it is commercial then .com would be the best if informational then stick with .info if your building a website for an organization then use .org it just depends on what your website is about. By the way .com (commercial) is not considered the "best" in my view .edu (educational) carries much more weight in the search engines and is considered to be of higher quality.

 

when a person thinks about a website what comes to there mind first is a .com.... if you got a .biz and someone already had a .com he can get a lot of traffic through you.

when a person thinks about going to ubuntu site what they first think is ubuntu.com its simple people are more used to .com nothing else

.com is equal to another domain just people are not used to them as .com

usually its if you cant get a .com then got for .net/.org after that only if it really important got for the country based ones like .us/.in still cant find one better leave the name and go for a better one

 

If you want to get a domain that you can sell for a good price after sometime, then I guess that is pretty much not possible with .com as all good domain names are gone.

If you just want to have a website, then I guess you can go for a good name and you can get any extension. .com is easy to remember. In SEO domain extensions only matter if a site is optimized for local/country specific searches.

 

I always go with .com unless im targeting local or country search.
In that case i go with the country extensions..

but .info on crapy less permant sites..

 

i also try to stick with .com because when a customer finds your site . . . and LIKES IT - word of mouth starts, and ALL visitors that dont have to do with a webmaster oriented site will refer to your domain as a .com

also i bought a very popular .US because all the .com .net .org .everything was purchased as of 10 years ago, well in the last 10 years .US came out and they did not purchase the .us. They must have forgot about it or something, but even to this day sometimes i write mysite.com just out of habit. One time i was even linking to their website in my footer because i was so used to typing in .com at the end of everything that they got a few backlinks from me for a week or two.

so i suggest sticking with .com until there is NONE left

 

Yes .com is better for customers, they care. Search Engines don't care as long as you have good unique content. For example, let's say you get mobilephones.org. If it gets popular, many people will refer to it as "mobilephones" or will forget that it's a .org and say "mobilephones.com", and that's not good for you. Also .cc, .biz, .info and many other are associated with scams...

 

for example WHO GOES TO CRAIGSLIST.ORG ????? or even refers to it as that ?

if you notice you are NOT @ Craigslist.com they redirect you to .ORG I didnt notice that FOR A WHILE : )

 

It all really depends. If you are starting a reliable business or website that is there to stay for long term I would suggest purchasing all the domains that are the same to yours and redirect them. ex. cook.com, cook.org, cook.net, cook.me, cook.info, cook.biz and what ever else there may be however this can become very expensive.

If you have a small budget I would always try to find a .com domain over any other.

 

.com is Always On First priority When planning To Start A Business.. Because .Com Domain is very Famous.
By the way May Be it Depends on Business I think If your Planning For Technology Type Business You can Use .Net & if you stating a Marketing offers Type Business Then You can use .Org.. .com is Suitable for all types

 

very true . . . for example i own Webmaster Conventions .ORG and I think it is better to own the .org over the .com because it is more of an ORGANIZATION


so your point is very valid.

 

My suggestion is to buy the extension that fits you best, and then on TOP of that buy the .com/.net/.org version and forward them to the extension that you are using.

 

as far as seo goes, .com is still the master of the domains. .com is more preferable than anything else, in most cases, where .gov and .edu are highly trusted by google as not to have spammy or malicious content. So, point is - do a .com if possible, it does pay to be like everybody else.

 

It's not that hopeless, Korena.

It's not important to have a com extension. Of course not.

What IS important is that you have a good site and that you know how to bring in visitors.

That's all there is to it.

And, no, potential customers do not care.

Why should they?

When people click on your link, ad, or whatver, they don't look at the URL window anyway. It could be org, fm, net, biz, whatever.

Good example:

Many haven't.

If you want a particular domain name but it is taken, go with another extension. I got FM, and I do just fine with it.

Don't be brainwashed with the idea that you have to have the com extension.

 

Haha, yes I always refer to it as Craigslist.com, and I always wondered why they redirect to the .org...

 

People are brainwashed with .com domains... that's why it's always better to go with .com

Let's say for example you tell your friend about a website. You tell him "the website's name is lolfunny". 99% of the time your friend (any person) will type "lolfunny . com" rather than .net or .org.

That's why I always stick with .coms

 

He may or may not, but how do you know that he will?

If I tell a friend, or, whomever wants to know my url, and if he can't get in, or he sees something else, he will ask me again.

If he doesn't, he doesn't want to know enough to ask again. So....

Granted, if he is a stranger, that is something else, I'll never see him again, but they are so far and inbetween, it does not matter if they type in another extension.

Besides, very, VERY few ask us what our url is, period. Let's get real here.

For me, of the ones I do want them to know, they have my business card, or I will write it out for them.

Simple.

On top of that, of the, say, 500,000, as an example, who come into my site, do so via clicking on a link, so it doesn't matter. The name "The LIST" is all they need to know. the FM extension is irrelevant.

The List is perfect for my site, I wanted it, and I could care less if I couldn't get the com. In fact, the FM draws more attention because it is different, so it worked out much better.

Ya gotta think outside the box.

Don't act like sheep by following one another off of a fucking cliff.

 

If most of the people reach your site by clicking a link - whether it is from a search engine, a referring site or PPC - then the URL doesn't matter.

If you have a URL that works well with a particular extension, such as safety.info or small.biz, then the extension may even play into your marketing.

If you can get a GREAT domain name, then a .net, .org or other extension may be offset by the weight of the name.

But if you want people to remember your name and type it in, ask yourself how often you remember the URLs with a non-.com extension. I have some .info and .net URLs and I have found myself typing .com instead of the correct extension a few times. If I do that on my own websites, how often are other people going to do it?

But don't listen to me or any so-called expert. Just think about the names and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the best .com name you can come up with against the best available URL and think of how you are going to market it. Then go with your own gut.

 

- Personally, I always try registering .COM domains (even if the names are longer than the equivalent available in other extensions).

- Also, I think people are more likely to automatically type-in the .COM extension when looking for your websites (than typing-in other extensions).