Hello webmasters, I recently have purchased a '.co' EMD. I have never worked with .co extension before. Basically .co stands of Columbia but it can be used for international market too. I verified the words from a Matt Cutts video before purchasing the domain. The option is there to set the Geo-Target from Webmasters Tool too just like what we normally get with high-level TLDs like .com. .net, .org. But I don't want to use it for specific market, I mean if I leave it for the international market what is the best practice to do. Will it target Columbia by default? Should I leave the Geo-Target option unchecked? Or else I need to specify not listed from the drop down menu. I don't think the keyword I am using is suitable for any particular audience. It has decent search volume in all major market places including USA, UK, Germany, Australia, India. Any expert advice is highly appreciated. Thanks and regards, wordpecker
.co domains are owned by a private company and are treated by Google like .com, .net, .org, ,me, .info etc and are no longer controlled by the Columbian authorities. It is not restricted to being seen as most likely columbian and it is seen by Google as international with no need to represent it as so. http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347922
Of course, you can use .co domain for any purpose like .com, .net, .org so you can classify it like a general tld like .com .net .org .info .me .co .ws etc.
Classify it indeed! You should check how Google see it (.co) b4 saying someone needs to waste time going round in a circle trying to find out how to do somehting that is not even a thing one needs to do.
Thanks both of you for clarification. Well, one more question, do you think it's necessary to put a check on the Geo-Target (check-box) in Google Webmasters Tool dashboard? If I don't target any particular country what is the best practice? Unchecked box or Not Listed (from the drop down menu) what should be the best thing to do? It can be for any G-TLD not necessary a .co one that we are talking about here.
If you are looking to target a specific market, try and get hosting or an IP address in that specific market. Then getting links from sites hosting in that country also helps.