.us or .com?

Quick question. Do the SE's give preference when it comes to placement depending on the extension after your domain? For example, if the example.com is already taken but example.us is available will the .us come up when I do a search for example? I know PR plays a factor but let's assume they have the exact same PR and there is no other websites for those keywords. Thanks in advance.

 

The search engines claim to not give any preference to the domain extension, but I don't know if that is necessarily true. Certain extensions are notoriously used by spammers.

If a .com domain name is taken, it probably isn't worth taking the .us version, especially if the .com domain is established at all. I think the .com would outrank the .us, but it would depend on other factors like links.

 

If example.com is already taken, who on earth would want to buy example.us anyway?!

 

Yes, the search engines will give preference to .com followed by .net. If you really want to get nitty gritty on it then .gov comes first, followed by .edu and then .org. Then comes .com and then .net. All else follows after this.

 

I would recommend .com, most of the people like to type .com, they won't remember your website is .us. If your website got lots of traffic, then you will send some free traffic to the same name domain with .com.

 

Yes .com is given the most preference..

It will be better to have a larger keyword in .com domain than small keword in .us domain

 

ENOUGH WITH THE NONSENSE ALREADY

No, the search engines do not give preferential treatment to one top level domain or another. They also don't give special treatment to Web sites or domains either (unless they violate their terms of service by trying to manipulate their indexes). The only exception (other than the one I already gave) is when you're doing a geo-poltiical or regional search.

That being said, your hypothetical .com and .us will stand the same chance of ranking well in the search engines with all else being equal (and I don't mean any so-called special treatment either - I mean tangible factors such as content and incoming links).

 

.us is location tracked to the USA...I personally don't like ccTLDs.

I have a few .us's - they are ranking high for a few long tail keywords and have no chance in hell of ranking for anything better than that - even for their own URL keyword. In short, .com seems to have better luck.

 

Dan knows what he's talking about here! If the .com is taken and you really want the .us it doesn't matter to the search engines. My site for "Florida Bass Fishing" is a .us is about a year and a half old and overtook the .com version last year. In fact it's number 1 for Florida Bass Fishing. So it's much more a matter of SEO strategies and action versus the extension. So go for the .us but plan on spending many hours working your site up through the ranks. Best of luck!

 

(OT - pbruessow: congratulations on overtaking the .com with your .us TLD.)

 

if your target is international use .com
if usa use .us

 

Thanks Dan! I guess many people here don't respect the green globs that the "people in the know" have. I've enjoyed and learned a lot from your posts as well as Sweetfunny's, Snowbirds, and Jim the Bible guy from Alaska over the last year and a half. You guys really know your stuff. I respect everyone with loads of Green Globs, but the 3 I mentioned are always on point!

Looks like another post from dota that is still not on point here. My keywords are ranked high for the .us worldwide.

People, If your like the keywords and the dot com is taken, go for the other tld. At least your keywords would be in your url and that's really important!

 

Although a good accomplishment, "florida bass fishing" isn't exactly a competitive term according to Google keyword tool, Wordtracker and a Google search.

 

I get approx. 300 visits a day so no it's not that competitive. I'm keying on the "Bass Fishing" term right now and just starting to break in the top 10. It's my passion, my niche.

Are you saying that because of the competitiveness isn't that big that's why I can beat the .com? I can only state from my experience and results that the .us can beat the .com. I can't speak for any other niches because I don't have any others that I'm really working on besides my Florida Bass Lakes site (happens to be a .com) and yes it doesn't have that much competition either. My boat site has had very little link development and very little SEO work but I link to it from my fishing sites to drive traffic. I'm speaking from personal results as well as from experienced webmasters like Dan. MarkN, do you have personal experience that clearly shows that a .com is favored over a .us in your more competitive niches? Let us know if you do because maybe your right?

 

This man knows what he is talking about. Search engines do not give preferential treatment, any one who will tell you otherwise, certainly does not know what he is talking about.

 

I'm sure TLD does make a difference. I've got two very similar websites, on the same server, the same url (other than TLD), targeting the same keyword.

The .co.uk site has backlinks from 10 times as many websites (coming mainly from my other websites, articles and blog posts (not comments)). There are also more pages, it has been indexed slightly longer and there have been a lot more updates to it. This site ranks number 1 on google in the UK but is no where to be seen in the US rankings. This is with results from "the web" not "pages from the UK" option selected.

The .com version with a handful of backlinks is on page two of the US results but nowhere to be seen in the UK.

The .co.uk site has every reason to be higher than the .com, yet in the US it isn't.

I've also got an entirely different .net site (on a UK server) which ranks well in the US but not in the UK.

What makes you think that Google treats all TDLs the same?

Does anyone think sites targeting the US should have a .us?

 

The question in the thread was .us versus .com and from my experience in the US, the .us can overtake the .com . If I have a .uk versus a .com and am targetting the US market you may have something there but I'm not sure. Only that targetting US SERP, .us can overtake .com if SEO/content is done correctly.

 

.Com is a lot more popular!

 

I'm sure any site can beat any other site no matter what the tld is, I know of a .cn (china) which ranks top in the UK, but it I think it does help to have the right tld.

 

Setting up a quick affiliate landing page for some product on the example.com and then drive in PPC traffic