I have been doing some keyword research and have noticed that for most terms that receive google search of 5000+ per month the .com is almost always registered. It doesnt seem to matter if it is something like "what to do when your dog gets a panic attack" does this mean that if you can find long tail keywords with say 5000+ searches it would be profitable to just register the .com domain and just set up a simple site and you have a good chance of getting to the first page just because you have the exact phrase followed by .com ? I also noticed that while the .com was almost always taken you could often get the .net . Is a .com that much more worth than .net? does this mean that www.whattodowhenyourdoggetsapanicattack.com would outrank www.whattodowhenyourdoggetsapanicattack.net all other factors being equal?
I have several .COMs and .NETs and don't find any difference in terms of rankings or number of visitors
I think the .com would be better than .net for rankings. Proper link building can overcome this obstacle though. If a keyword has 5000+ searches, there would likely be competition for that keyword. So setting up a simple site with a keyword rich domain wouldn't be enough. It does give you an edge though. One problem that I have run into is that when you don't have the .com version of your domain, someone can develop a site on a different extension and cause problems with your rankings. The search engines seem to get confused when they see the same domain name with different extensions. They assume the sites are owned by the same person/company and they try to rank one instead of the other. How often do you see the same domain name with different extensions both show up with good rankings on the same term? You'd think it would happen all the time with so many people targeting the same keywords.
thanks for taking the time to reply vansterdam. As for the same domainname on different extension it appears that more often than not it is just parked with a buy this domain for xxxx dollars at the top. So competetion atleast for the time being doesnt seem to be a problem. what I am wondering about though is : How many searches for a term would there need to be to build a site around. How would competition impact this? according to gtrends they operate with 100 searches per day and less than 30.000 results.
Personally I would prefer .com but in the end if you don't properly optimize and work on your site, it won't matter whether it is .com or .net.
You are lucky I found this post. .com and .net are american domains. Both are equal. The domain extention is relevant to countries and does make a difference in the search engine results. For example a .ca extention will get better results in canada than it would in the U.S. .net is a universal extention.
The dot com is always more popular but if it is taken then go for the dot net. One thing you can do is visit the dot com and if it is just parked then you know the dot com isn't going to compete with you for rankings.
i find google prefers .edu/.gov first then .com/.net/.org followed by the newer .cc/.info/.tv in my experience.
Originally, the three letter extensions after the dot were meant to denote whether the domain name was being used for business (.com) or for a technology based company (.net). However, with the explosion of the Internet as a new business medium, the lines were blurred, and companies and individuals alike started cross-registering domains (ie. Me.com, me.net) just to protect their interests. Now, .com, .net names can be used for any purpose. I think domain extensions like .com, .net, .info etc do not make any difference in the site's rankings. Keywords in domain have little effect in rankings in Google, but it is an important factor in Yahoo and MSN.