as stated in title CAN a .info domain compete head to head in SERP's? i'm asking cause i don't see many .info on top results
if you develop your site with the same care and attention you would with a .com domain you will probably have the same results
exactly my query , ... but.. then why have .info's cheaper , just because .coms are more popular today ?
Yes, from a search engine perspective all domains are equal, but from a surfer experience an INFO domain can be considere a spam site or adsense farm so you have to work actively marketing your site to see positive results.
I think the majority of webmasters want to buy .com domains because the customers can remember easily. So .com is more expensive than .info
The "new" TLD's just haven't caught on very quickly; it's a bit of a 'chicken or the egg' situation I believe. .com's have been around the longest for commercial sites, so people try them first. Thus if you want a domain that will be used in print, tv, radio, etc., you want a .com the most If I remember I visited a site called "digital point" I'm likely to just try digitalpoint.com first, so there's definitely direct traffic to be had by having the TLD people will try as the "default". moreover, you don't want people remembering your company name and trying the default and ending up at some other site. because .info and .biz are new, if you get one of these "new" TLD's you show that your business is new and not as long-established as those who got a .com initially or large as one that would simply buy a .com from whoever had the .com they wanted. with all that said, when registrars wanted to encourage people to get the new TLD's after they just didn't sell well, they gave 'em away for free or for a buck or two... but the flip side is that this distilled further the number of real sites using them.
There are many differences between .com and .info for development purposes and strategies, but as far as search engines... they don't see a difference.
All domain names are ranked in the same way, so SEO your site as much as possible and you'll get on the top SERPs hopefully. Just because it's .info wouldn't affect them.