Digitalpointers, Hi... It might sound like a naive question to you, but i was looking for an answer and couldn't find one, with all the complexity of SEO and domain name weight involved. Assuming we have a xyz.com and xyz.net, first one has no proper SEO, and less number of visitors than the latter, and i typed xyz in google, will dot com always supersede dot net, or not ? what is the rule ? how do search engines, alexa, etc... weight it.
Hello, The TLD has nothing to do with Google search results. .com is only prefers because it is the most recognizable.
Domain extensions do not play a role in search engine rankings. It may appear so because the web is dominated by .com sites.
The TLD does not affect the ranking of a website. However, if you are planning to create a long term website with name branding, you should most certainly get the .com domain extension. Think of it this way. Let's say you register Applecakes.org. You promote the site and it becomes a huge success. People now recognize the website name and often just type in the domain name when they want to get to your site. More often than not, they'll accidentally go to the applecakes.com site since that is the natural choice, so you'll be losing out on a lot of visitors that were supposed to reach you. Google won't care if it's .org, .net, or even .me.
I agree with the previous posts. Top level domain does not affect search engine rankings. Google wants to show relevant content to the users, and TLDs have nothing to do with it.
Good point. From an SEO standpoint, domain extensions don't matter. But, from a user perspective, it would be wisest to go with .com because as woja said, most people are going to remember the keywords of the domain, not the extension. I personally prefer .com, then .org. .ORGs can be very effective, for example: craigslist.org It all depends on the purpose of your website. If you're planning on an ecommerce site, I would definitely go with a .com. For organizations or informational sites, .orgs are very fitting. I would use a .NET only if it was a premium.
This is true today. But not so sure about tommorow. What happens when your domain is fight.ninja? Surely ninja will be a key word. Something to think about. I'm not going to try and buy them all up but I will try and pick up a couple that are important to me.
It's gonna happen this year. ICANN is releasing a bunch of new extensions mid year. In my opinion, it's just going to add confusion with so many different extensions available. Hopefully, it won't affect the values of the top tlds.
Google places no priority on a certain type of general (.com, .net, .biz etc.) domain. However, a country code does better in it's targeted nation. For instance, a .ca would do better on Canadian search engines. However, I could be wrong. I'm not sure if the better ranking would be from the hosting being centered in the targeted nation, the type of domain (.ca, .co.uk, .us etc.), or both.
According to Matt Cutts of Google, both the geographic domain extension and the server IP location does play a role in rankings.
So lets say you wanted to show more in other countries. So you get a .uk.co (or whatever it is?) extension as well as your .com ext. you can't just duplicate the extension. If you 301 redirect to the .com google will just consider it one site. So is there anyway to capitalize on this concept?
I think that geographic location type domains do have an impact on the SERPs, but for all other domains it wouldn't have an impact. When the rules change and you can get a domain that is .almost-anything, then I would assume that search engines would give more validity to websites that have a classic ending. I would recommend eventually buying all the domains for your website to avoid copyright.
great feedback digitalpointers... can i extend the question....what would you prefer, in terms of google results ranking...for a subdomain...a xyz.com/blah or blah.xyz.com ? how does that affect SEO.
I know this so take it as word. It depends. If its a sister biz in another country or region then a sub domain would be appropriate. If its a blog or like then folder is more appropriate as seo is much better. Sub domains are treated as separate sites and affect the main domain good or bad very little. Whereas folders will flow all the seo benefit good or bad to the domain. Additionally, if your site is about a specific subject. And your new addition (folder or sub) is about something else entirely then it may be more appropriate to go the sub domain route again so you don't dilute the focused nature of the main domain I'm out
In spite of what people here say, from my experience building similar sites on thousands of domains from .info to .com I can say TLD absolutely makes a difference.
Even among general domains (.com, .net, .biz, .org), the location of the hosting would make a difference. For instance, a .biz in Germany would rank well in Germany, but a .biz in Mexico would rank well there. But considering other factors, there would be no difference.