Does it matter which top domain I use?

Yes if ur target market is UK then thats good ...

 

Next question is: Do I get higher results with a .com for the US market...compared to a .uk domain? That's harder top proof since there are so many .com domains and the results might be based on other things than the TLD.

 

Sorry, I take back my previous answers.

Some people at Google say that the TLD matters, others say it does not.

Check out this video
mattcutts.com/blog/more-about-generic-tlds-in-say-uk-results/
for a bit more info on the subject.

I believe you may be putting too much thought into which TLD to choose. If you get quality links, you'll appear at the top of the SERP for any country if the users query is relevant.

 

OK, I'll just sue them all and hope it helps!

 

Geo targeting is something that is used to determine your site ranking, so it should be considered when picking out your domain name. If you're looking to rank better in the US market, then you'll choose the .com extension, and have it hosted on a US server. If you're looking to tap into the UK market, then the same holds true there.

 

Do you have any evidence or similar to back this up? I tend to think that you're right but it would be good to know.

 

It doesn't matter but for example, the advantage of using .com is, people are used to it so people will easily be able to memorize your domain.

 

If you read the thread you can see that it clearly does matter...if you use google.co.uk a .uk domain will be ranked higher than a .com domain. I can awlays redirect a .com in case I'm worried about people entering wrong TLD.

 

yes of course. such as .org is above .com. I think is known to everyone of seor.

 

Are you saying that .org domains would be the best to use? Is this in some way documented? I would be happy to look into it.

 

People familiar with your page won't enter the wrong TLD.

It's a sad fact of life that you can't control every TLD variation of your domain name. Most of the time, I don't even enter the domain extension, and just have Google redirect me to the proper page.

You'll build a lot more traffic if you focus on content and getting relevant inbound links.

 

I don't see why I should not make every part as perfect as possible. Content and relevant links of course...but if the TLD makes a difference...why not try to pick the best one? Every small percentage matters in the market.

 

Usually, the .in and .us etc are geographically more relevant. But usually .com's top the charts

 

OK. One thing to consider when talking about this. Some top TLDs are also words. For example hotels.in would match searches for hotels in better than the domain hotels.com. It seems to me that this must also play a role? I know Google look a lot at keywords in the URL.

 

Information on Geo Targeting

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399

 

Thanks for the links. Conatain some interesting information.

 

Interesting. I got some kind of warning. This was the wrong forum to discuss how domains effect SEO in Google? If I can optimize my Google search results based on which domain I choose...isn't that SEO in Google? The domain is part of the URL that can be optimized in many ways. As we all know the look of the URL is important to Google.

The forum is Search Engine Optimization and that is exactly what has been discussed here. Strange.

 

Sorry, I clearly see now that it was misplaced. I thought discussing Google SEO was okay in the Google forum.