Does TLD matter for search engine rankings?

Nope nobody searches for it, and true nobody optimizes for it including myself.

However there are authority/high PR sites more deserving of my place as far as on page attributes are concerned. Sites with the term in <h> tags at the head of the page, the term bolded, in the page title, more keyword occurences on the page etc. Also allinanchor:establishes returns 159,000 results so it's seen in a few backlinks to other pages/sites.

Honestly with the little i done to the site, it should be 20 pages back on "any" 40+ Million result term and not top 10. The domain names achieving about 90% of it's placement.

 

I get you at #2. establishes.org right?

Thanks for all the good info everyone.