Trying to decide .info or .us need help

Discussion in 'Domain Names' started by onestop, Mar 16, 2005.

  1. #1
    Hi everybody
    I had a plan for my new website, it was going to be an information site. And keyword1-keyword2.info was available and I've purchased it, now keyword1-keyword2.us has become available. I have just started to create the site, so I'm not too late to switch.
    What would you think my best choice is? To keep using .info or get .us and make it my main domain and do a permanent redirect from .info?
    this site is going to be both information and online sales site for a specific product named keyword1 keyword2 . And online sales will be in US, so .us would make sense I guess?
    I'd appreciate any opinions.
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  2. GTech

    GTech Rob Jones for President!

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    #2
    Given the choice between .info and .us for the same name, I'd personally choose .us.

    I'm not fond of either, but it's not always easy to get a good .com .

    .us is shorter, and has become quite popular.
     
    GTech, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  3. onestop

    onestop Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Thanks for your input GTech
    All .com, .net and .org's are taken already. Product name is keyword1 keyword2 and that's why I want to get keyword1-keyword2.us or .info
    Doing a regular "forward" from the domain registrar (namecheap) control panel from one to another wouldn't be a problem concerning SEO issues right?
    I'd also appreciate other members' input.
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  4. yfs1

    yfs1 User Title Not Found

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    #4
    I would forget the keywords and get a .com or .net

    I think you will have an uphill battle with either one of those. Not in regards to SEO but name recognition.
     
    yfs1, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  5. onestop

    onestop Well-Known Member

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    #5
    thanks for your suggestion, I gave a serious thought about this. But the situation is; this is a two word ethnic product. And almost everybody is searching for this exact two words. The product line I'll be importing will all have names such as:
    keyword1-keyword2
    keyword1-keyword2-keyword3
    keyword1-keyword2-keyword4
    keyword1-keyword2-keyword5
    ....
    All the related products start with keyword1-keyword2
    After deciding the domain name, I'll also have some questions about the URL structure for product pages.
    There'll be more information, article, picture pages than the product pages. I want this site to be the authority for this specific product.
    I hope this extra information helps to explain my project little bit more.
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  6. onestop

    onestop Well-Known Member

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    #6
    It's so funny, I went to check the availabilities and
    keyword1keyword2.us is available right now also (it wasn't last week).
    so my options for main domain are:
    1) keyword1-keyword2.us
    2) keyword1-keyword2.info
    3) keyword1keyword2.us
    4) find a different brand with .com or .net
    any suggestions?
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  7. yfs1

    yfs1 User Title Not Found

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    #7
    I still go with 4.) because the benefit you get from having your keyword in the url is to small to justify using a .us

    There is still a lot of people that will view the url www.keyword-keyword.us as spammy when displayed on the SERPs. Thats just my personal experience so I will leave it to others to comment.

    Just remember that perception is usually more important than reality.
     
    yfs1, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  8. onestop

    onestop Well-Known Member

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    #8
    Thanks again yfs1, I appreciate your feedback. I'd also like to hear more opinions.
    Also can anybody give me a clear comparison between:
    keyword1keyword2.com and keyword1-keyword2.com ?
    I've read many forum topics, articles about this. And I am still not 100% clear.
    what's the real advantages of one to another, etc?
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  9. bustour

    bustour Well-Known Member

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    #9
    I'm going to agree with yfs1's thoughts. It just doesn't feel right yet to use .us or .info--even worse with the keyword-keyword. I would go with #4 and try to find a way to use a .com with or without the keyword. Good luck.
     
    bustour, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  10. redking

    redking Member

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    #10
    I like .com for all domains unless it's a dictionary or one word .net/.org/.biz/.us/.info
     
    redking, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  11. onestop

    onestop Well-Known Member

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    #11
    thanks for your opinions. Let me choose a keyword (2 word) very similar to my original one to explain my situation little bit more.
    Let's say I've a business in US to sell English Tea and English Tea Products.
    I will put up a site about English Tea, there'll be articles, English Tea history pages, picture galleries, reviews from users etc. And I will also integrate a line of products into the site such as:
    -English Tea (different brands, directly imported from England)
    -English Tea Cups
    -English Tea Books
    -English Tea Sets
    -English Tea Porcelain etc. etc. etc.
    I will have roughly 10-20 different product all related to English Tea, and I have around 4-5 brands (different suppliers).
    so far;
    my main product name is : English Tea
    my main market is : United States
    and available domains (which includes english tea) are:
    * englishtea.us
    * english-tea.us
    * english-tea.info

    I'm doing a very unique design (CSS, XHTML) with many histrocial pictures, themes etc. Visitors will get a warm feeling of this specific product.
    So don't you think instead of trying to create a new brand (for .com domain), it's better to go with one available?
    Another point about domain (from my experiences). This site will have tons of valuable articles, news etc about this product, and my goal is to get many natural links from different websites. And many website owners including myself tend to use the "domain name" as "anchor text" when linking to a valuable resource. So having many natural backlinks with the words "English Tea" would help me a lot concerning SEO.
    ok, maybe more than info you need :)
    just wanted to explain it little more.
    still open for suggestions, and thanks a lot for taking your time to send your comments.
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  12. bustour

    bustour Well-Known Member

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    #12
    I don't think there could possibly be a "right" answer for this type of situation, but I'm still voting for a .com. If you don't want to come up with a new brand and are stuck on using "english tea" or whatever in the domain, how about adding another word: englishteatime; englishteaworld; englishteasource; englishteaplanet; englishteawhatever...
    I, personally, don't like hyphens in the url, but I'm not an expert on how that affects the anchor text, SEO, etc.
     
    bustour, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  13. debunked

    debunked Prominent Member

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    #13
    If you are a spammer than keyword1-keyword2.duh could even work, but if you want repeat customers and hope people will do word of mouth advertising for you then best to find a .com

    Depends if you only care about the quick buck or long term.
     
    debunked, Mar 16, 2005 IP
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  14. onestop

    onestop Well-Known Member

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    #14
    I think this comment is too general, and accuses many quality, authority sites. I've been a big follower of http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/ , I guess I should email and let them know how big a spammer they are :)
    just kiddin' of course.
    I honestly care about long term business plans. I have about 10 successful websites in different fields, and they were all built for long term purposes.
    I have spent over a month only for planning this new project. I've been working on the homepage design for over 2 weeks, and it's time for me to decide the domain name.
    I do appreciate all of your comments, and suggestions. I'm always open to new suggestions.
     
    onestop, Mar 16, 2005 IP
  15. uca

    uca Well-Known Member

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    #15
    If it still matters, in the long term a whatever.com is much better.

    For SEO the keyword in the domain name is quite important, it doesn't really matter anymore whether dashed or not.
    Where it matters is in the outside world for visibility and readability, hyphens help a lot. They make domains catchy and easier to remember.
    But if it's a 3 word domain, hyphens or dashes or whatever might prove too many.
    Hyphens are definetely better when the last letter of the first word is similar to the first one of the second word, such as in greattea (great-tea) or englishham (english-ham) or wikilimbo (wiki-limbo).

    Still, I would register them all. Especially .info domains are so cheap.

    Maybe in the short term the keyword containing domain is more useful and in the mean time you could build a brand around the .com domain. There's always the power of redirect and you could use the various domains for different sections.

    So register them all and use primarily the .com one.
     
    uca, Apr 2, 2005 IP
  16. LiGhTen

    LiGhTen Peon

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    #16
    Ahh dont go with .US
    I know people will disagree with me but .US sucks.

    Or at least I think that search engine take .info as much more global then a .US i see a .US equal to .co.uk .co.jp .co.il Not global.

    I'd Go with .InFo or .WS

    Another annoying thing in .US you cannot make private registration, And once your domain brings alot of traffic it is a target for a hijack.
     
    LiGhTen, Apr 10, 2005 IP
  17. altoid

    altoid Guest

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    #17
    If and when people forget your URL and try and type it in from memory they don't tend to type in the hypens. Get both the hyphened one and non-hyphened one and have it redirect.
     
    altoid, Apr 11, 2005 IP
  18. Blogmaster

    Blogmaster Blood Type Dating Affiliate Manager

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    #18
    agree, register a made up name, brand it and start a business with the same name
     
    Blogmaster, Apr 12, 2005 IP
  19. meet6669

    meet6669 Peon

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    #19
    go for the .info because thats more generic when compared with .us
     
    meet6669, Jan 3, 2008 IP
  20. seokool

    seokool Peon

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    #20
    exactly what i was goin to tell
     
    seokool, Jan 3, 2008 IP