How does an exact match .net compare to .com?
-
I'm looking into buying an exact match tld, but it is .net. Do .net domains get the same exact match bonus .coms do?
-
Hi Jeremy,
You're in luck, because a guy named Mark Collier just did a study on the matter. He found that exact match .net domains had a much lower correlation to higher rankings.
.net exact match = 0.08 Correlation
.com exact match = 0.18 CorrelationThe full study can be found here: http://www.theopenalgorithm.com/correlation-data/domain-name-seo/
In the latest SEOmoz study, the correlation for exact match .com domains was .22 and previously .38, which indicate that the power of overall power of exact match domains in general is diminishing.
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics
It's worth reading both of these studies in whole. It's also worth noting that there are likely several reasons for .net exact match to rank lower. #1 being that .net domains tend to be spammier, less established domains.
Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.
-
I really question the statement that ' do exact match domains of .net get the same bonus that .com does'. First, it is my experience that exact match domains at one time did hold some advantage, but one sees it less and less in today's world. Even in low volume low competptive keyword arenas, it is easy to beat an exact match domain be it .com .net or .org with a couple of strong links - even a yahoo paid directory link can work. I would make a wager that within a couple of years at most exact match domains will have little or no value - of course if there is some real meat behind the site and it is more than just a gimmick to pic up affiliate or Adsense income I'm not sure what you want to accomplish here, but if you are planning on building a site that you want to grow and brand, I would forget about exact match keyword site be it .com or .net and try and come up with a branded name using something memorable. Hey look at Google' s URL shorter, even I can remember it goo.gl Runner2009 Burt Gordon
-
One thing to watch out for is that this can backfire perception-wise. It might not matter, but depending on the domain name, if your biggest competitor/related business owns the .com and you buy the .net people might feel 'cheated' by ending up at your domain when they expected the other (or vice versa!). This would be kind of like if I registered seomoz.net and used it for my blog for example.
-
My experience has been that .com, .net and .info all work great. And .org works wonder in certain niches.
So yes, to answer your question directly...go ahead... .net is fine.
-
They do but be aware:
If the .com or .xxx is bought it has more authority simply because of its age.
A .info exact match has the same added weight as a .com. So absent of other factors, the exact match bonus is the same.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Exact match .org Ecommerce: Reason why internal page is ranking over home page
Hello, We have a new store where an internal category page (our biggest category) is moving up ahead of the home page. What could be the reason for this? It's an exact match .org. Over-optimization? Something else? It happened both when I didn't optimize the home page title tag and when I did for the main keyword, i.e. mainkeyword | mainkeyword.org, or just mainkeyword.org Home Page. Both didn't help with this. We have very few backlinks. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
.com or .co.uk
I have ownership over the .co.uk and the .com for my brand name and I was wondering which URL I should use. Most my sales come from within the UK, (with only a small amount from the US). Currently I'm using the .co.uk and redirecting the .com URL but should I be doing this the other way around? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | the-gate-films0 -
Domain Authority... http://www.domain.com/ vs. http://domain.com vs. http://domain.com/
Hey Guys, Looking at Page Authority for my Site and ranking them in Decending Order, I see these 3 http://www.domain.com/ | Authority 62 http://domain.com | Authority 52 http://domain.com/ | Authority 52 Since the first one listed has the highest Authority, should I be using a 301 redirects on the lower ranking variations (which I understand how works) or should I be using rel="canonical" (which I don't really understand how it works) Also, if this is a problem that I should address, should we see a significant boost if fixed? Thanks ahead of time for anyone who can help a lost sailor who doesn't know how to sail and probably shouldn't have left shore in the first place. Cheers ZP!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mr_Snack0 -
Switching from .co to com?
I have a site that does pretty well on a .co domain, but would like to switch to over .com (we own the .com already). If we were to transfer .com and 301 redirect all the .co pages over to their .com version, would we suffer at all? What would you guys recommend?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | StickyWebz0 -
Rankings Drop since Humingbird - Could it be my link ratio between .co.uk / .com ?
Hi All, I have an UK tool hire eccomerce muliti location website with different locations pages for each category. My stratedgy has been to specialise on local search for each location as oppose to try and compete with highly competitive keywords on a national level. I do have some duplicate/ thin content issues on these location pages but I've been actively writting additional unique content on these pages to address this issue which also making sure my title tags, h1 , h2 tags etc are unique for each location along with having individual google local + pages etc etc. I have never previously been affected by any duplicate contents issues and always ranked first page (mainly top 5) for most of my local keywords). However, when google humingbird update came out , I suffered approx 25% drop in traffic and rankings. rom what I read , local search sites have suffered somewhat in this update and I did a link detox report to try and asterain toxic links etc. I found a few which I disavowled but I have had no manul penalty message in my GWT so I can only assume I was affected by an google algorithmic penalty. From looking at opensite explorer , I can see my link ratio for my .co.uk site shows 43% .com 37% .co.uk I am wondering if it could be this which has been the cause of my local rankings to fail ?. Has anyone else suffered the same as I am at my witts end as to what are the likely factors which could have caused such a drop ? Any tips, greatly appreciated. Happy to give my sites url if anyone would like to take a look ? thanks Sarah.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SarahCollins0 -
.COM or .ORG - Which is better?
I work for a non-profit association. We currently use a .com as our primary, but also own the .org. Should we switch to the .org address? What would the benefits be?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vpoffunk0 -
Using exact keyword domains for local SEO
The website is for the attorney that serves several nearby cities. The main page is optimized for the biggest central city. I have several options how to go after the smaller surrounding cities: 1. Create optimized pages inside the main domain 2. Get more or less exact keyword domains for each city e.g. for the city ABC get yourABClawyer.com and then a) use 1 page websites that use the same template as main website and link all the menu items to the main website b)use 1 page website with a link "for more information go to our main website" c) point exact keyword domains to the optimized pages within the main domain. Which option would be the best in terms of SEO and user experience? Would people freak out if they click on the menu item and go to a different domain website even though it uses the same template (option 2a) Would I get more bounces with option 2b in your opinion? Would option 2c have any positive SEO effect? Should I not even bother with exact keyword domain and go with option 1?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SirMax1 -
Why is my competitor Torontoseogroup.com ranked 31 in Chrome, but position 2 in Firefox? How is this possible?
There is a website I am analyzing that ranks highly in firefox - position #2 on top page. But in Google they are ranked only on the top of the 4th page. How is this possible? Looks like some of the codes in the links are different. Why? Link from Firefox link: http://www.google.ca/#q=hamilton+web+design&hl=en&prmd=imvnsfd&ei=nIB3TtG_BYTe0QHm05HnCA&start=0&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=6448f668fd4b6f72&biw=1024&bih=627 Link from Google Chrome: http://www.google.ca/#q=hamilton+Web+Design&hl=en&prmd=imvnsfd&ei=4353TvWmAaPW0QHhq9zYBg&start=30&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=c8e758962267edc1&biw=1024&bih=673 http://www.google.ca/#q=hamilton+web+design&hl=en&prmd=imvnsfd&ei=nIB3TtG_BYTe0QHm05HnCA&start=0&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=6448f668fd4b6f72&biw=1024&bih=627
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | websiteready1