Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
.net or .co ?
-
The .com owner of the desired domain refuses to sell the domain (even though it is essentially a parked site and has been for the past 5+ years). Currently, our site resides on .net. I hear that many associate .net domains with dated and too techy. What is better? A .net or a .co?
-
I totally get where you're coming from. The squatter situation is extremely frustrating to be sure and isn't getting better any time soon. If you can't make a trademark claim, it will be extremely difficult to get someone to sell who has no interest in selling.
With regards to settling, I hear what you're saying. I just personally feel that the .net is too big of an issue to overcome. Whether we like it or not, people have been trained to throw a .com after everything. If they see a mention of your brand, they'll likely assume the website will be located at [yourbrandname].com. If you are using a domain with a .net and someone else has the .com, expect to see quite a bit of your traffic go to the .com.
Think about all the names of companies and brands that are complete nonsense words (or extremely obscure words). Grabbing a URL that is keyword focused will potentially help you with SEO, but it is often extremely difficult to build a long term brand around. Also, keep in mind that keyword rich URLs may help in the short term for SEO purposes, but they can be extremely limiting if the company wants to expand beyond the keywords. Even Moz had to go through this, changing from SEOMoz.org to Moz.com (as the old name limited the brand to being solely focused on SEO).
Hope this helps!
Mike
-
Thank you for your input, Michael. In your opinion, when will it not be "settling?" With the continuously growing number of sites in addition to the number of squatters, don't you think we will, as users, eventually have to accept non-.com TLDs? As a user I'd rather go to bestthing.net than thisisthenextbestthing.com (extreme example, but hopefully you see what I'm saying).
-
I'd go .net personally. Been around longer, more trusted and you won't be sending as much confused/fatfinger traffic to the guy who has the .com as you would if you went with .co (for obvious reasons).
That said, your best option is to come up with a new name for a domain that is either currently available or is available for sale at a reasonable price. There's no reason to settle for a .net or .co (and you are settling) when there are plenty of viable .com options. There are countless examples of companies being highly successful with completely made up names. It isn't about the name. It's about what you put behind the name from a branding perspective.
-
I like your style Ryan! Excellent add-vice
-
You could focus group the two and see which people prefer. Or you could buy several and test their performance via Adwords split testing before taking the plunge of transferring or creating the new site. Really this boils down to not what has possibly worked for others, but what works best for you.
-
Hey TLR711!!
Oh man that's unfortunate that he is just sitting on it like that. But what can you do?
I would go with the .net as it is a TLD.
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
-
AdultBlock scam? Is there a downside to doing this instead....?
So our IT guy just sent me an email from our domain registrar, encouraging us to sign up for an annual 'adultblock' service. For those that aren't sure what this is... Adultblock represents a straightforward mechanism that enables qualifying organizations to block the registration of any domain that falls under their trademark. This includes unlimited variants based on the holder's labels. Instead of worrying about registering and managing many different adult related TLDs, it is possible to block trademarked domains under all four TLDs for up to ten years through just one action. Unfortunately, this service is not cheap, and I'm starting to wonder about the 'downside' of NOT doing it. Does anyone know if just purchasing the adult related TLDs for our domain, and then just sitting on them, would have any sort of negative effect on our SEO? Alternatively, could we just set an alert for when / if those domains ever get purchased and then just disavow those sites in search console? Thanks!!
Branding | | av-seo0 -
Can we use Youtube Videos of google webmaster on blog post?
Is it okay to embed YouTube videos of channel which we don't own? For example, I have written a blog on enabling event search in Google Analytics and Google Webmasters YouTube channel has a video based on those steps. I am looking to add that video in my blog.
Branding | | Ravi_Rana0 -
Changed the trailing slashes - how it effect SEO?
Hi, I'm doing a project called https://www.machinerygate.com/ Due to trailing slashes issues, our developer requests to remove the trailing slashes from the URLs. However, the homepage with and without trailing slashes the same effect right. How about the inner pages affect SEO. Because we just started to do SEO and not even one single link of Inner pages done with the process. However, for example, the URL for https://www.machinerygate.com/machinery/cranes/ is before with trailing slashes and it is on google indexed with trailing slashes. Due to some bug, google inspection tool has been not functioning nowadays and I'm finding hard to index the new URL without trailing slashes https://www.machinerygate.com/machinery/cranes to index on Google. If this gets indexed, how the URL with trailing slashes will be, does it automatically redirect to URL without trailing slashes or not? Please share your thought about this concern.
Branding | | Navya1241 -
Why not just use an alias if the only change is a different domain Name?
We are rebranding our store with a new name. We have purchased a NewDomainName. Can I just make the "Old Domain Name" an alias for the "NewDomainName"? The site will not change in any other way than having a new logo. This is an e-commerce site with over 100 categories of artisan made products. So once we move the site, the old domain will be empty. Thank you Stephen
Branding | | stephenfishman1 -
Should our rebranded company update our existing Instagram profile or delete it and start from scratch?
Our company just did a complete rebrand with a new name and logo. Instagram allows us to change our name, username, logo, and information, unlike Facebook, but there isn't a lot of online content about whether or not that's the best route. Any thoughts?
Branding | | RyanHeffernon0 -
How does the background on my product photos impact SEO - step and repeat vs. plain background
I have a new e-commerce site and I'm focused on optimizing it for SEO. If I am taking product photos, will having a step-and-repeat (background with our logo repeated) in the background of the product impact how the images are scanned by Google? In other words, would I benefit from having a plain background behind my item shots vs. a backdrop with our logos all across it? I don't want Google to think I'm spamming my logo across all our items, but also want our photos to be recognized as ours. I want to gain SEO from my effort and definitely not hurt it! Thanks!
Branding | | A_Wo0 -
Rate My Logo!
Hey guys, Can't for the life of me decide which color pallet to use for this logo, so please let me know your thoughts! The logo is for a website that specialises in Instagram social media marketing - So without further ado... Green, Blue or Blue with Red Heart? Thoughts, feedback and anything else you want to add! DBFnY
Branding | | camille10 -
Do you have to pay Yext at this point?
Over the past several months it seems more and more local listing sites are now using Yext for their listing information. Some of these include Local.com, American Towns, Hot Frog, etc. I'm not even seeing a way to claim listings anymore with these sites without going through Yext. If Yext has the wrong information, is there any way to correct these listings without paying Yext? I used to be able to claim listings with the actual listing sites. It was more labor intensive, but I didn't have to pay Yext $500/year. I could pay an assistant a lot less and they could do it. It seems that option is going away. Do any of you know of another way of correcting listings without using Yext (or at least without paying Yext)? If not, do you know if Yext has an enterprise solution for SEOs so we don't have to pay the $500 for every client? Thanks. Kurt Steinbrueck
Branding | | Kurt_Steinbrueck1
