Domain Question
-
Hello fellow SEOmozers!
I'm trying to register a domain name that contains keywords for my business, however the .com is obviously taken (however its just a parked domain without a site) so I have an option to get either .co .us or .net
I wanted to know if the domain extension makes any difference for the search engine or does having .com gives you an advantage over having .co .us or .net?
Thanks for your input!!!
-
Thanks for a quick reply, I made a mistake in my previous post. The domain names that I was referring to were itsupportla.net and itsupportla.com ...
-
Hi Igor,
Although keyword rich domains do seem to hold weight with Google, I wouldn't recommend going so specific as to include the location (itsupportla)
To me itsupport.net is a great domain name, it's short, it's professional, and it tells both Google and your users exactly what you do.
If you have that domain, then it sounds like a winner to me.
Saying that, if itsupport.com is available but only showing a parking page, it might be worth finding the owner via WHOIS and seeing what it would take to get them to part ways with it. I've had some success with this in the past, often the domains belong to people who simply never got around to finishing projects they started, and are delighted to let them go for a few hundred dollars.
Best of luck
David
-
Hello EGOL,
Yes that is on my to do list.
Thank you!
-
David, if I may ask for your professional opinion in regards to domain names. I provide IT services to small and medium size business, haven't advertised online or did any kind of marketing in the last 5 years. I currently have a website (which I am in the process of completely redesigning and optimizing for SEO) which is 911PCTECH.com
I did a little research of my top competitors for similar services and found out that IT Support LA is a very high volume keyword phrase with very low competition. I went out and got the itsupport.net and itsupport.us (itsupport.com is not available and there is no website built) My services are locally based (southern California mostly) from the 3 domains which would you recommend I use? I read the article that Kevin suggested above, and it recommends to use keyword rich domain names, so do you think its better for me to switch sites and start using itsupportla.net or .us? Thanks again!
-
Contact the registrant and see if you can buy it!
-
Thank you David for the clear explanation!
-
Thank you Kevin! The article did clear things up for me.
-
Hi Igor,
The quality of the domain extension will only play a minuscule role in your overall SEO efforts, so it's not something that should keep you up at night. However, you should take note of the following points:
-
If you are looking at localised TLD's (.us, .co.uk etc), you will essentially telling Google that your site is primarily directed at that country, and it means you could struggle to rank elsewhere. I would therefore suggest always using a multi-national domain (.com, .net etc) if you intend to market your site globally
-
From a user point of view, a more recognisable domain extension indicates more trust in a site, and correlation data suggests that Google reflects this in their algorithm. By this, I mean that if a user looks at your domain and thinks 'that looks a bit spammy', then it would be justified to think that Google would think the same.
This doesn't just mean the domain extension, but the domain as a whole. There are occasions where people are so desperate to get a .com they get a ridiculous domain that no one would trust.
Look at these domains, which seems more trustworthy:
www.your-product-online-4u.com
**www.yourproduct.net **
You want your overall domain name to be short, memorable and as clean as possible.
Although people will generally trust a .com over a .net, don't make the mistake of sacrificing the entire domain for a better extension (as it the example above)
Thanks,
David
-
-
SEOmoz has some best practices: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain (further reading http://www.seomad.com/SEOBlog/do-different-tlds-affect-seo.html)
Top-level Domain (TLD)
Top level domains (like .com) are the extensions associated with domain names. For best ranking results, avoid uncommon top-level domains (TLDs). Like hyphens, TLDs such as .info, .cc, .ws, and .name are spam indicators.
IMHO, I do believe it is better to have a .com. But ultimately, this is just one factor of hundreds...
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
-
SEO question about lots of outbound links
I'm considering adding a directory page to one of my websites that lists local groups from all around the world. I haven't kept up with SEO in a long time, but I recall (many) years ago that having a lot of outgoing links and very few (if any) inbound connections was a terrible thing. Is this still the case, or have search engine algorithms figured out that this can be beneficial to site visitors? What effect will adding a page like this have on my SEO?
Link Building | | jordanchris0 -
How can a slight brochureware website with little content or keywords be getting DA 96, PA 59 and linking domains of 50.5million?
How can a Facebook page get domain authority of 96, page authority of 59 and have 50million linking domains? I come across websites that feature crappy video clips in serp features in google searches, the website.
Link Building | | DavidLandManager
It's surely black hat tactics. How do they get away with this? The website has zero content beyond light brochureware.
Screenshot 2021-07-23 at 06.59.45.png0 -
DISAVOW domains by error
Dear all, On jun 20 I have uploaded a disavow file including some domains by error (good links), my question is could I remove from the Disavow file these domains and update it again, so Google will take the removed domains again as good links? Thank you
Link Building | | SharewarePros0 -
Website title has domain name in SERPS but not in the website.
We are using the latest version of Wordpress for one of our website. Now every page in SERPS is like this: SEO Services, Link Building and Social Media - Oursite.com But when we look at our website's title tag its like this: <title>SEO Services, Link Building and Social Media</title> It's very strange, why the website's domain name is appended to the title in SERPS?? Any ideas? Thanks!
Link Building | | TheSEOGuy10 -
Pr4 domain backlink from a blog post
I'm about to do a guest blog post on a pr4 domain. Will I be getting an actual pr4 backlink? I'm thinking since it's technically not going to be on the homepage forever since it's just a blog post and also a blog post has it's on page once you click on it I'm not going to get a pr4 backlink. Correct?
Link Building | | fbbcseo0 -
Root Domain Link for Affiliate's Link
It seems my affiliate link: http://www.hrmsplugins.com?partners=21 is not being considered as a "root domain" backlink when this link is used on their website. Is there a reason for this?
Link Building | | delphia0 -
2 backlinking questions
I've got 2 questions regarding backlinking. 1 - I recently watched a webinar saying I should never get backlinks from any sites lower than a PR 3. However, I have found some relevant websites to our niche that are lower than that. We have recently set-up a new website that currently has a PR 0. Bearing that in mind do you think it was still be good for SEO to try and get links from the lower PR sites to build up our own PR? 2 - Has anyone found out what Google thinks of gaining links from domains hosted in other countries? For example, our websites are hosted in the UK, does it look suspicious to search engines if we have links from USA or other countries? Thanks
Link Building | | AAttias0 -
Publish content on current domain for content boost or new domain for links?
I have about 1000 unique and organically generated articles. My quote compare business has had briefs submitted by clients for over two years. The content has only been accessible to registered members. I want to polish it ASAP. Is it better to publish the content on the existing website in a sub folder or set up a new website to publish the content and have every article link back to the main website? Content is around 300 words x 1000.
Link Building | | designquotes0