Long term risks of using .org for commercial websites

[PrizeWize]

Hi everybody,

I'm having a 'heated' discussion with a collegae about .org domains. Originally .org domains were created for non-profit organizations and it was fairly difficult to get a .org domain ( like .gov and .edu still are). Nowadays it's easy to register a .org domain and i see plenty of commercial .org emd's ranking well.

We are planning on launching a new white label in the Netherlands (.nl) and have several domains in our portfolio that we  can us for this.

• I recommend using an exact match .org domain (.nl and .com are already taken) for the new white label www.exactkeyword.org.

• **My collegae says don't use www.exactkeyword.org, because we aren't a non-profit organizaton and we can't garantuee we won't lose our rankings over the next 3 to 4 years. He would recommend going with the available www.exact-keyword.info. **

Who right and who's wrong and why? Can i garantuee no risk with .org for a commercial organization?

[LukeHutchinson]

To be honest, I would be more likely to click a branded domain over the EMD. From what you have said there is numerous EMD domains on the first page meaning it is likely that users will ignore and think of them as spammy. I'm not basing this on any facts so don't quote me on it or anything but I am speaking from my own experience and how I know my friends and family think.

Thanks.

[EGOL]

If you see a good domain that is not being used by a viable company don't hesitate to write to the registrant to see if you can buy it.

This frequently works and you might get a perfect domain for $500 to a few thousand.

[LukeHutchinson]

Nope. I can't seem to find it but he basically talked about how SEOmoz was originally setup as nonprofit and when they changed they kept the .org and 301d the .com. I've tried searching a variety of keywords related to what I can remember but just can't seem to find it.

Hopefully if Rand sees this he can weigh in on what I'm quoting. He did 100% say it though and why I can't find it is beyond me.

[PrizeWize]

when searching for '.org' within SeoMoz i found the following 2 articles that mention .org domains.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/bing-vs-google-prominence-of-ranking-elements

Any chance you meant one of these?

[PrizeWize]

I don't know why, but im often making dubbel posts. I've editted this dubbel post and removed the dubplicate content hehe

[PrizeWize]

Hi Stuart,

Nice outfit you are wearing in your avatar pic haha ;).

And thanks for your input, i definitely get where you are comming from with brand.com and good content, but we already have a site where we are working on a brand (prizewize.com .nl), but we also want to expand using white labels. This way we increase our visibility in the Serps and have different ways of targetting our audience (have one site more formal than the other etc.).

Also in the Netherlands it seems a lot o EMD's are still doing well. I guess Google updates come arrive here 6 to 18 months later than in the US (which can be a good thing). But to be clear the EMD.org i'm talking about will have sollid unqiue content together with our own webservice (price compare tool).

Other emd's we have rank well and  they get a lot of 'natural links' with exactkeyword.nl (.com/.net/.info/.org). So it's way easier creating theme relaterd links with exact match anchor text's for an EMD than a non emd. One of the major reasons for starting another emd and not a brand.

[LukeHutchinson]

If you Google around or search the SEOmoz site you will find the quote I'm talking about that Rand mentioned about using .org on SEOmoz. The main justification for SEOmoz would be the links that they built up I would imagine.

[PrizeWize]

I havent tried ranking myself with a .org domain before, but i have seen a bunch of them rank well for very competitive queries and  with horrible content :(.

At www.google.nl search for autoverzekeringen (car insurances) and  in the top 2/3 should rank www.autoverzekeringen.org (awefull site)

Another example is (on Google nl)  the querie zorgverzekering (health insurance) and in the top 2/3 should be www.zorgverzekering.org

[PrizeWize]

Hi Luke,

I normally visit SeoMoz by typing in 'se' in my browser, after which it fills in the rest of the url (www.seomoz.org) and i press enter.

I had totally forgotten that its SeoMoz.org haha, what a great example.

[PrizeWize]

Thanks for your thoughts, I hadn't thought about how spammy .info might actually come across. Unfortunately the .com's and .nl's are gone for these keywords.

It's quite a competitive market with a lot of EMD.org .net .com and .info's already taken. I will follow up on your advice and take another close look at still available .com/.nl domains with hyphens in them.

[LukeHutchinson]

Agreed. .info does look fairly spammy. Exact match .info looks even more spammy.

[EGOL]

"My collegae says don't use www.exactkeyword.org, because we aren't a non-profit organizaton and we can't garantuee we won't lose our rankings over the next 3 to 4 years. He would recommend going with the available www.exact-keyword.info."

IMO exact-keyword.info is the spammiest type of domain.  I would not even click into one from the SERPs.

If you use a .org the more famous you become the more traffic you will lose to the .com (because so many people simply assume that any important site is on a .org.  (maybe where you are - if you are playing for local traffic the .nl would be fine).

You obviously have a few people working on this project and have spent a lot of company time working on this.   I would simply find who owns exactkeyword.com and be willing to pay good money for the domain.   Or, I would find a great dot com without a hyphen.

If you have a great staff working on a great site go get a great domain.

[stukerr]

Hi Lawrence,

Firstly you are asking this on seomoz.org - who are ranking just fine Although I think that's more because moz started out more for SEO discussions and evolved - still I think it shows that concentrating on quality content and generating quality in-bound links are probably more important than the type of domain you are on.

That said personally given the choice of .org or .info i'd probably go for .org just for the fact I would say that users are generally more 'aware' of .org than .info which could potentially impact your click-through rate in the SERPS.

Bear in mind also that exact match domains aren't what they used to be and you may well be better off creating a brand for your site on a .nl / .com then building the site up from there - with no risk of any kind of exact match domain penalty or anything else in fact in the future!

Best

Stuart

[LukeHutchinson]

Hi Lawrence,

I'm far from expert on the subject of .org but my understanding was that you can now use .org for anything and the none profit aspect no longer applies as such.

I don't know if it helps but I recall reading a blog post by Rand a few weeks back and he mentioned the .org of SEOmoz. He stated that .org was originally used due to the fact that SEOmoz was none profit but once they went commercial they kept the .org.

SEOmoz is obviously commercial as products are sold yet .org is used. Based on this fact and the other mass of .org domains being used commercially, it indicates to me that using .org commercially is perfectly fine.

I would personally feel safe using a .org and would recommend it should the .net or .com be taken. In some cases I would actually opt for .org over .net.

I hope that I helped,

Luke Hutchinson.

[activitysuper]

I thought a .org domain could only be used for non-profit? Or you had to go through extra loops to use it for commercial use? I don't use them so I could well be wrong, just remember something along those lines, sure someone else can clear that up.

Have you ever tired ranking a emd.org domain before?

I have found nothing else works well apart from ccTLD and .com domains.

I myself would go for a branded name or add a word onto the beginning or end of a .nl

Interesting thread though, I will keep watch of what others say.