Is .Com the Best Domain Name Extension for Google Search Engine Ranking?
What are the best domain name extensions?
Is .com the best domain name extension for the highest Google ranking? The answer is yes from my experience.
Here’s how I did an my casual empirical study mixed with a little of my own anecdotal evidence. Every time I publish a blog with a .com extension, it shows up on page one within a month or two if there are only 100,000 or less competing broad match sites in the search results. Often, a new .com site works it’s way to the first postion on page one of a Google search if the exact keywords are in the domain name. I’m amazed that since the beginning of 2008, I’ve been enjoying this phenomenon. It sure does make optimizing my sites a lot easier. Usually, I don’t have to build more than about 5 appropriate back links to get in the top position on a Google for local businesses in a city of 500,000 or less.
What about the other domain name extensions like: .net, .org, .info, .biz, .me, .mobi, .tv, .us and .ws? To test it, I published multiple blogs at the same time with all of the same domain name, meta tags, h1 titles and descriptions and the only two that were hot in the summer of 2009 were .com and .org. The others showed up on page 50 or deeper. I know that this isn’t a scientific test, but I have been witnessing this trend for at least 2 years. So, my preference would be .com, .org and then .net. The others, well good luck, you’ll need to get familiar with additional search engine optimization strategies if you use .info, .biz, .me, .mobi, .tv, .us or .ws. I do buy and use them, but I try to avoid them if possible because they are more of a challenge to rank well.
To galvanize my point, I have several blank websites at the number one spot on Google with nothing but an h1 tag and the metatags. So, content isn’t as important as some preach even though SEO gurus often say, “Content is king”. I believe with the current Google algorithm, content is not king. Links absolutely beat content with Google. Great content does not get you to the top of the search engines, SEO does.
Brad Fallon of SEO Research, one of my most admired SEO experts, said on his famous “Stomping the Search Engines” SEO course, that it didn’t make any difference to Google which domain extension you used. “Stomping the Search Engines” is over 5 years old and I believe that it does make a difference today what your domain name extention you secure. I’ll bet Brad has seen a shift as well. I’d love to hear his latest thoughts on this as I repect his opinion on search.
On a similar issue, as I mentioned above, it is prudent to secure a domain name with your primary keyword phrase. That will give it a boost as well. So many go for branding, but I go with keywords in domain name whenever possible. If I have to go with branding on the main site domain name, then I’ll simultaneously promote a blog or another site with the primary keywords in the domain name, then point the traffic to the main branded website.
Most know that getting some age on your domain name and website helps in your rankings as well. If you purchased a domain name and you’re leaving it as a generic parked page at GoDaddy, then publish it with metatags and at least an h1 title tag to start getting some age on the site. When you are ready to create the rest of your site, you’ll climb to the top even faster. I used to leave everything on Cash Parking at GoDaddy, but those sites have become a mere fraction of what they used to bring in revenue, so now I say, publish early and publish often, forget Cash Parked pages unless you are making a bundle.
Ranking of Domain Name Extensions:
1. .Com
2. .Org
3. .Net
4. .Us
5. .Me
6. .Biz
7. .Info
8. .Mobi
What have your experiences been on domain name extensions and Google ranking? Please share them with us.
Off the wall: Who is the Coolest Guy on the Planet in the SEO landscape?
29 Responses to “Is .Com the Best Domain Name Extension for Google Search Engine Ranking?”
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Interesting post about domain extension content and link. Having the .com extension is far better than all the rest. Even better if the domain name has keyword(s) that can secure your place in the top of the search engines. I do have to disagree with the content and link comment. I have a good pr rank and very little links. It has been my experience that good quality content outranks link anytime.
Paul
Hey Paul,
Looks like you are doing well with you PR4 http://www.GUZMANSGREENHOUSE.COM website. Looks like you’ve got 939 links (and now another one from my site), some of which are coming from your huge 424 page site and that you’ve got some age on it with a start date of March 10th, 2003.
I applaud you for sure. A PR 4 site is solid. It’s hard to argue with your success.
Allow me to share my experience, in the order of importance, for pulling up on page one in a Google search for a particular keyword or keyword phrase. here’s My rough shod list is as follows:
1. Anchor test links containing your primary keywords and what the authority of those site are.
2. Including your primary keywords in your domain name with a .com or .org extension
3. Displaying the primary keywords in the title of your meta tags
4. Including your primary keyword phrase in the meta tag description
5. Displaying your primary keywords in your body copy of your site(your content)
In your case, I’d say you’ve created great copy for gardeners and they love your content with a passion so they naturally link to it and it creates buzz. So, over time, your content naturally drives your SEO.
A simple illustration of why I think appropriate anchor text links rule is if you do a search on Google for the keyword phrase,’click here’, you’ll find that the SERP (search engine results page) comes up with the Adobe Reader download page in position one.
http://get.adobe.com/reader/
The interesting thing is that even though the words,’click here’ don’t appear anywhere in the content, meta tags or in the url, the site still has the highest page reputation out of 1 billion other broad match competing sites. Anchor text links have driven this page to the number one position.
Soon, I hope to put up a blog post on how to throw a wild card in the mix and blow away other highly optimized sites. So, stay tuned.
Paul thanks for your comments based on your experience. Great site, I wish I owned it.
Glen : )
An interesting post. I would say that the other great domain name extension in my experience is a .org. In many cases google will give more trust to a .org than a .net and even a .com. This is because Google knows that a .org may provide non commercial content that is better quality.
I think this will start to play out even more as google continues to focus on user specific search results.
This will pay out big SEO dividends to churches and nonprofits who choose to use the .org domain name. However I do not think its a good replacement for a .com.. and a .com is always my first choice. Its amazing what a good .com domain name can do when it matches a high traffic keyword phrase of 3 words.
I will say that in my opinion content is king for two reasons:
#1 Good content provides natural links from people who like it.
#2 A high ranking SEO’d site that does not convert is worthless.
#3 A site with high quality content always makes more money when selling products. People will scour the net for good content, even if it does not show on page 1 of google. Also this will create natural traffic outside of search engines.
This does not downplay the fact that link building is the number one strategy for better seo rankings. Even poor quality sites with lots of links rank highly. I still think it comes back to content though because one of the top methods for link building is article writing, which requires quality content.
The last thing to consider is that Google’s end game strategy is to provide high quality results, and building the highest quality content will win the long term organic results everyone wants. Of course it helps to speed the process by link building, and making sure the content is optimized.
I also have to say that your advice to stay away from the other domain name extensions is good advice. You rarely see a .us in the top of the serps. The only place this changes is in other countries. A lot of .uk domains rank well in the uk.. just like a lot of .in sites rank well in india… but here in the US, a .com is your best bet, everything else is like choosing to start with a handicap.
Aaron,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You make several good points. I agree that if the content is good enough, the links will come, it’s just that I’ve rarely created such good content that a flood of links came pouring in. If people could do that at will, then SEO specialists would be out of business. Even my biggest clients haven’t been able to acheive content so good that it drives links even with multi-million dollar budgets.
Your second point number 2 about conversion may be true to many; however, that deserves a new blog post entirely as the topic covered in this post was what the best domain name extension was for SEO.
Hospitals and doctors would go out of business if they accomplished their mission, and search engine optimization specialists would die out if everyone could write content so good that it inspired external backward links. Somehow, I feel safe.
Ultimately, from your site, http://www.DarkBlackCoffee.com, I can see you are responsible for the whole site and often that includes the content and my primary focus is getting sites to page one of Google for a specific keyword phrase. I appreciate great content as much as the next guy, but we’re just looking at the same subject from different perspectives. I’m focused on SEO and you are focused on graphics, web design and sometimes content.
I treasure your thoughts, so thanks for taking the time to share them. By the way, I know one of your clients. They say you do good work. I myself would use your services.
Very interesting. I agree that the .com extension is the way to go. Not only will it get you higher ranking as you point out so well, it will probably get people to your page in the first place. I think that people use it without even thinking most of the time. It is amazing that you can rank without content. Great article!
~Linda
Hi Linda,
I know YOU! We’ve talked on the phone before. How kind of you to stop in and leave a comment!
You are off to a great new blog: http://www.cashflowkarma.com. I can’t wait to watch your new site grow.
As They Say, Enjoy the Journey,
Glen : )
Hi Glen
Great Post I agree don’t park domains at least put something on them and I do think that .coms are the best to use. every one is familar to .com. Anyway Great talking to you on the Phone today.
Pete Balasch Jr
the xyour925job Guy
Pete,
Thanks for always having an open door to bounce ideas off of each other. You’ve been a great friend and I’ve greatly enjoyed your podcast for almost two years.
Glen : )
I would have to say that if your content matches your domain, as long as there is pertinent content you will prevail. I could not believe how fast I rose to #1 for the search term violated rights in google on violatedrights.com
Thanks for the article, working on another now, last-testament.com
Hi Glenn! Interesting article. I am interesting in buying your domain http://www.apartmentinriodejaneiro.com. Is it for sale?
You can send me an email at isak.engdahl@gmail.com if you are interested.
Isak
Hi Glen,
As an seasoned Internet marketer I never thought of the dot com had anything to do with Google ranking, but i guess it can have some wiegh on it..
Thanks Glen
Antonio Coleman AKA ‘TrafficColeman” Signing Off
Antonio,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, there is no question about it for now, the .com extension is by far the most powerful and .org is a close second. None of the others in 2010 even come close.
The truth is, I wish it wasn’t so, because it rewards those who got in the game earlier rather than those with good content.
Good content is a very small factor in SEO. I don’t like to say it, but content is not king in SEO. Maybe one day it will weigh heavier, but for now that’s not the way it is.
Glen
I have noticed that the domain plays an important role in ranking. Does anyone know how slashes dashes in the name play out. Such as Art-Store-ny.com or is Artstoreny.com better.
Hope someone can help
From my experience, the dashes are a negative, but they are less so in 2010 than they were in 2008. I’ll go for a hyphenated domain name from time to time as long as I can get it with the .com extension.
I got http://www.Greenville-Massage.com number one on a Google search for keyword phrases like: greenville massage, massage in greenville, massage greenville, greenville massage therapist and greenville massage therapy, but I know it took more expertise to get it there.
Glen
The have been articles i have read on the web claiming that domains with .me extensions or .info extensions don’t rank well. I would say from my experience that if you have keywords on your domain name then it does help no matter the extension.
I agree, having the keywords in the domain name does help regardless of the the extension. If you can get them with the the .com or the .org, then you’re really giving yourself a boost.
The .me and .info extensions don’t do nearly as well as .com or .org. For example, I can publish the same content all at the same time using various domain name extensions. The .com and .org show up on page one or two on a Google SERP while the .me or .info will likely show up on page 12.
Of course it depends on how many sites compete for the same keyword phrase too.
G
Hi, Glen: I absolutely agree with your choice of .com as prime domain preference. Another point on that is your readers – they are much more likely to type .com in the search rather than anything other extension. Findability is imperative!
Thanks for the great post,
Ana/YourNetBiz
Ana, thank you for your thoughts. It’s been a pleasure working with you within the world of YouTube.
Thanks for Your Friendship,
Glen Woodfin
Hey Glen,
Firstly, I’d like to say it’s good to see another South Carolinian with a mind for IM. I’m from Columbia and it seems to be void of any form of serious IM. While it’s true that you can rank well with any extension, I don’t see many of the smaller extensions (me, info, etc) at the top of the SERPs.
Yes, I agree. You can get .biz, .me and .info to the top, but you’ll need a lot more link building to do so.
Thanks for Taking the Time to Comment Neighbor, Glen
Hi Glen,
I googled this very topic and you came up on page 1.
I’m guessing you are in USA
I’m based in Fleetwood UK. I already rank No1 on Google UK for my 3 main keywords: Thai food fleetwood, Thai food delivery fleetwood, thai restaurant fleetwood (indents too)
I read recently that the location of your server can have a bearing on your pagerank too although my servers are in houston texas, but there is not much competition (about 1/2 million results)
I dabble with other projects and wonder what your thought are on…
1. server location
2. in UK would google give a preference to a .co.uk over a .com or .org
Warmest regards
Jules
Hi Jules,
Interesting comments. The results of your search for a keyword phrase for searches from different geographical locations absolutely affects the results of your search, but not the page rank. If you do a Google search in the UK, you’ll get different results that someone who does the same search in Micanopy, Florida, but both will see the same page rank for any given site.
I completely agree with you that it’s better to have a .co.uk domain name extension if you want to appear higher in a search for UK residents. A .com is a close second if the search is based in the UK. The west coast of the US will get a different SERP (search engine results page) from the east coast.
Great Conversation!
Glen
Hi Glen,
First of all, congratulations for your site. I completely agree with you and I also can share almost the same experience than you about the .com domains regarding to others. Do you have any kind of experience with .co.uk domains? what would you prefer to use in UK: .co.uk or a .com? I own this website http://www.mangostaooriginal.com and I would like to register a domain in UK, but I do not know wicth one is better: .co.uk or .com. Do you have any idea? I ask this because, .co.uk is like a “national” domain. It may have a better national reputation…
Best regards,
I think that if the search in done from within the UK, then .co.uk is the better choice, however, if you can get the .com, it’s a close second.
If anyone living in the UK has had a different experience, please share it here as I’m doing more and more websites and SEO internationally.
Hi again,
Sorry, the answer to my question was already in one of the previous comments. But also, when you say “5 appropriate back links” what kind of back links do you choose. What were your criteria? How often do you post them in order to seem natural?
Regards
I see you snuck in your website in a hypertext link above. A better way would to publish it with anchor text, like so:
Mangostao
Natural links are easily created with blog comments just like you have done here. In fact, I think blog comments on high PR posts even if they are ‘no follow’ still help you in page rank and assist you in page reputation as well (getting a particular web page to rank for a keyword or keyword phrase). Both are important but different.
Other common ways to get links are to use blog post trackbacks (http://www.optiniche.com/blog/117/wordpress-trackback-tutorial/).
-Press releases that allow anchor text links, like PRweb.com.
-Article submission with links in the signature
-Creating free and paid new blogs
-Adding Sitewide Links in an Existing Blogroll in a blog’s sidebar or footer
-Submit to solid, but free link directories two of my favorites are:
Jayde.com and CanLinks.net
-Become a guest writing on someone else’s blog with an agreement that you get a link.
Glen,
I believe that a .com address is best. It may not be absolute but .com is “first to market” or the category creator and in most cases, like band-aid, Coke, Kleenex, Scotch-Tape, that is the category creator. To me, .com is the category creator.
Thanks for all your insight.
Glade Poulsen
Yes, it cuts both ways, it’s good for those that got in the game early and bought the exact domain name, but challenging for those that are late to market. I’ve never thought of it as category creation. I will now.
Thanks Glade, I Always Learn from You, Glen
Very interesting article, Glen. It has always been my opinion as well that .com dominates the domain extensions battle. It is easily the most recognizable extension. Think of this hypothesis: If you were to tell 100 people the name of a website was “XYZ”, without calling out the extension, I’d say it’s a fair bet that 100 out of 100 would first try http://www.XYZ.com. Following after would be .net and .org, depending on the user. Remember the days of calling out a website and prefixing every time with “www”? Glad that is gone. I always advise that people shorten it up when saying a website name by canceling out wasting their breathe with the “www”. It’s so understood these days, and quite frankly, when someone tells me to go to “www.whatever.com” I am cringing while they power through the www part. Anyhoo, I think the same is now transcending to popular email extensions. When asked for my email address which is hosted at say Yahoo or GMail, I drop the “.com” and simply say my address “@gmail” or “@yahoo”. It’s just understood. That is the power of .com and its recognition.
I am very curious to see the progression of .co. Certainly it has been used for years in the UK and abroad, with extensions such as “.co.uk”, but it is very interesting to see how the world adopts a “worldwide” domain extension. If it carries even a third of the weight that it has been hyped up to be, it could very well be the next best thing to .com.
On the flip side, I wonder just how many non savvy users will be completely confused considering it simply looks like the M is missing in the extension. Time will tell, and I will certainly be keeping an eye on its early childhood years.
What are anyone’s thoughts/predictions on our new baby “.co”?