How much does extension matter?

The extension is important if you will be branding your name as a business.
For advertising, word of mouth, a memorable and meaningful domain is a must-have. Especially if you'll have it printed on business cards

If you rely mainly on SEO the extension (and the domain itself) is less critical.

I tend to think that extensions are just tricks/inventions of the registars to keep the domaining community busy selling to each other....

Seriously now, as sdsinc mentioned above, if you rely only on SEO, it does not matter. However, I found that it is extremely difficult to rank with .info but then again it could be just me

.info is great if:
- the domain name is excellent (e.g. Germany.info, Forex.info, CreditCard.info)
- you create a minisite with no intention to sell it but to earn some bucks
- you create a proxy site

The advantage of the .info extension is that you need a very low initial investment, sometimes you can purchase a .info domain for less then $1. (And when you renew it for another year, then your total cost is about $10 for 2 years, so if your site generates at least 1.5 cent/day on average, you generates $0.5 profit annually :D)

I think the extension counts when you create a big site, maybe with the intention to sell it later. If the .org and the .info version is also available, I would register the .org. If the domain is not available in either of the main extensions, then I would register "keyword"+"base/hub/info etc." in .com.

Usually ppl remember .com as compared to other extensions, in SEO, I have never seen a site with .info ranked number 1 before. I will suggest to use .info when you got a very good plan on how you wanna market your site.

Depending on the type of site is matters a whole lot, if the website is English for example and has .co.uk for the extension it has an element of trust inbuilt, yes we can contact them if need be, yes they are local, yes we prefer a local presence to other extensions that do not indicate the origination of the site.

I think if aiming to take on the world then it is .com but if only aiming at your specific location then the cctld is the better

If using .info and so on it may be worth trying to include your location somewhere in your keywords and discriptions

A lot of quirky websites, social media and start ups are making more popular the odd extensions that no one outside of domaining is familiar with, .ly being one of them.

From my experience if you ever want a resell .info will never get touched. I have owned many quality one word geo .infos that I registered for less than $1 each. Could not get $1 for them. We are talking high population citieis in tourist districts. That said, some .infos have sold for quite a lot. But there is a large stigma attached to them that Google or anyone else does not take them seriously in large part because they have been so cheap to register, the most spam and junk comes from .info it appears.

I agree .com is your best bet and if you cannot; use .org. Try some quirky endings cause to an extent the old man is right. For example I rarely remember domain names for useful articles, forums or blogs I enjoy. I just bookmark them or save them in social media/bookmarking. I don't need to remember them, the internet does that for me.

Best of luck.

mentioned I was building a dot info site. He says "What's dot info?

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That reaction is also an argument for why extensions DO matter ...

Google et al are relying more and more on visitor signals to evaluate pages for search results. By which I mean, click through rate, bounce rate, time on page/site, likes and +1's ... Obviously those aren't the only things they look at because they'd be way too easy to "game", but they're being factored into the equation.

People overall are less likely to click on an unfamiliar URL with an extension they've never heard of so you start things off on the wrong foot with a lower initial CTR.

Then there's also the little one-touch ".com" on a lot of mobile browser on-screen keyboards when you enter a URL ...

enlytend said:

People overall are less likely to click on an unfamiliar URL with an extension they've never heard of so you start things off on the wrong foot with a lower initial CTR.

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My point was that I don't think this holds if they are using search to browse. He never really looks at the URL. He clicks on a search result that looks interesting and if he likes the site he bookmarks it. The URL is never a factor.

I think the arguments about Google treating dot com sites better is one of those Correlation does not prove causality situations. I think most people, me included, who are building a serious site (as in expensive, long term, make a living from) always try to use a dot com. That pretty well guarantees dot com sites will rank better than the other extensions even if G evaluates them exactly the same.

...as with everything else, the simple passage of time changes an extensions importance with the opening of new extensions and the various mobile technologies of today pretty much kneecaps .com as far as being a monolithic behemoth and supreme ruler goes.

Is .com still king? You bet, but it has lost a lot of its punch with many endusers opting for phrases, keywords and generics at the left of the dot that would be either unavailable or too cost prohibitive in the .com stratosphere...the parking lots are chock-full of and flooded with .com domain names and are they rusting there because many endusers find the same name for less in another extension. The newer generations of internet users look at .com as just another extension toward their goal of finding what they want in cyberspace. Put simply, the "other" extensions are not that alien to younger users as they were to an older demographic.

Kinda like anything else in the state of technoevolutionary process, the old makes way for the new or newer after the aforementioned passage of time...

ThemesPremier said:

I have never seen a site with .info ranked number 1 before.

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Interesting, can anyone point to a number 1 ranked .info?

I have got some to 2 and 3 so I am interested. I like them from a memorability point of view, good for geo development imo. But I am not developing them to sell - but ones in German language do seem to sell.

carob said:

Interesting, can anyone point to a number 1 ranked .info?

I have got some to 2 and 3 so I am interested. I like them from a memorability point of view, good for geo development imo. But I am not developing them to sell - but ones in German language do seem to sell.

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Actually .info ranks #1 on literally thousands of terms etc. Do me a favor as an example google "Austria" and see for yourself

Blake

Blake said:

Actually .info ranks #1 on literally thousands of terms etc. Do me a favor as an example google "Austria" and see for yourself

Blake

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Comes up number 1 in australia

Blake said:

Actually .info ranks #1 on literally thousands of terms etc. Do me a favor as an example google "Austria" and see for yourself

Blake

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Ah, thanks. I was aware of spain.info which for me usually comes up number 2 on search for Spain. I'm getting austria.info on numbers 2 and 3 for Austria search, after the notorious Wackipedia. Seems for others austria.info does come up number 1.

I guess these country names would have been reserved by the .info registry for countries to use. But supposedly the world's most e-capable country, Estonia, let theirs drop not long ago.

BTW Poland.travel is used as Poland's tourist site, I have seen it on posters and it is number 1 to 3 in search results.

If you're building a brand which would target an audience within the US, the .com is pretty much mandatory to be taken seriously.

Given the exact same keyword, gtlds will usually come up trumps as compared to an obscure cctld in ranking with similar development of the site for global users.

However, given that the exact same keyword in .com would cost 6 figures, alternate extensions make a lot of sense for development.

And therein lies the value for alternative extensions.

Please see: http://www.mwzd.com/domain-names/the-extension-agnostic/

Right, I personally have way more respect to a site with .com I don't know why that happens, but it sounds to be sorta Internet tradition that you're supposed to have.com to look like a serious player.

vincewicks said:

Right, I personally have way more respect to a site with .com I don't know why that happens, but it sounds to be sorta Internet tradition that you're supposed to have.com to look like a serious player.

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You know that, and we know that, but this is a domainer forum. "Civilians" don't know that

I usually go for .com domains. As far as I am concern .com domains should be used if you want to establish a steady business online.

I am not saying that .info domains does not suit businesses though, of course there will be instances that the .info extension is more applicable than .com Take autria.info(as mentioned by Blake) for example, the site is all about Austria so the .info extension fits the site just right.

Zidane

zidane said:

I usually go for .com domains. As far as I am concern .com domains should be used if you want to establish a steady business online.

I am not saying that .info domains does not suit businesses though, of course there will be instances that the .info extension is more applicable than .com Take autria.info(as mentioned by Blake) for example, the site is all about Austria so the .info extension fits the site just right.

Zidane

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All domainers would want the .com then reality strikes home once you see the price so other ways have to come into play , a differnet name to the first choice or a different extension .....really is as simple as that i suggest

Did a google search for predictive data ......guess who was on top

Have a look to get the info

evirtual1 said:

Did a google search for predictive data ......guess who was on top

Have a look to get the info

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...not surprising, since the .com is, ta-daaa, a parked page.

The surprise is why there aren't even more . info names on top of the charts since .com seems to have more parked pages as their owners think they have a gold mine.

That gold has slipped and is slipping away as the younger generations use whatever is handy to get the name they want that is within their budget. The "strange" extensions just aren't that "strange" anymore, especially well into the 21st century...

And dot INFO is a prime example of usefulness when it's .com sibling is but a parked page...

sdsinc :tu:

Yes you can develop and even brand or try to brand yourself on Any extension ... You can be very successful doing so via SEO/Rankings. Obviously there are certain "domain hacks" that people are branding on - that work very well ... and anyone with the will or cash can get their domain ranked high no matter the extension.
But IMO ... at the end of the day People will associate the web with .com and possibly a few other extensions below that No Matter What.

A year ago or so - Overstock.com was screaming from the rooftops "Overstock.com is now O.co" ... and for the past few months there is NO mention of O.co at all from what I see or hear (It's just a redirect now I believe). In fact I was literally "LOL'ing" because of how many times they are now repeating the term "Overstock.com" over and over in the past few commercials.

I only wish I had a dollar for every time this conversation has come up

The thing is that many many many people are using the google search box and whatever is up on top of that will get the clicks, no matter what the extension ....true

evirtual1 said:

The thing is that many many many people are using the google search box and whatever is up on top of that will get the clicks, no matter what the extension ....true

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...and that is just the way it is...and the extension is even less important with the advent of web apps that are proliferating for the more mobile technologies...

i find that .coms are most popular in the us.. however other countries the geo extension is most popular.. i believe this has something to do with the fact that all .coms are mostly english based..

as far as the .info.. i had one .info ever.. one word dictionary that i registered when it first went public.. i tried and tried and tried and could not sell that domain for the life of me.. i sold a few worthless .coms way easier.