cctld Rep & Site Recognition When Competing w/ 247 Other Sites w/ Same Keyword/s??

[Grrilla]

This post grew out of an appraisal for poker.bi and was modified and moved here for discussion.

I had a friend who uses the net a lot but is not into domains tell me that whenever they see a link for anything other than com/net/org/us they wonder what they're getting into and expect to find either a warez or porn site. As the rest of the world's population comes online ccTLD domains will become more common and these attitudes will fade I believe.

Good point. I have feelings, similar to that of your friends, when running across links to some of the more exotic cctld's, although, I feel, reasonably safe w/ .biz and, I have no problem w/ .info, at all, particularly, if the keywords for the domain are good and they make sense w/ the ext.

Ironically, the emergence and increased use of the plethora of cctld domains, (that have become so popular w/ spammers/hackers/porn etc.), has given a boost to the reputation of .biz, IMO. I am seeing more legitimate .biz usage as a result of scammers gravitating towards cctld's because, among other things, the availibility of popualr search terms in those namespaces. Judging by the 1000-2000 pieces of SPAM that get filtered to my Junk box, everyday, I think this trend will continue, as the number of .biz SPAM emails has declined to, less than 1% of all SPAM received.

A couple of observations and questions:

- Besides a, general, lack of familiarity, one of the major reasons that keyword value is devalued, when attached to a cctld is that people are less inclined to follow a link and visit a site because of the association of cctld domains and dubious or illegal internet enterprises.
- To overcome this disadvantage, more promotional resources are needed to gain the trust of visitors and bring them to a site.
- This barrier is removed when the visitor arrives at the site and finds that it's legit. Ultimately, the cream will rise to the top and the domain ext will become a non-issue if visitors find the site useful.
- At last count, the total number of cctld's was 248 which means there are alot domains w/ the same keyword/s that are competing for space and attention.
- How do you see things panning out in terms of SEO, promotion and the, ultimate, success of the of cctld websites, given that each keyword domain could, potentially, have 247 competitors?
- Who will be the winners? Losers?

Commenst?

 

[accent]

The two letter ccTLD realm is far smaller than 248 extensions, and that is the only place I am, at the moment. But looking at the broad picture I think it is a slow process of education. The public still thinks in terms of dot com, which is why the money is so concentrated there, which is self continuing to a degree. .Net, .org and .info have broken the .com mindset to a degree and seem to be gaining acceptance. IMHO once the public recognises that there is more than "one domain" it is much easier for each additional domain to be accepted.

Look at .TV - the tiny little islands of Tuvalu, maximum altitude 17 feet, population 12,000; and .CC - the Cocos Islands, formerly known for their coconuts, same maximum elevation and only 700 residents. Both are listed as available extensions by many registrars.

I see a leveling. Poker.com equals Poker.vc for a search engine, other things being equal. Or so it seems to me. If so there are two sets of losers: those who buy .com as other extensions begin to take away its share, and those who buy the other extensions TOO EARLY.

It is not happening yet, much, and the maintainence cost of CC domains is usually high. Yet if you can push right up to the line of the best available CC names, in time perhaps, you could have something to brag about.