Is the extension so important

[Jake2011]

If the only way to get your website to show on the first page of Google or I suppose any search engine - is to spend a lot of time yourself on SEO or spend an average of $250-300 per month paying someone else to do SEO. Or to just be the highest paying advertiser on Google for that search word or term.

WHAT the hell does it matter what the domain extension is?
WHY is keyword less important?
Surely it would help reduce the cost of SEO?

Can someone here who knows a lot more than me (which isn't hard) tell me. I really would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[namezest]

It actually does not matter anymore, it is your content that matters. Search results anyway have changed, that is why we still have the good old add to favorites as searches have become a joke.

 

[nomen]

It comes down to trust and memorability. People trust .COM and often times expect .COM (especially 'normal' people, i.e. not techies). You're going to spend less money and time promoting your .COM website than other extensions. And with .COM, you don't have to second-guess your choice. Peace of mind.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

Not a direct answer to this thread's question, but an 'additional thought' which came into my mind:

To be correct, in fact no one except Google itself is or will be shown on 'Google's first page'.
The always so called 'Google's first page' is in fact the 'Google's second page'.

Of course, with 'Google's first page' is meant the 'first page of Google's searching results', that's why it is also marked as page 1 2 3 ... by Google.

But the 'technical truth' is:

Google's FIRST page is Google
Google's SECOND Page: Google's 'first page of the search results' but still Google's 'second page'

 

[Jake2011]

So why is CWYT.com more valuable than say super easy to remember Mortgages.sx

 

[Kate]

If you think SEO only, then the domain name is unimportant.
If you think in terms of branding, the domain name is important.
For advertising purposes, memorable domains are preferable.

 

[dordomai]

So why is CWYT.com more valuable than say super easy to remember Mortgages.sx

these days domains are sold because of the brand value not seo value.

would you buy from a .sx website?

 

[Wannabean]

The extension is important from a marketing perspective, not seo. It's all really about traffic leakage and the costs associated with that.

It's also fairly well known that short .com and cctld's are extremely expensive so there's some inherited legitimacy that come with them. For example, if you own gold.com, it's likely people will assume your well funded and trustworthy. So you can build a reputable brand very quickly on premium .com/cctld domains.

In this sense, it can be said that com offers tremendous value. The extra marketing $ that would need to be spent to achieve the same consumer feeling toward a name on another extension would far outweigh the acquisition cost of a truly excellent com/cctld name. Then of course there's type in traffic, which provides an instant customer base and is a nice added bonus.

 

[biggie]

i got on 1st page of goog and still there for the keywords of the domain name

getting rank, also relates to subject matter/content and if that subject has high competition, then more seo is needed.

it's basically that simple, but not so simple




imo...

 

[Truth]

Try this experiment:

Browse through the top sites on Alexa (I'd link it, but I'm not allowed yet on my account). See how many of them end in dot com. And for those that don't, see how many of them are just other extensions for a website where the dot com is owned by the same business. Selection bias you say?

Look at startup data. Look at the websites you visit yourself and see how many of them end in dot com. Can you build an excellent website on other TLDs? Yes. Angel.co is a highly respected website, but there is a lot of spillover traffic to Angel.com. Battle.net got away without Battle.com by branding their TLD with the second level domain. But in general, I see these as exceptions. And when you are building a brand, I don't think you want to be battling any authority issues that come up when your domain name isn't dot com.

I want to add that I think dot com is practically a must if your business is online only, but becomes less crucial (yet still better) for those who have standard distribution means. Reality is that dot com with a second level domain less than 12 characters will go a long way to making someone feel like they're not in the deep part of the web / no where's land when they go to your website. You ever see a long domain name or a non dot com domain name and just think... man, I know I'm going to get a virus if I go there? I have (and usually don't care because Kaspersky is omnipotent, but that's besides the point). And if you get to the sweet spot of 6 - 8 character dot com, your brand will have no authority issues with anyone. So yeah, it costs more money, but in the long run it's worth it. And not that anyone loves to think about this, but if you fail, dot coms are actually liquid. It's not as big a sunk cost like many other gTLD / ccTLDs are.

 

[Satyajit Adhikary]

Majority of non-technical people can't name more than 8 to 10 extensions.

The value of all extensions would become same when people would properly know that they exists.

"A familiar thing is easy to sell"

 

[Recons.Com]

I wouldn't start any of my businesses with anything other than .com for US/Global and .com/local cctld for most other countries.

when you have the default extension (.com or local cctld), your clients and visitors have to memorize only the left of the dot. For anything else, you are asking them to remember the combo.

It is not sustainable most of the time to build your business on search engines and social ONLY. You have to build your own core audience that type your domain in directly.

 

[Recons.Com]

A little story about branding.

My 9 year old son has established a team in his school for games, coding etc. and named it Cipher Studios. So he wanted to make a website and register domain for that. We looked what is available, CipherStudios dot com was taken. There are bunch of other extensions available, but he says "not interested" and asks to try with dash. To my surprise, that is taken too. So he tells me just to add "the" in front and that is available and I regged TheCipherStudios dot com for him. Nothing else was an option and that is with zero discussion with me regarding it. We regged it couple of days ago, and put wordpress on it and will start the rest of the work, but just illustration how the coming up generation thinks about extensions.
He already has his youtube channel, by the way, accessible via tvxd.com (forwards to his channel, will be a website eventually), if you want to subscribe )

 

[urlurl]

its about the image and trust factor

Would you buy a diamond or glass for an engagement ring!

 

[Joshh71390]

you just have to ask yourself how many of the sites you use which are not .com -> thats what you should prob stick with if its not .com - so if you are in a country that uses cc more then .com then those are likely your best bet. but i dont know many of those as I am not eu

 

[Aspiring Billionaire]

Asking is the first step to knowledge, the second is understanding.

If the only way to get your website to show on the first page of Google or I suppose any search engine - is to spend a lot of time yourself on SEO or spend an average of $250-300 per month paying someone else to do SEO. Or to just be the highest paying advertiser on Google for that search word or term.

WHAT the hell does it matter what the domain extension is?
WHY is keyword less important?
Surely it would help reduce the cost of SEO?

Can someone here who knows a lot more than me (which isn't hard) tell me. I really would appreciate it.

Thanks

A good domain-name+tld on it's own (in the absence of SEO and good content) won't get you listed/ranked on the 1st page. It may (depending on it's quality) get auto type-in traffic, but not listed/ranked well. So, depending on your goal - getting to page 1 (or 2, 3, 4, etc.) is the battle, not the war.

The overall idea is to :
(1) get listed/ranked well * [ SEO and good content alone can work for this ],
(2) ensure your info-title, domain name & extension is attractive and authoritative enough for the user to not "scroll past" and "skip" you * [ you may be able to get away with a mediocre domain name ],
(3) have quality content according to the user's standard * [ good content alone matters here ],
(4) have an easy-to-remember domain name for the user to return (perhaps even months later) or reference your website (which is essentially your domain name) to others * [ without a decent domain name, not even the best content in the world can save you here ],

The reality is that a better domain name (comparing the same SEO and content quality) will yield better results. If you're serious about an online project, then you should invest in the best domain name your budget allows (not neglecting SEO and content quality of course).

It goes without saying that there are many more benefits to owning a good domain name, and not all benefits may be applicable to every end-user and their project. But on it's own, a good domain name (before+after the dot) is an investment no matter how you slice it.

So why is CWYT.com more valuable than say super easy to remember Mortgages.sx

The value between these examples aren't in how easy they are to remember. One's a prickly pear, the other a Chinese fruit. They're different categories altogether, you can research their differences here on NP. You'll change your view once you learn more about the industry.

 

[1Darko]

you just have to ask yourself how many of the sites you use which are not .com -> thats what you should prob stick with if its not .com - so if you are in a country that uses cc more then .com then those are likely your best bet. but i dont know many of those as I am not eu

Here in the EU the ccTLD is the first choice. Also hyphenated domains are generally accepted.Often domains with two words are hyphenated by default. The second choice would be the .com., if not available the .net and sometimes the .eu.

 

[urlurl]

Canada.

.ca - indicates it is a Canadian company, and if you are exclusively doing business in canada, want to attract canadian visitors or want visitors to know you are a canadian company - then .ca is a must.

if you want to expand your business internationally then .com is next on the list.

its about image and presence.