Should I use .com instead of a ccTLD?

[Duende]

Hello,

I have a mixed martial arts site (covering like UFC and stuff) at MMA.BS. I've noticed on a few other sites I get a lot of various traffic coming from random places, and not so much MMA.BS initially. I would like to use this domain for convenience eventually, but would I have better luck appearing in results if I switched to a .com with fight in the title? I don't want to be too long, but I have a few ideas with fight included that'd work okay I think.

Just need some advice. I don't expect the whole world to pour in, but I started two at the same time and I just see more traffic trickling into the .com domain I have, not so the .BS domained one.

And if I should switch...do I need to switch Wordpress and everything over to the new domain, or is there an easier way to handle it? Like redirecting somehow or something clever?

Thanks guys, haven't let me down yet.

 

[Andr3w]

In this case, the ccTLD (.bs) is not your country domain name (.us). If I were to chose between a .com and a .bs I would definitely go with the .com or with a tld more known to your target. Your target being mainly people from US.

You should move the content over to the .com version and then make a 301 permanent redirect using .htaccess so that you won't lose any traffic or backlinks.

 

[Duende]

Would it be possible in the future, with more traffic, to move back? It really just makes sense as a domain name and is so easy, MMA.BS.

 

[Andr3w]

Would it be possible in the future, with more traffic, to move back? It really just makes sense as a domain name and is so easy, MMA.BS.

The domain might be easy to remember to you, but how about your audience ? have they heard of .bs before ? Will they remember it ? (I'm not talking about the 'MMA' part, you can't get better than that obviously. I'm referring to what's after the dot) Is the percent on your site for 'Returning Visitors' high or low ?

Also, how would you brand it ? MMA is BS (bulls**t) ? :notme:

---------- Post added at 03:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 AM ----------

Would it be possible in the future, with more traffic, to move back? It really just makes sense as a domain name and is so easy, MMA.BS.

I don't see the point. If you eventually will want to move back to MMA.BS, there's no point starting to develop something else in the first place just so at some point in time you'll go back to MMA.BS. Now it's the time to decide which one you want to use and go with that.

 

[Duende]

Well you know, you have legitimate blogs doing well named things like bloodyelbow, ninjashoes, sherdog, and a ton of mmaweekly/junkie/punch/etc with decent traffic... I don't think people into cagefighting will get too hung up thinking "BS" and what does it mean, if I have a clear logo, they'll just see it as an easy to remember address to go for MMA bs. News, twitter crap, etc. I don't think they're going to think after visiting the site that we're the BAD definition of BS in the industry, and more a place to hear all the latest or find gear/apparel.

---------- Post added at 04:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 AM ----------

Bullshido.net did pretty well for themselves too, and I'm even easier to remember then that! I was even thinking about advertising on their site eventually...

 

[Duende]

My choice besides MMA.BS is 1on1fights.com, which I'm happy with, and I have 1on1fight.com also...but I'd rather use fights, though 'fight' shows up as being 'worth more' for SEO and stuff... So I don't know how much I'll be handicapping myself by wanting to use the 'fights' dot com instead of just 'fight,' singular.

Anyway. I think I should generate a little more trickle in traffic with this domain, rather than MMA.BS... This is just my thinking as a newbie, so any thoughts are appreciated.