.us for a developed site, how does it compare to .com for SEO Google rank?

[brandnow]

I own the .com version of a brand that I created. However, I have recently had a good offer to buy the .com domain. So I am strongly considering using the .us variant.

The .com version is 7 years old. I'm sure that will help the new owner a bit with his SEO right? But what if I am using the .us version? In your experience, how well will .us rank compared to .com? This is for a brand name, I guess you could call it a "brandable," though it's also now a slang word that some people in this industry is starting to use.

I guess most of my business will be in the U.S. So the .us version would make sense in this case. I'm just concerned about how well the future developed site will do in Google rankings on a brand new .us vs. a 7 year old .com.

Please help and any insights!

 

[mhdoc]

I have never read anything that suggested it would be treated any differently as far as rankings go.

 

[N-A]

Get over domain age. It doesn't matter.

A .us will outrank a .com if the content is greater.

 

[mhdoc]

I think the biggest factor in getting the .us site to rank will result from your success in moving or replacing inbound links.

 

[enlytend]

Are you currently using the .com? And if so, how much of your traffic is from search? Switching domains when you have several years of history and link equity built up isn't trivial ... (if you don't have much search traffic to worry about then it's a moot point )

In theory, the .com would have no advantage over the .us except outside of the US. In practice, .us is unfamiliar to most people, which means you get different user behavoir. People may avoid clicking on it in the SERPS, which can in turn affect your rankings by making it seem irrellevant or of no interest.

A .us will outrank a .com if the content is greater.

Not necessarily. Content isn't everything.

 

[brandnow]

I have never read anything that suggested it would be treated any differently as far as rankings go.

Just thought some developers may have noticed something different in reality than the pretty words about fairness that Google always has to say.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

I own the .com version of a brand that I created. However, I have recently had a good offer to buy the .com domain. So I am strongly considering using the .us variant.

The .com version is 7 years old. I'm sure that will help the new owner a bit with his SEO right? But what if I am using the .us version? In your experience, how well will .us rank compared to .com? This is for a brand name, I guess you could call it a "brandable," though it's also now a slang word that some people in this industry is starting to use.

I guess most of my business will be in the U.S. So the .us version would make sense in this case. I'm just concerned about how well the future developed site will do in Google rankings on a brand new .us vs. a 7 year old .com.

Please help and any insights!

Age (as far as I can tell) comes into play with SEO only because of backlinks. It is generally safe to say that the older a domain is the more backlinks it has associated with it which helps tremendously in SEO ranking.
This is not true in all cases as some sites are registered and parked for years.

With that said, .COM is the most recognized domain extension out there. If nothing else... the general tendency for people is to automatically assume .COM if a domain name is given with no extension mentioned.
You would be best served if you owned the .COM version of what ever brand you have, however it is not mandatory. It just helps quite a bit.

So to make this explanation as long as possible

I would make the suggestion to purchase the .COM if it is available at a reasonable price if for nothing else then better communication of your brand name to individuals.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers

 

[enlytend]

Just thought some developers may have noticed something different in reality than the pretty words about fairness that Google always has to say.

I was speaking from personal experience. I have several sites in the same vertical - similar in many respects but not duplicates - on a variety of extensions - .com, .net, .org, .us and for a while had one on a .biz. The com/net/org's always fared better than the .us/.biz in Google, and the CTR did lag behind in the "unfamiliar" extensions. For a while my com/net/org's were top 5 for some competitive terms. The strongest .us started out well then struggled to stay on page 2 for anything useful, one page on the .biz hit #10 for a commercial-intent query and the rest of it was nowhere to be found.
The CTR is a theory because I wasn't measuring for the brief time the .us sites had pages on P1, but it makes sense, especially for the sites which started there and dropped off while the others stayed (this was pre Panda)

 

[brandnow]

I was speaking from personal experience. I have several sites in the same vertical - similar in many respects but not duplicates - on a variety of extensions - .com, .net, .org, .us and for a while had one on a .biz. The com/net/org's always fared better than the .us/.biz in Google, and the CTR did lag behind in the "unfamiliar" extensions. For a while my com/net/org's were top 5 for some competitive terms. The strongest .us started out well then struggled to stay on page 2 for anything useful, one page on the .biz hit #10 for a commercial-intent query and the rest of it was nowhere to be found.
The CTR is a theory because I wasn't measuring for the brief time the .us sites had pages on P1, but it makes sense, especially for the sites which started there and dropped off while the others stayed (this was pre Panda)

Anyone else have experiences like this with .us not performing as well in SERPS compared to .com? It seems like some people are saying that Google treats them exactly the same. Whereas, there's an experience outlined here that shows Google treats them differently.

I'm really trying to decide whether it makes sense to develop an enterprise level site on a .us. Because as many have seen from my other thread.. I have already sold the .com variant. Perhaps that was a stupid decision to sell the .com variant.

 

[enlytend]

I'm not saying It's google treating them differently - people tend to treat them differently, and user behavior in turn influences rankings.