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PRODUCT MANAGER at Phaidon Press Ltd
05 July 2011 11:55am
Hi
I am looking into the pro's and cons of having different domain endings for a website, specifically a SWOT analysis on .info vs .com?
Do any members/experts on here have any thoughts on this? or links to useful information i can source that illustrate the pro's and con's of each.
Obviously I am thinking from a business perpsective of online channel representing key growth over the next 5 years and also things like SEO impact as well as branding perceptions?
Sorry this is purposefully vague post but hoping there are some strong opinions out there about to dot com or not to dot com?
Web technology professional at Bitcala.com
05 July 2011 14:21pm
Hi Robert,
As far as SEO impact goes, nobody knows how Google's ranking works (except Google) but for a while people thought that established domains were better.
Matt Cutts (A Google search guy / spokesperson) dispelled this recently:
"There is little weight given to domain age, especially after a site is 2 or 3 months old."
So - what matters most is the quality, relevance of your content and the inbound links to your pages from reputable sites.
The domain name isn't really that important.
From a branding perception point of view - I think the situation is different. I think .com is still THE one to get. But maybe that's just me - not sure of wider perceptions.
That said, if the site is predominantly an information site, then .info makes sense.
For everything else, and web services especially, I'd stick to the .com.
Finally, if you're worried that .com domains are running out - they're not:
http://blog.nametoolkit.com/domain-names-taken
Best wishes,
Will.
Managing Director at indiumonline
06 July 2011 13:35pm
Hi Robert,
I have to say I'm with Will on this one - it's mainly about the branding. You need something that people can easily remember, and keeping a fairly standard .XXX will help with that.
Why no mention of .co.uk?
Chloe
PRODUCT MANAGER at Phaidon Press Ltd
06 July 2011 13:41pm
Chloe and Will.
Thanks for your replies. I tend to agree with both of you on this one so good to see instinct being echoed.
CEO at Econsultancy
07 July 2011 20:42pm
Hi Robert
I'd read "Domains becoming less important: Ev Williams" on our site (see http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7699-domains-becoming-less-important-ev-williams) which I agree with and also a few other articles we have: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/search?query=domain+names
However, in brief, I'd always go with .com if you can get it as it's the best known and not country-specific so will work just as well for SEO in the UK as, say, .co.uk, would. We've always used econsultancy.com though we also own .co.uk
If your business in country specific and, in particular, in a local language, then I think a country TLD makes sense e.g. a site in French, for the French marketing, should be .fr
But not sure of the point of .info really? The only con of .com (and pro for .info) is that it's harder to find decent .coms (and therefore more expensive).
PRODUCT MANAGER at Phaidon Press Ltd
08 July 2011 08:26am
Thanks Ashley! Wise words as always.