Need help choosing new domain name!

...for existing site

[Eljaybe]

I am sort of new at buying domain names. I already looked up available domain names on Verisign.com, but I have a few questions:

1. Should I keep the current domain name since the web site has used the same domain name for a few years now?
(We actually have 2 current domain names, one is the name of the company, the second is a keyword domain name. The keyword domain name is the one we have been using for submissions.)

2. If I want to add a new domain name, which would forward to the current web site, does that mean I have to resubmit the web site using the new domain name to all the search engines & directories? Will they consider this spamming?

3. Is it always better to choose a .com rather than .bz, .net, .info, etc.? Do .com sites generally rank higher on search engines? For example, if one guy has a site named red-widgets.com and the next guy buys
red-widgets.bz, who will rank higher?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for your help!

[Lisa]

1. I would keep what you have unless their is a pressing issue that makes you want to switch. A domain is only what you make of it.

2. Resubmitting entry pages/domains is very spammy.

3. .COM is what most people expect to hear. You will have lots of explaining to do through out the history of your site if you choose something other then .COM. ccTLDs are nice if you live in that country, people don't question those.

[Eljaybe]

Thanks for the help, Lisa.

Will the search engines just pick up on these new domain names without us submitting them?

What do you suggest I do with any additional domain names we buy? Create entirely new pages for the new domain names and just link those pages to our current site?

I have seen our competitors using multiple domain names for the same web site, but I don't know if they actually submitted these domain names to the search engines, or if the search engines just found them?