.us domain and Google...

[jady]

For the first time we are taking on a new Client for re-branding, development and marketing of a .US domain. Our client is open to a new domain if neccessary for fair rankings based on todays unstable SEO techniques. However my question is - would we have a better chance marketing a .com or .net domain rather than a .us domain?

If anyone has experience in working with these domains with Google any advise would be welcomed.

Thanks! :)

[ciml]

In terms of Google's ranking process, it should make no difference.

On the other hand, if people are more likely to link to one URL than another then you might get an advantage in Google from the PageRank and anchor text of those links.

[DaveN]

I disagree slightly with ciml on this, I think that google does give weight to different tld's, I have a handful of .to which will not rank for love nor money.

stick with the big ones com, co.uk, net, org, and edu if you can get one ;)

DaveN

[buckworks]

I think if you plan to only promote the site online, any TLD has a chance to rank well and gain traffic if you do enough things right.

But ... if you plan to promote offline, things get trickier, because the North American public has dot-com so firmly engrained in their consciousness that people would often type in the dot-com version even if they had your domain name right in front of them. (I've caught myself doing that even though I know better.)

I don't have an answer for that, unless it would be to make a deal with the dot-com site to link to your company: "Looking for widgets.us? Click here."

[rfgdxm1]

Since you are talking about a business site here, I would suggest that you be *very* hesitant to use a .us. As buckworks commented, the people have .com ingrained in their mind. I'd suggest avoiding a .us unless somehow you managed to snag a juicy .us single word keyword domain (widgets.us if you sell just widgets.)

[BlueSky]

A .us ranks just as well as a .com in the search engines. I think a .com is much easier for people to remember. However, if you pick a domain containing three or more key words, dashes, or underscores, it won't be easy to remember regardless of whether it ends with .com or not.

Not everyone is a net novice. Many have been online for at least a couple years now. Unless a person is very narrowly focused while online or a rookie, he is regularly exposed to other TLD's -- .net for his own ISP, .mil/.gov/.us for government, .org's for non-profits, .edu's for educational facilities, etc. Most still prefer to use .com, but the simple fact is many good domains have been taken so you have to be creative in developing your own brandname. I think practically every word in the dictionary is taken under .com so many companies make up names that sound nice but have no meaning.

[glengara]

If a Google.US is somewhere down the line, with a "pages from the US" category, it would certainly help popularise the TLD.

[percentages]

.us is as good as any other TLD in Google's eyes. I still like .com for accuracy of linking.....but their is nothing wrong with a .US domain name.

[jady]

Thanks all for the replies! Our client was lucky enough to get a 3 letter .US domain with his companys initials - it is very catchy and easy to remember. I was just wondering if it was harder to get good placement, for example on 2 indentical sites which would rank better - .com or .us?

Now just need to decide if we should advise to go to a .com name - maybe with keywords? But I dearly hate keyword spammed domains and dont see much help in them as long as the anchor text on inbound links has the keywords..

Which example would do better:

#1. Blue Widgets, Inc - gets a domain bwi.us - but makes sure all anchor text was "BLUE WIDGETS"

or

#2 Blue Widgets, Inc - gets a domain bluewidgets.com and still makes anchor text as "BLUE WIDGETS"

Advise? :)

[rfgdxm1]

>Thanks all for the replies! Our client was lucky enough to get a 3 letter .US domain with his companys initials - it is very catchy and easy to remember. I was just wondering if it was harder to get good placement, for example on 2 indentical sites which would rank better - .com or .us?

I'd advise against this unless this business does almost all sales in the US AND those 3 letters are already a well known brand, or the company is shooting for that.

>Now just need to decide if we should advise to go to a .com name - maybe with keywords? But I dearly hate keyword spammed domains and dont see much help in them as long as the anchor text on inbound links has the keywords..

Keyword domain names are much better for search engines. Branding often isn't a good strategy on the Internet. However, if it involves more than one hyphen, this may be pushing it. Also, a keyword domain name is a Bad Idea if the company some day may want to expand what they sell. blue-widgets.com is the perfect domain name for a company selling just blue widgets. However, if they in five years may be selling green doodads, purple whatsis, etc. the name then doesn't fit the company.

[berli]

I have to say, as a consumer I am somewhat suspicious of kw1-kw2-kw3 domains and tend to put a little more trust in a brand name. Yes, it's silly, but a company is saying something when they choose to bank on their name, rather than "fuzzy blue widgets."

Just my 2c US.