Google rankings: .net vs .com sites

Are dotcom sites better for achieving rankings.

[stgeorge]

Good day all

I have done a search and couldn't find anything conslusive here at WebmasterWorld.

I would appreciate any comments from the community here.

My question is simply whether .com sites have a better chance of achieving search engine rakings that .net sites.

My question stems from owning some good .net domains, but I am not sure whether it is worth the effort to develop them. or whether I should use .com's instead.

Thanks again.

Red

[tedster]

Matt Cutts at Google (and other Googlers, too) has repeatedly confirmed that the domain name extension does not pay into the Google algorithm.

[Quadrille]

Suffixes do not affect the algorithm, but there are other issues here;

Quadrille's 15th law says "Always buy domain.com, if only to permanently redirect it to domain.somethingelse"

There are very few honest guarantees in this business (plenty of dishonest ones) - but losing out to the .com ranks up there with the best of them: it's a dead cert. Dot coms have many structural advanatges; in browsers, in search and in visitors minds. Few people looking for a dot com accidentally get the dot net - but many who wanted the .net will end up on the .com. In most cases, using the .com is also preferable, the main exceptions being non-US local sites, and some non-English sites.

[Davilac]

Or we can think... this is something would improve Google's rankings? You do exactly the same to buy them: same cost, data needed...