Forum Moderators: phranque
Jim
I use both and have not noticed any difference in the way SEs handle listing/ranking.
As a side note: 5 years ago, using .net allowed me to get our site into several important directories free. It doesn't have quite the commercial look as a .com.
Sid
Anyone else have any experience with this? Thank you to those who have responded thus far!
Jim
But there are other factors about the difference which could, indirectly, affect your SE ranking.
One of them (already mentioned) is that certain directories might more readily provide free listings to someone with a "net" address, on the theory that it's non-commercial. (I suspect this is much less the case nowadays.)
On the other side-- and always worth considering -- people tend to assume ".com", unless there's something specific about the domain name that makes "net" seem memorable or 'natural'. If someone is trying to remember the name, or fiddling around to find you, they are more likely to just type in "#####.com" (and perhaps end up at a competitor's site!). There's also a slight possibility someone mis-remembering would publish the name incorrectly, misleading others. So the choice could perhaps affect your traffic.
Now, this won't, of itself, affect your SE ranking. . . unless, perhaps one of these folks who doesn't find you by typing in "com" would have added you to their own links or directory, and that in turn reduces your "link popularity" --something the search engines do consider.
All other things being equal, I'd recommend using "com" if possible (and, at the least, register the "com" version to protect it), unless it is obvious that the "net" name will be more memorable.
i'm going to be using my company's name to open a small business. I used to own the .com, it expired and someone else took it
That opens up the (non-SE) danger I mentioned above --that people will end up going to that site instead. If it's a competitor, that's not so good for you. Even if it's not, the searcher might become confused and give up without finding you.
Is there any flexibility in the main part of the domain name--some reasonable variation on the company name that would be distinctive/memorable to help folks to find you instead of the other site? (Examples: sensible abbreviations or expansions of names in the company title, adding a word descriptive of what your online business markets, or that marks it somehow as an "online" version.)
If you can find such an alternative, give it serious consideration, all the more so if the new holder of you old "com" name is a competitor.
(Incidentally, one sort of variation on the name that I do not recommend is adding dashes between words. People don't usually remember those, and again will end up at the other site. Keep it simple!)
so here's another question...
if i had a choice between example.net vs
exampleco.com or examplenyc.com think there would be a difference?
thanks again...
Jim
[edited by: engine at 4:52 pm (utc) on Feb. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] no specifics, see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
Any comments? thanks a lot
Carlos.
[edited by: engine at 4:53 pm (utc) on Feb. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] no specifics see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
[edited by: engine at 4:54 pm (utc) on Feb. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] no specifics, see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
