Domain extensions

[SEORealTime]

Does anyone have a feel for the value of the new domain name extensions such as .travel, .tv, .biz, etc. compared to the old .com extension in search engine rankings? Your viewpoint would be greatly appreciated.

[Jazajay]

The only extentions that have any known boost are country specific domains .co.uk,.es,.fr,.de etc.... .edu .sch some people argue they do. I'm not 100% convienced TBH. I'm not saying they dont have a boost I'm just not sure they do due to what the sites that have those extentions stand for. But thats a whole other debate.

Extentions that are .com, .biz, .tv aren't going to hold much weight from a Search Engine prospective. From a users click through prospective though, now that's different.

Jaza

[SEORealTime]

Thanks, Jaza. I haven't seen any studies about consumer confidence or comparative clickthrough success in domain name extensions. What have you heard?

[Jazajay]

TBH nothing.
Ha Personal Opinion, sorry should have clarified.

But If I personally was scanning the results and I was actively looking at the URL, granted I don't rarely, I would probably click through to a .tv extention more than I would a .com, .biz or a .info.

To me that says it's more secure and trust worthy than a .biz or a .info.

Which, TBH, is stupid as I know about domains and I know that it is by no means any safer to shop with. Little things hay.

I would also type .com in the address bar more than .net,.biz etc... though, that I do know is what a lot of people tend to do, if I wanted a genral topic though so something to consider anyway.

If I do hear of any tests I'll send you a PM.

Jaza

[Jazajay]

Hi SeoRealTime.
I don't know if you have read it but due to my not so great answer above I decided to have a look what I could find in my normal resourses.

This is the best I have found.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990321.html
It's slightly dated but does have a section about domain extentions, mainly .com and country specific, half way down the page with links to 2 studies done on search engines SERP's and eye gaze statisitics.

Worth a read, short but sweet.

Jaza

[Marcia]

The only extentions that have any known boost are country specific domains .co.uk,.es,.fr,.de etc.... .edu .sch some people argue they do. I'm not 100% convienced TBH. I'm not saying they dont have a boost I'm just not sure they do due to what the sites that have those extentions stand for.I'm convinced, 100% convinced. A prime consideration is that all the search engines know what the TLD stands for, and if you want to reach a country-specific market, you either need to have the country-specific TLD (Top Level Domain) or be physically hosted in that country. That has a huge influence on how sites will rank for the engine in that country, whether it's the country-specific or the "world" results.

Does anyone have a feel for the value of the new domain name extensions such as .travel, .tv, .biz, etc. compared to the old .com extension in search engine rankings?Comparatively, I'd always, always, always choose the .com if it's available. Even in the case where a country-specific TLD is being used, if the .com is available it's definitely worth taking and using a 301 redirect to the country-specific TLD, in order to catch the type-in traffic. If you don't, then some domainer will, and will just grab the type-ins for revenue on parked pages.

[Jazajay]

I think I worded that wrong.
I was talking about the .edu, .sch etc.. as not being 100% convinced on due to what those domains stand for -
good techquies,
authority,
link magnets from site owners who also choose good anchor text,
varaitions in anchor text,
trust in the site,
domain age,
not buying links,
not selling links,
acessably,
very little use of JavaScript or flash,
well written text,
unquie text not scraped,
etc... etc...

I just think there are just 2 many variables to say that the extention alone plays a role.

The country specific domains I'm not arguing over, they do play a role.

I would also always choose .com but If .tv was applicable for me I would redirect .com to .tv though. But I would still have both as I implied.

Jaz