Put these together and you find a site that the search engines don't like as much. Its not because its on a .biz, its more a side effect.
I might be wrong, but thats my gut instinct.
[google.com...]
.org
.de
.de
.info
.gov
.com
.com
.org
.com
[google.com...]
.org
.info
.org
.gov
.com
.com
.org
.gov
.org
How would you expect .biz or .org TLD's to rank.
Would google use the server IP to locate the country and then rank on UK and US accordingly?
If so, would a .co.uk rank higher than a .org on google.co.uk if all other factors were the same?
Paul
Nowadays when i am guessing the name of a site, I invariable type in .co.uk, and assume the .com is the USA version
I am thinking a lot of folk do the same,
Mind you .coms remain popular, but for most searches i do, .co.uk domains dominate
i've got a few .biz and .infos, .orgs and its a bit hard to tell how geolocation works for or against them
1. experienced web masters will a prefer .com domains, so the majority of the 'better' sites are on .com sites
2. most people have a prejudice against .biz domains, so they are less likely to link to a .biz site.
Leadegroot hit the nail on the head in my opinion. Matt Cutts also has said something similar in regards .edu/.gov links not having any more weight than other TLD's, but they do collect a lot of PR since they usually have good content.
.Com's are preferred over .info and others
.co.UK and other regional sites are treated in the context of regional searches.
[edited by: Webwork at 10:38 pm (utc) on Jan. 12, 2008]
[edit reason] Preference for Matt's home team video host [/edit]
.Com's are preferred over .info and others
Didn't see anything in the video about .com being preferred over .info
generally, methinks for the UK, a .co.uk domain is essential,
Nowadays when i am guessing the name of a site, I invariable type in .co.uk, and assume the .com is the USA versionI am thinking a lot of folk do the same,
Mind you .coms remain popular, but for most searches i do, .co.uk domains dominate
The problem is that English is spoken in BOTH countries so if the widget is specific to the country, say hotels, then there is an issue.
But if German is spoken only in Germany and bddygdygdygtdydwgdwgdwgd.com is that word, then I doubt it matters much as "normal" people might not notice the .tld as much as we do.
For example, Etrade has the uk.etrade.com and so on for most countries. Frankly it conveys the same message as far as being local.
My guess is that people have been burned by clicking on .coms only to find info about Nebraska when they wanted UK info :) but on searches for a disease or supernovas it matters not IMO
My untested opinion is: its not that the search engines have a preference for .com domains, its more the compounding effect of...
The .com's are taken. The .net's are taken. The .org's are taken. What's left? .biz, .info, etc.
If you are launching a .biz and there are already .com's, .net's, .org's, you're up against existing competition. Also, if you got your .biz because the others were taken, there's a good chance you are in direct competition with one of the other TLDs. Not to mention potential litigation issues.
Personally, I've seen way too much abuse in those obscure TLDs and so have the search engines. It's only natural that they don't perform as well as their senior counterparts. ;)
I've never heard him state, nor would I expect to hear him state, that there is a gTLD bias lifting .Com websites in Google's search algos or filters.
for example : If there is a site a very popular abc-widgets.info site
As well as typing in abc-widgets.info in to the address bar. People will type in
widgets.info
widget.info
abc-widget.info
abcwidgets.info
abcwidget.info
rather than
abc-widgets.info.com
abc-widgets.com
rather than
widgets.org
or abc-widgets.org
The exact order depends on the word(s) making up the domain. jacket & jackets would be different from something that comes in pairs like trousers or has different widespread meaning like apple or apples etc.
In this example abc-widgets.com will overtime get some traffic courtesy of abc-widgets.info but it really is infinitesimal.
Sure it might make a parking page a few $'s income a year (ok for a domainer with hundreds of other domainns collecting $'s here $'s there) but in terms of traffic / lost customers for any developed / decent site the loss is negligible. It is far easier to loose customers in other ways through poor navigation / bad copy / wrong colours / too slow to load etc.
If your worried about loosing out to the .com all you need to do is brand on widgets.info rather than widgets. Even make the .info a different colour so it stands out.
I would guess if you looked at correlations alone, you would find a higher hit rate of low quality sites on .info, .biz, .us.com, highly hyphenated domains, etc.
Of course, that's just a guess - feel free to join any club you wish, but I'll stick with .com, .net and .org in that order. Pretty much any tld that offers $1 a domain specials is going to be filled with junk.
There, I've restated it too
From the linker's point of view, if they are writting about widgets, enough of them would rather link to widgets.com even if widgets.cc is probably better.
In the end it all ads up...
There are good people using .com there are naughty people using .com
There are good people using .biz there are naughty people using .biz
There are good people using .info there are naughty people using .info
TLD is not a good indicator of intent.
Some members here "feel" .info and .biz are used more often than not for spamming. So lets look at an actual example - Looking at sites linked to in spams over the last 24 hours for example by tld
The top 100 by volume
94 .com's
5 .cn's
1 .tw's
With regards sample size the top spammer had 1344 spams referencing the .com domain. Incidentally the .com's had a clean sweep of the top 24 most frequently used domains. So people who own .com are more likely to spam?
With regards to quality of a domain being better because it’s more expensive that doesn’t hold true either. There are plenty of very expensive .com generics traded for six figures that simply point to a page(s) of adverts.
Often the owners are not looking to build a PPC business, but rather to sell it to an existing business or simply flip it for a profit to another speculator.
There are many webmasters who would rather invest their money into building the perfect site than paying a “domainer” for the prefect brand.
And finally :)
Who in their right mind would think I’m not linking to that site because it’s in a different TLD? Anyone with a passion about their site links to the best resources for their viewers.
probably no today tho :)
I do not believe that google doesn't alter the position according to the TLD. It doesn't make a lot of impact, but the TLD still matters!
