the importance of domain extensions

TELAVIV1

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hi
i wanna buy a domain but .com is already taken.

how do i know which ones to take? what the importance?

org, co, net are available...

thanks :)
 
.com otherwise .net or .org

net - people say ,net means on the internet (not actually)

org - more like an organization
 
the TLDs (the big ones anyway) don't affect the rankings if that's what you wanna know. They might impact how some people perceive your business if you choose wacky / less popular TLDs, though...

If the .com is taken but there's no site live on it you can use the .net TLD... or the .org one if you're a (usually non-profit) organization. Otherwise, you can choose .io, .co, or any other similar extension. I've seen plenty of these TLDs ranking

And if the .com already has a business set up on it... well, that could be a problem because you'd both have different businesses with the same domain name (but different TLD), or worse, similar / identical businesses with different TLDs and you might infringe on the trademarking / copyrighting rights of the .com site if they happen to have trademarked their domain name.
 
@tazarbm brings up a good point. If this is a direct match for a business name, you might raise some legal issues especially if you are in the same country and the competitor decides to strike legally as you outcompete them in search. Along the same lines, consider whether too much similarity with a competitor might hurt you or both for duplicate content.

Is it really necessary to capture the exact name? Google doesn't consider domain name anymore (if it ever did). Is there a similar .com name you could take instead? If the domain name is really important to branding, .net is probably next in line in credibility with .org or .co next. That said, I see a lot of new companies in marketing and tech adopting the .io and .ai extensions and don't seem to suffer for it.
 
you can easily get away with .co or .io in today's blogging world, these domains have a lot of traction as well as the established .net and .org mentioned. remember you can try .com with dash too. I have a couple of nice domains like that.
 
.com otherwise .net or .org

net - people say ,net means on the internet (not actually)

org - more like an organization

the TLDs (the big ones anyway) don't affect the rankings if that's what you wanna know. They might impact how some people perceive your business if you choose wacky / less popular TLDs, though...

If the .com is taken but there's no site live on it you can use the .net TLD... or the .org one if you're a (usually non-profit) organization. Otherwise, you can choose .io, .co, or any other similar extension. I've seen plenty of these TLDs ranking

And if the .com already has a business set up on it... well, that could be a problem because you'd both have different businesses with the same domain name (but different TLD), or worse, similar / identical businesses with different TLDs and you might infringe on the trademarking / copyrighting rights of the .com site if they happen to have trademarked their domain name.

@tazarbm brings up a good point. If this is a direct match for a business name, you might raise some legal issues especially if you are in the same country and the competitor decides to strike legally as you outcompete them in search. Along the same lines, consider whether too much similarity with a competitor might hurt you or both for duplicate content.

Is it really necessary to capture the exact name? Google doesn't consider domain name anymore (if it ever did). Is there a similar .com name you could take instead? If the domain name is really important to branding, .net is probably next in line in credibility with .org or .co next. That said, I see a lot of new companies in marketing and tech adopting the .io and .ai extensions and don't seem to suffer for it.

you can easily get away with .co or .io in today's blogging world, these domains have a lot of traction as well as the established .net and .org mentioned. remember you can try .com with dash too. I have a couple of nice domains like that.


Thank you everyone for your amazing in-depth answers! this forum is full of brilliant minds and i truly appreciate you :)

It's not a brand, it's just a general niche name, so i don't think i will have problems with trademarking :)

I will go ahead and buy some of the LTDs you mentioned... I love .co, it's super short and not expensive

and again, thank you so much!
 
domain extensions aren’t ranking factors, but unfortunately people don’t trust new domain extensions, especially .xyz, so it affects CTR. That’s why I started using .com only.
 
so when all big sites or sites with good brand and good strong seo ranking using com domain, maybe some using biz or org, why you should go with ;
me, live,online,tech, show whatsoever?

When your personal name or brand name domain is taken, use a variatioon of it like;

name: John, john .com is taken
variation: thejohn, thisjohn, johns, mejohn, johnup, johngrow..... I hope you get the idea.

or Johnsmith; bejohnsmith, thejohnsmith, johnsmithup.....john-smith, thisjohnsmith, tjsm, jsm, .......or john99 (I do not know if this is a good idea to add a number to a domain name)

Brand name thewire.com is taken:
variation: mywire, topwire, upwire, wiredaily, etc,etc.....

A question to the BHW experts here, we are blackhatters ok, is there a legal way to buy a young takken domain 1-2 years old, without have any activities (no website, traffic, backlinks....) to buy this domain fopr $20 instead of paying $400 or more? A young domain without any market value can not cost $400 or more, more specific: firstname.com domains.

Happy weekend
 
A young domain without any market value can not cost $400 or more, more specific: firstname.com domains.
You mean like a one dictionary word dot com? John dot com? Sylvia dot com? I hope not, as you need to do more homework on domain values. Even 2 word dot com's sell for way more than that depending on the domain.
 
Just be sure to not buy a cheap spammy domain like... xyz. You can go for .io, .net, .org, .co if .com is already taken.
 
Domain .tlds are pretty important for building a brand (for ex. impacting customer trust).

If you can, you should be looking to get the .com, .net, and .org (in that order).

And unless you have the .com, if only 1/3 of the .tlds are available, I would go with a reiteration of that brand name as the posts above suggested.
 
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yes when your name domain is taken with a com domain then use another extension like, me, live, online, etc,etc but not use the same name as the company with the com domain, use name variation, because the company with the com domain has a copyright on their name.

Enserio; my example was on a domain with your first name or a brand name.
the domain markus.tech as example is taken (my first name) this week I could find out owner and registrar on whois, today I check whois again and all information are masked - who was happen the last few days?
 
today I check whois again and all information are masked - who was happen the last few days?
Random probably. Did you check the whois several times? Which whois? Some domain investors whois sites log all inquiries, and sell access to others about whois lookups to show interest.
 
Ideally, come up with a different brand that you can get the .com for.

There are also marketplaces like BrandBucket and Odys, where you can get a great brand (with the added bonus of some domain age, and even some links with Odys), for $2000-$3000.

Consider it an investment in the long term success of the site. Otherwise, you'll probably need to pay to buy the .com later, like RemoteOK and Dynamite Jobs both had to do in recent years, with RemoteOK paying about $100,000 for the .com (was previously built on the .io)
 
Get you good seo ranking with co domains today? Is that colombia or does it means company ? (I think company...)
Yes there are more domains available as with com, com domains all over the world are taken.

Is it in the eyes of customers/subscribers serious when they get your newsletter emails coming form co domain instead of com ?
Me extensions prices now upraising 10-12x folds, as it began it was $0,99 now it's $12-14

Here a very interesting article about multi domain seo with co domains

How to Use Multiple Domain Names for SEO from seo.co.​

They write create short fantasy names who are memorable, no matter if they make sense, like blabbler or squazzy or something....... (as example)
Easy to memorize fantasy doimain names, short no matter what it is about...(describe your niche on your cms site title)

What do you think about this ?
 
Seo wise, almost any extension is fine. I would avoid a few TLDs with high badness ranking in Spamhaus (.cn, .top, .fyi).
 
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