The Big Top-Level-Domain Debate: Are .com's Better for SEO Purposes?

Jan 14, 2008 - 7:38 am 0 by

A very ordinary question was promoted to the WebmasterWorld home page, making for a great discussion on TLD, top level domains. The question is, does Google prefer a .com over a .biz, or a .org over a .edu, or .de over a .co.il and so on?

The thread first points to examples of all TLDs ranking well. For example, a search on the keyword germany has the top ten listings in Google as ,org, .de, .de, .info, .gov, .com, .org, .com, .com, and .com. Plus there are many more examples, both "long tail" and very generic examples.

The issue comes where some TLDs are abused by spammers cause they are much cheaper to buy or when you are buying a name on a lesser known TLD when someone own's the main TLD. I personally tend to trust .info domains a lot less because I have seen comment spam after comment spam and most are from .info. Also, most people tend to type .com when looking for something, so having a non-.com version can hurt you there.

We have been through this discussion in the past. I do however recommend checking out the WebmasterWorld thread.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 4, 2025

Jul 4, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June 2025 Core Update, Search Volatility, Insights Report, Ads & More

Jul 4, 2025 - 8:01 am
Bing Search

Bing Search Tests Zoomable & Sticky Related Searches

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google AI Mode Can Respond In Non-English Languages

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Local Place Listings In Green

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Gains Automatic Shipping Updates

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Microsoft Live Search Continues Referral Spam Tests With MSLIVSOP?