.com or .me for freelance business?
-
Hey there,
Which domain do you think is better and why?
(1) surnamename.com or (2) surname.me?
Since Google treats both the same in terms of the rankings, my biggest concern is about the branding. (1) is longer but is .com (people usually see .com as more trusted one). (2) is shorter, easier to remember, but less tech savvy people might be confused with .me.
Purpose of the site is personal/freelance profile. Other domain versions are already taken.
Shoot the ideas! Cheers, Martin
-
I would really try to get a ".com" even if you have to slightly alter your URL to not just be your brand name. Alot of people will add their city or a service that they are associate with or provide after their brand name ("www.abcwebsitedesign" or "adcnewyork" as examples).
-
I would argue that .me is easier to remember since, .com is basically an embedded second nature to add after a brand name in terms of direct or navigational traffic. However, since you're interested in .me you should consider creating the .com and forward the .me domain back to it in-case you would like to use it on business cards or other material.
I personally think .com is the way to go and it is almost instinctive to type that in as searcher or user.
-
Hi Martin,
I believe I would. What about name-surname.com?
If the namesurname.com is taken, there is a risk that your own namesurname.me will be often confused as .com and you will just send traffic to the .com domain owner.
Obviously, I don't know your intentions but perhaps make the 'surnamename' order your signature/brand - sign your articles in this order, if you have videos, introduce yourself in this order, make your social media named after it. This say it might be a bit unusual, but perfectly memorable and maybe seen a bit 'cool/different'.
Are you considering surname.com?
Thanks
Katarina
-
Hi Katarina,
Thanks for your response.
The thing is that the version _**"**name surname . com" _is already taken. Otherwise, I would definitely go for this option.
That is why I am not 100 % sure about the _"surname name . com"_version.
Would you go for it anyway istead of **"surname . me" **?
Thanks, Martin
-
Hi Martin,
Why do you think .me is easier to remember? I agree, people might remember the surname (instead of name & surname), but at the same time they might assume it's .com. And if this goes to 'page not found', will they figure out it's .me?
I think you cannot beat .com - it has a psychological effect and people expect professional websites to be .com. Is there an option for you to have the format namesurname.com? Or is the domain taken? That's what works well in general.
.com is a global standard for business online and many businesses fight for and pay thousands for .com's. I hope this helps with your decision a bit.
Thanks.
Katarina
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Changing domain name, witch is better - brand name.com vs keyword + brand name.com?
Hi, I just made one decision and now I'm bit worried, if I did right one. I hope that you can give me feedback and advice regarding it. I'm in hookah market, so I do not have any possibilities to buy adds, so SEO is really-really important to us. I know a lot of things what has to be done to perform better, but currently I have just few really important questions. In international market the main keyword is "hookah" and everything related to that. We are small company and our brand is not that well known and do not have high volume traffic on website. Hookah in front of that we tough will give better understanding to audience about what is the page. Which domain name is better for SEO and also branding purposes? Currently we were using the first one without keyword, no we switched to the second one (just about week ago). https://hekkpipe.com https://hookahhekkpipe.com Regarding it, some really important questions: Would the longer version of domain helps us better rank with important keywords to us or not? When we will write good content, which domain is more likely shared? I'm bit afraid that first one and that we made a mistake changing the domain name. When the 1st one, then how big difference does it potentially make? Thank you
Branding | | Karel_K0 -
The brand drop down doesn't seem to be appearing for any brands in google.com.hk. Is it something which needs to be set up and registered, or automatically rolled out by Google?
In google.com.hk SERPs the brand drop down doesn't seem to be appearing for any brands. Is it something which needs to be set up and registered, or automatically rolled out by Google? And if so is Google just slow rolling out in this part of the world? Thanks
Branding | | seanfhutchinson0 -
I want to forward/redirect users from domain.us to domain.com.us (preferred domain)
Let me know where should I start. I heard this is something you can do in your domain name or hosting service. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | esiow20130 -
Business Rich Snippet
This is probably a trivial question for most here, but I wanted to try a rich snippet with our logo. I put in the code at www.waikoloavacationrentals.com/kolea-rentals I would appreciate it if anyone could give me feedback as to if it was done correctly. I would think this is pretty common, but have not seen many articles out there about a business logo. Most of what I have seen is to display a person or a product. Thanks,
Branding | | RobDalton0 -
Moving Blog from www.topic.domain.com to www.domain.com/blog
Hi Fellow Mozzers, Just started off here on seomoz.org and am super happy to have joined the community! I've recently started a new job as web optimization manager for an education company. There is a lot to do and one of my first tasks is to figure a better strategy for our current blog. I've convinced our management to move our blog from topic.domain.com to domain.com/blog. My research has shown that this is a better strategy so that our blog can receive the DA of our root domain, get more people to click through our site, and even receive more natural searches (PLEASE, someone correct me if I'm wrong on this). Anyway, our blog is currently hosted as a Wordpress blog and we're wondering if it's more worthwhile to build a blog platform ourselves or continue using Wordpress. I am not a technical guy and don't know the backend stuff to make it happen, but my concern is primarily for the optimum search capacity. Also, our bloggers frequently put links to different portions of our website - does this hold any negative SEO value in terms of too much internal linking? I personally wouldn't assume so, but then again I could be wrong. Finally, we also track our main website using Google Analytics- currently, the only tracking we have installed on our blogs is the default provided by Wordpress (yes yes I know, but that's why i'm here -- to fix these weaknesses). I'm assuming we will be able to better track using GA when the switch is made. So, I guess my questions are: (1) Is my research correct in that it's better to have our blog hosted as domain.com/blog over topic.domain.com (2) Are there any best practices in making this switch and/or any negative implications with continuing to use Wordpress or should we build our own platform (we have the internal resources to do so, but would prefer to take the easiest and best route in terms of SEO and community building). (3) Will it still be just as easy to track using GA. Thank you!! Pedram
Branding | | CSawatzky0 -
Entireweb.com
http://www.entireweb.com/express_inclusion/ Anybody used this? There is a express inclusion that you pay for, vs the free. Wanted to see what the group thinks. Worth it, not? It is not included in the SEOMoz list of directories.
Branding | | CleverPhD0 -
Yahoo Directory, BOTW, BBB and Business.com for local SEO?
I've heard conflicting reports about using these paid directories for SEO purposes. I am a local Realtor with a website and blog. My site is on page one but near the bottom since the national sites dominate the top. Would these directories help me for local seo purposes? Does Google consider these paid links and therefore devalues them? How difficult is it to get into these directories since they can decline a submission and there goes my money? Are these directories worth the money? In total it would be like $1200 do get on all. I've already done what I believe to be a lot of good seo practices. Emphasis on I believe since I'm no expert. Just learning as I go. Now I'm up against the big brands in real estate and meet to compete. Any tips if these directories are worth it and anything else I should look to do?
Branding | | bronxpad0 -
Use blog.domain.com or socialbrand.com?
I've got a little bit of a dilemma. A company I'm working for has an ecommerce site that is moving to Volusion. It is impossible to add "domain.com/blog" so I am forced to use a subdomain in order to keep consistency. We are starting a push in Social media and have secured shorter handles for the brand to use on the different networks. One of the main goals originally for developing a blog is to build trust but since the domain names are so big (26 characters) and the ecommerce sites already have a good amount of trust building factors in them I am beginning to question my original plan. My question is this: If I go with a shorter brand recognized domain name to develop the blog on which is different than the ecommerce domain (keyword matched) will I loose too much trust and ranking opportunity because of the difference in domains. I know there isn't a golden bullet for this question but i would love to get you your take on it.
Branding | | BenRWoodard0