.net or .co ?
-
The .com owner of the desired domain refuses to sell the domain (even though it is essentially a parked site and has been for the past 5+ years). Currently, our site resides on .net. I hear that many associate .net domains with dated and too techy. What is better? A .net or a .co?
-
I totally get where you're coming from. The squatter situation is extremely frustrating to be sure and isn't getting better any time soon. If you can't make a trademark claim, it will be extremely difficult to get someone to sell who has no interest in selling.
With regards to settling, I hear what you're saying. I just personally feel that the .net is too big of an issue to overcome. Whether we like it or not, people have been trained to throw a .com after everything. If they see a mention of your brand, they'll likely assume the website will be located at [yourbrandname].com. If you are using a domain with a .net and someone else has the .com, expect to see quite a bit of your traffic go to the .com.
Think about all the names of companies and brands that are complete nonsense words (or extremely obscure words). Grabbing a URL that is keyword focused will potentially help you with SEO, but it is often extremely difficult to build a long term brand around. Also, keep in mind that keyword rich URLs may help in the short term for SEO purposes, but they can be extremely limiting if the company wants to expand beyond the keywords. Even Moz had to go through this, changing from SEOMoz.org to Moz.com (as the old name limited the brand to being solely focused on SEO).
Hope this helps!
Mike
-
Thank you for your input, Michael. In your opinion, when will it not be "settling?" With the continuously growing number of sites in addition to the number of squatters, don't you think we will, as users, eventually have to accept non-.com TLDs? As a user I'd rather go to bestthing.net than thisisthenextbestthing.com (extreme example, but hopefully you see what I'm saying).
-
I'd go .net personally. Been around longer, more trusted and you won't be sending as much confused/fatfinger traffic to the guy who has the .com as you would if you went with .co (for obvious reasons).
That said, your best option is to come up with a new name for a domain that is either currently available or is available for sale at a reasonable price. There's no reason to settle for a .net or .co (and you are settling) when there are plenty of viable .com options. There are countless examples of companies being highly successful with completely made up names. It isn't about the name. It's about what you put behind the name from a branding perspective.
-
I like your style Ryan! Excellent add-vice
-
You could focus group the two and see which people prefer. Or you could buy several and test their performance via Adwords split testing before taking the plunge of transferring or creating the new site. Really this boils down to not what has possibly worked for others, but what works best for you.
-
Hey TLR711!!
Oh man that's unfortunate that he is just sitting on it like that. But what can you do?
I would go with the .net as it is a TLD.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Migrating educational resources for a SaaS product to an existing domain?
Odd situation I'm hoping some folks may have insight on. We have a product site and an educational site (two entirely separate domains). The educational site has: Existed for longer (24 years vs 13). Currently ranks for far more keywords and drives more traffic. Is an entirely separate brand from the product. Has historically driven sales to the product site (through email and onsite ads) but that channel has diminished over time. The product site Also has educational resources Is a more recognizable brand When prioritized resources here often drive far more revenue The Challenge
Branding | | pasware
Both sites cover very similar topics, making prioritization challenging and splits our topical focus. We are considering making the educational site our sole place for resources, migrating content from the product site, and rebranding the site to line up more closely with the product. Basically retain the domain, make it our sole focus for updates and new content, but align it with the strength of our more recognizable product. The Questions Does anyone have any experience with this type of rebrand where a separate domain is retained? Are we risking the loss of branded search queries in the process or some other risk? While potentially risking ranking/traffic loss would it make more sense to migrate all valuable content to the product site instead? Sorry for the long-winded questions here and appreciate any thoughts/ideas!0 -
Should our rebranded company update our existing Instagram profile or delete it and start from scratch?
Our company just did a complete rebrand with a new name and logo. Instagram allows us to change our name, username, logo, and information, unlike Facebook, but there isn't a lot of online content about whether or not that's the best route. Any thoughts?
Branding | | RyanHeffernon0 -
Does a site with only one blog post a month rank alright?
I manage multiple websites and want to start new ones but want to know if one blog post a month is acceptable for SEO since I'm worried about rank.
Branding | | hssm20191 -
Instagram for small manufacturing business?
Hi all, We're a small business based in the UK that manufactures a range of PVC strip curtains and rubber site safety products. We have a presence on twitter, facebook, LinkedIn & google+... I've been considering Instagram for a little while now as I know we would have plenty to post (strip curtains are seen in multiple industries, it'd be great to post unusual applications that we've supplied to...) but I'm wondering what experience anyone has had with Instagram in an industrial manufacturing business... Is the audience there or would it be a waste of time for us? I've briefly looked through # but I'd like to know first-hand experiences!
Branding | | RayflexGroup1 -
B2B Blogger Outreach
Hi I'm working on an SEO campaign in relation to vacuum cleaners. I'm working on some outreach and as we focus on B2B I'm finding it difficult to find blogs which are B2B focused. We would ideally want customers who are buying a number of vacuums for their business - but it could be any industry. Instead of B2B blogs, I have gone with the angle of cleaning/organising blogs, with lots of followers on social. However, does anyone know of any good B2B blogs they could recommend? I'm looking for something written by facilities/buildings managers - if blogs like this exist 🙂 Thank you
Branding | | BeckyKey0 -
Rate My Logo!
Hey guys, Can't for the life of me decide which color pallet to use for this logo, so please let me know your thoughts! The logo is for a website that specialises in Instagram social media marketing - So without further ado... Green, Blue or Blue with Red Heart? Thoughts, feedback and anything else you want to add! DBFnY
Branding | | camille10 -
Tips and advice for startup website launch
Hi guys I'm looking for tips and advice to help prevent a startup website launch from embarrassment or disaster. Couple of examples I have so far are: Test contact and download forms Check website for duplicate content, lorem ipsum and missing content Check page load speed What would be your best advice/tip(s) be? Thanks Anthony @Anthony_Mac85 P.S. Just to be clear, I'm not looking for advice on how to growth hack a startup website launch.
Branding | | Tone_Agency0 -
Do .CO domains rank up just as easy as a .com domain?
I have ran across a very good .CO domain and am thinking about making it into one of our main websites. I have no experience with them. I have used/bought just about every other domain type out there, but I have never used a .CO yet. The domain I was able to purchase was seobusiness.co for $5.00 - regardless if I am able to use it for our main brand if they don't rank up the same, I will use it for something else. The site isn't up yet btw, so no need visiting it... The keyword gets 1600 exact hits a month give or take a few of course - thats just the Google tool estimate. Matt Cutts says that they can rank up the same, but I am looking for more than this. Does anyone have some proof that .co's can rank up? I hate to put 2-3 months of solid work into this to rank it up for SEO business and it doesn't want to rank due to the .co. Thanks in advance for your time.
Branding | | MarketingOfAmerica0