Domain Extension & SEO Impacts

[venkatweetz]

I'm planning to register a domain extension for educational start up. But our brand name is not available with popular extension such as (.com, .org).
And most of the startups are using .co & .io extension for their business.

As per my understanding .CO stands for Colombia & .IO stands for British Indian Ocean Territory. If i register my website with any one of this & targeting people who living in Australia, Can i rank the website for local keywords?

Please advice.

 

[radwebhosting]

If you register a new domain name, Google will not penalize you based on the extension. You can register country-code domain names even if you are not from that region (granted there are no territorial restrictions for registering - like .uk and others).

.IO is immensely popular with users world-wide and .CO is often used outside of Colombia, as well. Pick a great domain of your choice, and then focus on creating an equally impressive website. Doing this will have a positive impact on your SEO.

Happy registering!

 

[Rob Whisonant]

One thing to keep in mind. Many people use the search engines like Google and Bing as their navigation. They type in the domain name without the extension to find it. The search engines seem to almost always show the .com domain first.

Also if you are expecting type-in traffic, always go with a .com. The browsers default to the .com when typing in the domain name without an extension.

In my "personal opinion" always use a .com for SEO and the other extensions for sites that are not going to be used for SEO or type-in traffic if you really want. I use .net domains for domains that help me run my business that I actually don't want visitors to. For example, sites that run click tracker scripts, email autoresponders etc.

 

[daikaads]

I'm planning to register a domain extension for educational start up. But our brand name is not available with popular extension such as (.com, .org).
And most of the startups are using .co & .io extension for their business.

As per my understanding .CO stands for Colombia & .IO stands for British Indian Ocean Territory. If i register my website with any one of this & targeting people who living in Australia, Can i rank the website for local keywords?

Please advice.

Check for (.net) and (.com.au) before going for .CO and .IO . If your target audience is from Australia then go for country domain for better identity in Search Engines. By the way, .CO and .IO doesn't matters but your SEO stuff.