There are so many search engine optimization factors everyone follows to make sure to get a good ranking of their site.
They are like keyword optimization, link building and many more.
When you want to create a website, we need to choose the domain name and an extension.
It is a time taking process as sometimes the domain name you needed may not be available or else the desired extension may not be there for your domain name.
Most people prefer .com as their domain extension. After that .net extension got second place.
First and foremost, think about choosing a domain extension that goes well with your domain name. There are more than 500 domain extensions available and you don’t need to worry if you haven’t got the desired one.
It is very hard to come up with one domain extension to use from them. You can consider some of the below factors while finding your domain extension.
Choosing the Best TLD for SEO:
1. Target location:
When you create a website, there will be a target location.
Each location has got its own extension. If you take an example of popular site amazon they operate with various extensions on different locations.
When they operate in India they use www.amazon.in and in the US they use www.amazon.com.
So, if you are targeting a location, it is better to purchase an extension accordingly. This will help you to reach to your targeted audience because Google lists you to that particular location.
Some people use locations in domain names also to target a particular audience.
2. Industry related:
When you choose an extension for your website it can be industry-specific also.
For example, if you are writing a food blog you can get an extension .food. This will help both users and search engine to understand the contents of your blog.
While you choose one industry-specific extension you have to stick to it because once you choose a name you cannot turn back easily. That’s why most people prefer the most generic TLDs like .com and .org.
3. Go with the majority:
Do you know that more than 50% of websites use .com extensions?
Yes, that’s true. Even though we have 500 extensions to choose from, people prefer the same .com extension.
The reason behind it could be its popularity or demand. Many think that this is some of the reputable extension to choose for their own website.
So, if you want to go with them you can choose .com, .net, .org or any of the common generic extensions.
So, the next question may be, Is there any connection between SEO and these domain extensions?
We are going to discuss that in the next section.
Do domain extensions affect SEO?
When it comes to SEO there are 200 ranking factors in Google Algorithm for a website.
A domain name is one among them, but domain extension doesn’t have anything to do with SEO.
Even Google confirmed that domain extension has nothing to do with your site ranking. What clarification you need more than this.
Google is the most powerful and widely popular search engine most people prefers. But choosing the domain name will help you in some other way.
This can help you to list your website under the right search result also. Here are some advantages to choosing the right domain extensions.
How to choose a domain extension?
Reputation:
It is very important for every website to have a good reputation. For that, domain names and extensions play a significant role.
If you can choose matching domain extension with your domain name, it can help you to save any damage that can cause by improper domain extensions.
Relevancy:
Domain extension has nothing to do with the relevancy of the site because most websites use .com extensions.
But if you can choose the right domain name with keyword and extension, it can help you to get your website relevancy.
Right audience:
If you are looking to reach the right audience, then you need to choose geo-specific extensions.
Google is improving its local search and you can get an advantage from it by proper selection.
Some other points related to SEO and domain extensions:
- You can choose TLD from a wide variety of choices
- Site quality is the main factor according to the search engine and domain extension has nothing to do with it.
- If you have an SEO strategy of concentrating on a specific location, the country-specific extension will be the best choice
- Google once again clarified that choosing a new domain will not bring you any advantage while considering for ranking
- According to some studies, .org extension is the second most popular extension that works better than .edu, .biz
Which domain extension for SEO?
This is a very common question that everyone who wants to start a website might be searching for.
But there is not an exact answer to it. Because there is no connection between search engine optimization and domain extensions.
So, we cannot say a particular domain extension which works with your SEO.
Some geo-specific domain extensions play a role in getting listed under the local search result.
If you are creating a site for a specific location, then you can choose domain extensions related to your location to get more preference. Some local domain extensions are like .co.uk, .co.us, .co.in etc.
Which domain extension ranks best in Google?
Generic TLDs are popular among website users and they work well if you want to list under top search result with a keyword specific domain name.
Other than .com extension there are .net, .org etc. These are the most widely used domain extensions you can see on Google. Here are some gTLDs you can try if you want
.info
.int
.jobs
.gov
.mobi
.name
.edu
.com
.cat
.org
.pro
.tel
.travel
.biz
.museum
.aero
The list goes on…….
While choosing domain extension you must choose a shorter one that is easy to remember.
Check the availability of .com,.org or .net and try to choose one among them. Also, you must avoid domain extension with special characters to avoid getting the impression of the spammy link.
There are some worst domain names also that you need to avoid choosing. They can make your site spammy and create a bad impression among users and search engine.
Don’t think that it is ok to choose any TLDs because it is all about your website. Here are some worst TLDs you can avoid
This is a survey conducted by Spamhaus site to find out spammy domain extensions
.science is one among this list when a site called Spamhaus conducted a survey for a spammy link. They found that more than 90% of links with this TLD were spammy. There were 60,622 total domains with this domain extensions
Total websites with .stream extensions were like 20,795. They found that more than 80% of sites among them were spammy. So, it is not advisable to choose this as your domain extension
Among 69,993 sites with domain extension .men, 73.9% of them were spammy
When they took domain name .party they found more than 30,000 sites and 79.3% of them were bad sites.
.biz was another domain extension with a bad rating. More than 40% of the spammy sites used this extension on their website.
So, you can avoid such domain extensions if you don’t want any bad images on your site URL. These won’t cause any problems with your site ranking as long as you can include quality contents on your site.
Google only look for quality contents. These are some minor factor and they won’t affect your ranking also.
What to do when ‘.com’ extension you want is taken?
Everyone first searches for .com extension. But what if it is already taken by somebody else, what can you do?
Duplicating is not allowed, and you need to go for any other domain extension.
There are so many other options you can choose from. Now you know that there is no relationship between SEO and domain extension, you can go for any domain name you want.
You can check other domain extension availability as the second most searching domain name is .org.
Check whether it is available or not, if you get it it is good and if not, what are the other options?
Moz recommends avoiding low- quality TLDs while purchasing one for your site this can affect your site reputation.
According to them, low-quality TLDs are more related to spammy links and this can reduce your site reputation.
Some of them are .biz, .name, .info, .ws etc. Also, when you take related domain extension there is a chance of getting confused. You can avoid this practice also. So, what is the next option?
Try .net:
If .com and .org are not available, you can check the availability of .net.
If you are running a tech related website then .net will be more suitable. Try the matching by using .net with your domain name and if it matches to get this domain extension for your site.
Try .org:
If you want to .org it is also suitable for your website. This is a suitable domain extension for a non-profit organization.
For a business organization, this is not suitable and may not look professional.
Try .info:
.info is also very popular to use if you created a site to promote information. But this will mainly depend on your business and you can choose if it is suitable for your business type.
These are some popular options you can go for if .com is not available. Check the match with your domain name and select one which is matching.
Here is some commonly used extension that may be suitable for you. Most of them are suitable according to it genre
.name is a less popular domain extension which you can use for personal sites
.me is another one which you can use for personal branding and you can use it as a part of your business name.
.pro is a more professional domain extension and are suitable for professional sites
.tv you can use this for television-related websites. This will help you to make your site more specific to its genre.
.travel and .aero can be used for travel related sites. This can help users to identify your business type.
Are you ready to try something different with your domain name?
Check all possibilities and choose a domain extension suitable for your domain name.
Google TLD ranking:
There are many domain extensions and you can use them according to its popularity if you want to arrange it for ranking.
Here are top 10 domain extensions you can try
- .com with 82.01 million users
- .DE is a code for Germany and 13.05 million people use this
- .CN is a code for China and more than 12 million people use this as their domain extension
- .NET is also popular with 12.42 million users worldwide
- .UK is the country-specific code for the United Kingdom and 7.83 million websites have got this as a domain extension
- .ORG is also popular, and more than 7 million people use this with their domain name
- .INFO is also a widely used domain extension with 5.24 million users all over the world
- .NL is the code for Netherland with 3.5 million users
- .EU is for European Union and 2.98 million users combine this with their domain name
- .RU represents Russia and 2.31 million websites use this domain extension
This ranking shows the popularity of various domain extensions worldwide. If you want to follow the majority you can choose .com.
Final Words:
From this article, you may have got the idea that there is no connection between SEO and domain extension.
While using the only point to be noted is that avoid spammy extension to keep the reputation of your site.
A country-specific domain extension is only suitable for local business or website. If you want to make it international, then avoid using geo-specific domain extensions.
Don’t worry if you cannot get .com extension with your domain name.
Your website will not get any special consideration by choosing a .com extension. Try other options also from a total of 500 available domain extensions.