.us VS .com
-
In general from what I have experienced a location specific extension such as .co.uk geo-targeted to the same location gives the best results when ranking BUT when I look at results from the US, page after page shows results of .com, surely if my above statement is true then a .us domain extension should rank better then a .com.
-
mmm I do agree to disagree from the testing I have done, I have seen better rankings for (emd).co.uk against (emd).org.uk from index.
To the point where .co.uk would rank page 1-3 and .org.uk would rank page 5+
But everyone does things differently, I tend to take .co.uk over anything else when im taking ranking factors into account.
-
I agree with SEOConsult all the way. It's all correlation. In my experience, .us domains tend to be worse (bad content, more ads, less well put together, bad user experience, etc) than .com domains, so I would expect those sites to do worse in the SERPs. It's not the .us domain that's making the sites worse in general. If you put together a terrific .us site, it would do fine.
The main issue I have with .us vs .com and .org.uk vs .co.uk is that people have to remember to enter those extensions. If you have the yourbrand.us domain, a lot of people are going to put yourbrand.com in when trying to get to your site. They may give up there.
Also, I am more likely to trust a .com domain over a .us domain, and I'm more likely to click a .com in the SERPs over a .us domain. Do you have many .us domains you ever visit? I can't think of any off the top of my head. Even del.icio.us migrated to delicious.com.
-
We all have our own views on certain aspects of SEO I guess, however I strongly view all extensions as equal value (unless of-course you're using a .us when targeting a UK audience).
-
What im saying though is if I had a choice between a EMD that was .org.uk or .co.uk I would take the .co.uk every time purely on the bases the extension's 'power' is a lot strong then a .org.uk.
For example if I had 3 new websites with the same template, same content, same title tag with the domain extension (.co.uk, .com, .org.uk) being the only difference, in a UK search im 99% sure the rankings would be as follows:
.co.uk then .com then .org.uk
-
There will be more factors than simply the extension, have you got an example you could send over where you're seeing the EMD .co.uk outranking the .org.uk?
That's correct what you said regarding how Google looks for a GEO within WMT's and then if there's nothing set within WMT's it'll look for other clues, such as the domain extension.
If you have a ccTLD though, Google will set a default location within WMT's that you can't change (there are some ccTLD's that are excempt from this rule, .co.uk and .org.uk aren't excempt though).
-
Thanks,
I understand what your saying that a .com and a .us domain are equal and other factors will determine rankings...
But argument against your statement is how comes a EMD that is .co.uk out ranks a .org.uk 10 fold?
This info sheet from Google imply's geo-targeting in webmaster tools will improve your rankings for the chosen location but also says if no location is specified then the domain extension will be the indicator.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62399
Cheers
-
Basically, you're focusing on the main correlation (the domain extension) that you can see between all of the points and assuming that's the main factor.
It's nothing to do with the extension that when you're conducting a search, you're only seeing .com's in the results. A .com domain has just as much chance as a .us domain as ranking when targeting in the US.
There are other reason why there's not a .us ranking within the results for the queries that you're searching for, it's just a correlation that you're seeing.
-
Thanks for reply,
Can you put the above in layman terms! Finding it a little hard to decipher (my fault).
-
Correlation not causation - sorry Rand, I stole that phrase from you!
When targeting for the US, a .us domain has just as much chance of ranking as a .com domain has, it's simply a correlation that the results you're seeing down have a .us ranking - not a causation.
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
-
How to replace the keywords of our Google Site https://www.opcfitness.com/ 's TITLE
How to replace the keywords of our Google Site https://www.opcfitness.com/ 's TITLE Our new google site https://www.opcfitness.com/ page https://www.opcfitness.com/commercial-fitness title: Gym Equipment for Sale - Buy Commercial Fitness The site name is Gym Equipment for Sale. But we need the title like this Buy Commercial Fitness - Gym Equipment for Sale How to fix it?
On-Page Optimization | | ahislop5740 -
Https://www.fitness-china.com/leg-press-feet-placement youtube video affects website speed
In our blog, about Leg Press Feet Placement [https://www.fitness-china.com/leg-press-feet-placement](https://www.fitness-china.com/leg-press-feet-placement) we have added a lot of youtube videos to enrich the content of the article but we found that youtube videos affect the speed of the website, how to solve it
On-Page Optimization | | ahislop5740 -
Need Some Quality Vs. Quantity SEO Advice
We have a gallery here with our main categories of patches. https://www.stadriemblems.com/gallery/ If you click on one, say Fire Patches, you'll be taken to a page of just fire patches. https://www.stadriemblems.com/fire-patches/ But here's the kicker: If you notice of the fire patch page, there are also sub-categories to that. So if you click on say, Fire Rescue, you get taken one level deeper. https://www.stadriemblems.com/fire-patches/fire-rescue-patches/ I'm redoing this entire site (a project over five years overdue), and I'm wondering if it's really worth it to keep these three-level deep sub pages. I originally created them with long tail SEO in mind, making us be the only ones who come up when people search for very specific patches. But it's a big undertaking to redo all of them, and are they really adding any value?
On-Page Optimization | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Separate URL vs iFrame
Hi Everyone, I'm not a designer/developer and am an not extremely knowledgeable in SEO, but I'll try to be as clear as I can. One of the designers here is creating a recipe section on our website. He created it so that it's a container (or iFrame?) on the page. Basically, no matter what you click (different sections and recipes) the URL stays the same. I was told to find out from an SEO perspective if it's better to do things this way or have a separate URL for each section and recipe. It's been brought up that from a social/sharing standpoint separate URLs would be better so people can send a link directly to the specific recipe they want to share. Any thoughts/comments are appreciated! Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | AliMac260 -
Inventory Pages that are Sold, 404 vs 301?
I am working with a company that sells high-priced automobiles. Each Unit has its own URL We currently leave most sold inventory live on the site as it draws in many leads (the units are visually shown as sold, so it shouldn't be a UX issue in most cases). We are wanting to start pruning some old units (this is in WordPress - custom post type) and I'm not quite sure what the best solution for this site is with removed units. Some ideas: Remove the units pages that are no longer needed, resulting in any links 404'ing to a useful 404 page. Remove the units pages, and 301 them to the Homepage (I don't really want to do this, as it seems like really poor UX) Remove the units page, and 301 the user to a specific "This item has sold" page that is shared by all sold units, but may not be the sites full 404. another option I haven't thought of? I dont' want to do anything that would confuse or get search engines upset, and I'm not sure how bad 404's are, I see some info on how bad they are, some that say they aren't bad. I'm guessing it is as usual, some gray area in the middle.
On-Page Optimization | | Andy_Staple0 -
Google's mobile-friendly update. How significant is the impact for us?
Hi guys. Recently I got an email from Webmaster-tools saying our site is poorly optimised for mobile devices, and that it’s going to heavily affect rankings from April 21st. I’m worried to say the least. We literary cannot afford a hit on traffic at the moment 😞 We rank well for niche terms like ‘customised diary’ and ‘personalised diary’. So question... Because we rank well for these very specific searches will we still take a hit on rankings after the update? Won’t our high relevancy for those search terms be enough to keep us high in the results? Also, do you know if this change is specific to the users device? E.g) Someone on a mobile device will get mobile-friendly results, whilst users on a laptop will get different results altogether? I'm just trying to get a sense of how much this update will effect us. Any isights, suggestion, or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Our site. Thanks in advance. This community is invaluable to us 🙂 Isaac - TOAD Diaries.
On-Page Optimization | | isaac6630 -
The best country specific strategy vs. an incumbent exact match domain
We are the single reseller in our country of a niche software, which has a quite general but non-competitive name. The name is already taken buy others in our country TLD, and in 1st rank. They are not related to our industry/business. Let's say our software is named blah, which could be the best country specific strategy we could have? Register a new country TLD domain with the blah in it? Something like blah-country.tdl. bl-ah.tdl? blah-software? Best Regards
On-Page Optimization | | wppseo0 -
Mobile vs Website Duplicate Data / Meta
SeoMoz is reporting duplicate content, title tags, and other meta information and seems to be showing that my mobile site (located on m.website.com) is a duplicate of website.com I was figuring I could add "Mobile SiteName" to the title to avoid the duplicate title but am a little confused as to how to approach the duplicate content side of it
On-Page Optimization | | Check_City0