Based on my prior posting “Ranking .info domains (or Does Google Hate .info?)” there was some concern about how the .info domain may fare in the world of search. I am happy to report back that it appears that the initial thought that it may just take a little longer in some cases was correct.
The site being discussed in the previous post has come into its own in the last few weeks. It still is not dominating the rankings or anything, but is making a nice climb. It has gone from debuting about a month ago in the rankings (finally) in the 180 or so spot up to currently hovering on the second page for its main keyword phrase and page one for some long tail keywords. I am hoping that this upward momentum continues in the near future and the first page and top 3 slots that were my target with this site will be reached.
There is also additional news to discuss about the .info domain experience here. Based on continuing to see other .info sites rank well and then finally seeing some movement on this one, another .info domain that I had picked up was given a few pages of content, hit with some backlinks, and it has now in a much shorter time (not quite a couple months) consistently been showing on page 2 of the search results. Now, nobody starts out here to make it to page 2, but just like with the other site, it appears that after a little initial problems, the sites are starting to move up the rankings.
Based on this experience, in my most recent domain purchase batch there was another .info in a great niche that has low competition and high search volume that we are going to try to go after. So, for now at least, it looks like it may be safe to keep the .info domain around as a possibility if all the main .com, .net, and .org tld’s for your keyword choice are already gone and the competition is low to moderate.
One of the things that I believe has helped to move both the first site and to get the second site moving more quickly has been the use of a new backlinking focus and strategy that seems to be working very well so far.
In some future posts, this backlinking plan will be discussed in more detail, especially focusing on the tools that have been used to achieve the results on these and other sites.
Filed under Domain Name Selection by on Jan 23rd, 2011. Comment. 
I am still personally struggling with the .info domain extension and am starting to wonder if it should be considered a viable option for anyone looking to get a new website off the ground. It’s low initial price and availability for some domain names have made it an option many are considering, but it seems to have its challenges as well.
As mentioned in a previous post, the .info domain seems to be a bit of a mystery. Domains with the .info extension have shown up as highly ranked in numerous web searches I have conducted in both research mode for keyword research and in normal web browsing. After originally perceiving the presence of a .info domain in the top results as a “weak” market that could be entered more easily, after some additional research it appeared that .info could rank well on its own and shouldn’t be considered as an automatic exclusion like some of the other non-.com, .net, or .org domain extensions.
With this as my background, I went back and found some keyword research that was discarded because of the absence of available .com, .net, or .org domain names and selected the most promising ones and picked them up with a recent order as I needed them to put my order over the amount to qualify for free private registration and at 99 cents each the math worked out well.
With one of the domains on a topic that already interested me that could be written about easily it quickly had a little over 10 pages of original content on it. It has links from a few other websites similar to other strategies used before, and Google just doesn’t seem to give it any love. I would be ok if it still wasn’t ranking highly for its keywords, but it isn’t even indexed yet by Google. The site includes things that normally bring the search engines running like using Wordpress and submitting a sitemap. It has also been manually submitted to each search engine.
If it were performing in a similar weak fashion in the other major search engines that would also help me to understand that something else was going on, but it ranks in the top 10 for its keywords in both Yahoo and Bing and seemed to accomplish its indexing and initial ranking there in normal timeframes.
This anecdotal evidence appears to support the idea that Google is placing the .info domain extensions into its “Google Sandbox” for a while before allowing them to make it into the index and results. It will be interesting to continue to follow these results and see how long it takes to make it into the Google index and rankings.
This information seems to indicate that if you go with a .info domain extension you should be prepared to wait a while for Google results and be prepared to exist on Bing/Yahoo for organic search traffic at first.
If you have had a better experience with .info domain names or have any tips to share that helped you in ranking and indexing them please share in the comments.
Search for your .info domains at GoDaddy or search from the box below:
Filed under Build a Web Site, Domain Name Selection by on Aug 29th, 2010. 1 Comment.
Choosing which domain name extension can often be confusing to someone new to selecting domain names. The most popular is of course the .com extension, with the .net and .org following relatively close behind. Originally intended to have more specific uses for technical sites or organizations, the latter two extensions became popular for general usage as the .com versions of the desired names became more scarce.
If possible, in almost all cases, the .com version should be selected. This is the defacto standard for web addresses and anyone typing in a web address without the extension is likely to end up there. (Not always, but often). .Com just seems like the default web address extension to non internet marketing people and is a default unless given to them specifically as .net or .org. However, in search engines and indexing .net and .org both seem to get their share of the love as well.
In my personal experience the differences between these three domain name extensions is minimal from the impacts on SEO, search rankings, and indexing. Since I am writing an article on this, I must choose, so in order based only on anecdotal experience, my ranking based on preferred would be .com, .org, then .net from first to third preference.
Go with the version that is available in your chosen keywords with the above ranking of the top 3 extensions as your guide. In my opinion, stay away from almost all of the other domain extensions like .biz (more on .info in a minute) as in general they don’t seem to fare as well although with the right work, content, and linking they also could likely do ok, but be aware it will be many times harder with that working against you.
Based on the article headline, you are probably wondering about the .info domain. The .info domain appears to be a bit of an enigma. In doing keyword and site research, multiple .info domains have showed up in the top 10 of Google so it definitely can rank well as an extension. And at under a dollar a pop at some registrars for the first year, they can seem attractive from a cost standpoint.
This is how my first .info domain was picked up. I needed a few more domain names to get my free private registration so I added a few .infos to my cart for a buck each. From that has developed my experience that getting these .info domains indexed and ranking in Google is more challenging than the above mentioned (.com, .net, .org) extensions. I have a .info domain with over ten original posts on it written by me on an area of personal knowledge that has a few links back to it that is still not indexed by Google. Not even for just the homepage. It is still less than three months old, so maybe it is just stuck in the infamous “Google Sandbox”, but based on indexing experience with other sites, it should at least be indexed by now. Yahoo and Bing don’t seem to have the same issue, as the site went in to those two engines on approximately the same timeframe as other sites have done.
Armed with this information about domain name extensions, I hope you can go forth and make a better informed decision on a domain name selection. And if you decide to go with a .info domain and have a better experience, please come back and share it in the comments.
Filed under Build a Web Site, Domain Name Selection, How to Start a Web Business, Starting a Web Business by on Aug 16th, 2010. Comment.
Should your domain name include dashes or no dashes? Does either choice impact the chance for search engine rankings, branding, and traffic potential? These are key and common questions asked by people trying to select domain names for use in online business. They are definitely good questions, because selecting a domain name and expecting better results than what occurs can be a disappointing result.
The consensus opinion appears to be that having dashes in a domain name negates a lot of the exact match domain ranking power that can be conferred by an exact match domain without the dashes. Limited anecdotal experience on my part also seems to bear this out, as any experience of mine with dashed domains has been slower and lower rankings than expected based on experiences with non dashed domain names. Granted that this is with only a limited number of samples, but it is another confirmation of the conventional wisdom.
That doesn’t mean that a domain name with dashes can’t be made to rank well, just that in comparison to a domain name with no dashes it will take longer and will take more linking and off page optimization factors. That boost of search engine rankings juice that seems to come with the exact match domain name won’t be there to get things kicked off.
Another concern with domain names with dashes is that they can be more difficult to communicate and remember. When sharing the name with others, you must remind them to remember to put the dashes in, and if they forget they will end up on another site and not at yours. With no dashes this is less of a concern, especially with the .com version of the domain name. Having the dashes can hurt your type in traffic which damages your branding efforts.
Exact match (or even non exact) domain names without dashes seem to be more effective at ranking well in the search engines when compared to domain names with dashes. The potential loss of type in traffic when someone forgets to add the dashes also seems to favor the non dash domain names.
If you decide to choose a domain name with dashes be aware that it may take longer to rank for your chosen target market and keywords and will likely require more time in building links, content, and other marketing strategies than if you choose a domain name with no dashes.
Filed under Domain Name Selection, How to Start a Web Business, Starting a Web Business by on Aug 11th, 2010. Comment.