Google Prefers .com , .net ,.org over .biz or .info?

February 4, 2008

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How many times you sit infront of your computer registering domain names and found good domain names with an extension of .biz or .info? In my case, many times and I sit back and think it is worth? Why .biz and .info extensions have a really bad fame to be less favorable for search engines and mainly Google?

There are many discussions over the net about this topic. If Google or any search engine algorithmically do not rank well the .biz and .info domain names extension. There is no proof that Google algorithmically filter .biz or .info domain names if you make a search in Google for: “games industry“. You can see that the first result is a .biz domain name. So that means that Google doesn’t prefer .com .net or .org over .biz (or even .info).

But why this Buzz and this mindset again and again. The problem is not in search engines but on the people. People always prefer to build their websites on .com extension rather than .biz or .info. But think about from here to 10 years. How many .com’s or .net’s extensions will be available I bet there will be much less (or none) on any keyword that you want, even your own name. So I am sure that you will search for other extensions and then .biz and .info will be your next choice.

Here are some webmaster’s opinion about this topic:

My untested opinion is: its not that the search engines have a preference for .com domains, its more the compounding effect of -
1. experienced web masters will a prefer .com domains, so the majority of the ‘better’ sites are on .com sites
2. most people have a prejudice against .biz domains, so they are less likely to link to a .biz site.

Put these together and you find a site that the search engines don’t like as much. Its not because its on a .biz, its more a side effect.

I might be wrong, but thats my gut instinct.

Google reps inc. Matt Cutts have said several times that they do not weight for or against gTLDs

I’m not sure if I buy the reasoning behind “get away from a dot biz domain name.” After all, it’s the internet, and a lot of traffic can come from search engines and other links.

If a business has a name that’s pretty generic like “Smith Company” or something like that, then there’s a good chance that there are a lot of other companies with similar names. There can only be one smith.com, so I would prefer to use smith.biz rather than something like smith-company-dallas.com or smith-company-inc.com. Sure, it depends on what’s available, though.

I ran into a similar situation recently with a generic company name. And we chose a shorter domain name and added the company’s primary keyword to the domain name (e.g., smithkeyword.com), especially since all of the others were taken and no one wanted to sell their domain name.

If you’re able to get a short dot biz name with the intention of moving later on to a dot com if it’s available, then that is also an option, as well. When it comes to actual rankings in the search engines, it’s my opinion that there’s really no TLD preference by the engines.

But, there seems as if there’s some sort of “bias” like you’re alluding to–that the media and others may not link to dot biz. The bias may be there, but it’s going away as many people realize that a lot of the dot coms are taken. As long as the business is able to find a good, short name, then it may work for a period of time.

Don’t forget that there are a lot of good domain names out there that people have not renewed; you may able to find a good dot com that is expired and you might find something “better” than a dot biz.

There are enough myths out there w/o respected members creating myths from anecdotes.

There are good people using .com there are naughty people using .com
There are good people using .biz there are naughty people using .biz
There are good people using .info there are naughty people using .info

TLD is not a good indicator of intent.

Some members here “feel” .info and .biz are used more often than not for spamming. So lets look at an actual example - Looking at sites linked to in spams over the last 24 hours for example by tld

The top 100 by volume

94 .com’s
5 .cn’s
1 .tw’s

With regards sample size the top spammer had 1344 spams referencing the .com domain. Incidentally the .com’s had a clean sweep of the top 24 most frequently used domains. So people who own .com are more likely to spam?

With regards to quality of a domain being better because it’s more expensive that doesn’t hold true either. There are plenty of very expensive .com generics traded for six figures that simply point to a page(s) of adverts.

Often the owners are not looking to build a PPC business, but rather to sell it to an existing business or simply flip it for a profit to another speculator.

There are many webmasters who would rather invest their money into building the perfect site than paying a “domainer” for the prefect brand.

And finally

Who in their right mind would think I’m not linking to that site because it’s in a different TLD? Anyone with a passion about their site links to the best resources for their viewers.

Here is a question from a webmaster that I would like to answer:

If .co.uk ranks well on google.co.uk and .com well on google.com

How would you expect .biz or .org TLD’s to rank.

Would google use the server IP to locate the country and then rank on UK and US accordingly?

If so, would a .co.uk rank higher than a .org on google.co.uk if all other factors were the same?

Paul

Google will rank your site depends on several factors. One of the factors is from where you are getting backlinks, for example you got somename.biz and you got 100 backlinks. 90 of them are from UK sites and 10 of them randomly (.com,.net, .org etc..) your .biz site will be ranked well on Google UK.

My recommendation to all webmasters out there if you find a good name on .biz and .info extensions better to buy it and treat it like any other extension. For search engines all extensions are equal. They only care about quality of the content.

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Posted in Search Engine Optimization