To Com Or Not To Com - That Is A Question
Against most perceived online wisdom; I don't believe that the TLD (the 3 letters after the dot in a URL) makes any difference in the search engine results - after all, it's the content that we link to, not the URL.
So, in order to put this to bed I have set myself a challenge...
I have just bought, today (Friday 10th January 2020) the dot com, net and org of a keyword phrase and I shall attempt to rank them in the search engines.
Now, I am aiming to cover the top 3 results in the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing).
I will be writing different content for the 3 websites but I'll be aiming for the same keyword in each site. I am doing it this way so I don't run foul of any duplication penalties.
Yes, it is a huge amount of work but it's the only way I can prove to myself that the search engines prefer a dot com over any other TLD.
Now, I may find that having the same keyword in the URL might be a bit of a negative stance to start with but we'll see.
The intention, to start with, is to begin with the dot org TLD and get that ranking, then I'll aim for the dot net and finally the dot com.
The starting keyphrase has a Jaaxy result of: 110, 19, 40, Great, 98
The good thing about this is that all 3 websites will be promoting a Wealthy Affiliate product and so, if there are any conversions, my account gets a boost regardless of which TLD 'wins'!
The time frame for this challenge is 6 months from today's date which means that the sites 'should' rank org, net then com as the dot org will have the most time given to it and the dot com the least - will that make a noticeable difference? Who knows!
I will try to update regularly - probably every 2 months.
See you in March!
Recent Comments
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Jay, our trainer here at WA has a dot org on his website and he has no trouble getting it ranked, but his site has been up for a very long long time. So 6 months is really too soon- need longer time period to determine which of the three dot URLs ranks better. Good point to prove for yourself but the point is website that has a long term existence seem to rank better than newer sites -doesn't matter which of the TLD ranking is not always determined by the LTD, but by the keywords and content that the people are looking for. Best wishes to you in finding out. Keep us posted.
"ranking is not always determined by the LTD, but by the keywords and content that the people are looking for."
Exactly my point Brenda - so why does everyone push for you to buy a dot com? It shouldn't matter.
6 months might be too short, I agree, we 'll see come June
Great Challenge Dom, it will be interesting to see the result.
It might be possible that there will be no difference for the search engines, but I pretty sure the .com will get the best organic traffic.
I can't wait to see the results in 6 months,
Marc
It'll be interesting for sure Marc - I can't wait to see the results either, it's going to be an interesting 6 months
That’s really an interesting challenge...
will be interesting to see what transpires ... lot of work
Best to you
Wishing you well
TIM
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Hi WA,
just a few questions:
#How many websites have you created and how much you are earning?
#Can you let other people borrow and sell your site?
#what is the time for renew website?
#How many sites you are allowed to create?
# Blogs and website information can to the same right?
Just memory test
here you go time for skill test. Enjoy.
Sham
Hey Sham - I think you may have slipped this in the wrong place but here goes:
#Can you let other people borrow and sell your site? - Theoretically you could - but why would you want to? Unless that's your business, buying domains, setting up websites then selling them on - that's a legitimate business.
#what is the time for renew website?
Usually one year from the date of purchase - but some domain registrars will allow you up to 5 years.
#How many sites you are allowed to create?
Here at WA, as a Premium member, you're allowed to have 25 purchased domains and 25 'free' domains under the Siterubix domain
# Blogs and website information can to the same right?
All blogs are websites - not all websites are blogs. Some websites contain blogs along with company information on different pages.
Hope that helps