Google and the .com vs .info Issues
GoDaddy ( Find, Buy & Sell Domain Names) has been selling .info sites for $0.99 each for some time now. And people started snatching them up! Because they could get exactly the keywords they wanted, that were already taken by .com domains. But now it seems, Google has been flooded with useless, spammy websites as a result.
There has been a lot of rumors in the last week or so (and some valid data) saying that Google has recently dropped MANY .info sites from their rankings -- sending them from high rankings to totally off the charts.
Not long ago Google's Matt Cutts said that Google does not differentiate between .com and .info domain names when it comes to ranking, but maybe that is no longer the case.
My personal advice on domains, and I may be wrong, has always been to not register any of the .info , .biz, .tv names and stick with .com names. You can usually add a word or two and come up with a domain that is very close. And with persistent work and keyword penetration, YOU WILL come up for your originally desired domain. We have done it - with several domains.
By the way, GoDaddy (Find, Buy & Sell Domain Names) is STILL about the best place, I think, for domain purchases. You can still pick up a blog for a year for $35 and your domain for $2! And you get 24/7 tech help - you can't get that with WordPress!
Good day to you Derrick,
I would have to agree with your advice to stay away from .net domains if you can.
I also tell my clients to stay away from .info domains as well as you have stated.
Not only because there is a chance that search engines like Google don’t like them but also many people doing searches trust a .com much more then .net or .info and are much more likely to click on that result.
I guess that is the whole reason most hosting companies have recently been charging 99 cents for these .info domains.
Goes back to the old expression – “you get what you pay for”.
Sam
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Fair Enough. I agree with Derrick.
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