Like a Magic Trick, Pick a Domain Any Domain
It’s more challenging that just picking a card from a conjurer. To get the perfect domain for your business or entrepreneurial venture requires knowing the tips and, well yes, tricks.
Do Some Domains Rank Better than Others in Google?
Do “.com” domain names rank better in Google? The short answer is that there is really no evidence that they rank better than say .net, .biz and so on. But that said, Google does seem to favor domains of websites that are older, and many of those sites have the extension .com.
Finding Your Perfect Domain Name is Tough
How about selecting a domain in the first place. Being able to have a domain that reflects your business and career in a word or two is difficult. Sometimes it takes days, even weeks to decide which domain is best for you. And here’s the kicker. After mulling it around for quite a while you come up with the perfect .com domain name, only to find out it was registered decades ago. All the best domains, especially in the .com are often taken. So what can you do?
Ranking Statistics
The .com extension is considered a top level domain, which begs the question: what exactly is a top level domain? As mentioned, it does seem that Google prefers .coms. Again, this frequently has more to do with the age of the domain than that it is the fact it is a .com. In fact, other domain extensions including .io, .me and so on, can rank just as high as non .coms.
Perception is Reality
The factor that comes into play here is the psychological aspect. It’s true that sometimes having a non .com can make your brand look suspect in the eyes of your target demographic but whether or not this happens to you is going to be determined by your audience and what they perceive as being a good domain.
How They See Your Domain Name
Although new non .com don’t seem to rank higher than .coms, there could be the stigma of followers of your brand seeing it in a less than stellar light than if you had a .com. Again, take a look at the type of people you are pursuing. Are they consumers or are they businesses. If you are selling to businesses, it can be preferred that you have a .com. If it is a consumer you want to reach, having a different type of domain name doesn’t appear to be as much of a killjoy.
Price Differences in Domains Can Sometimes be Based on Brokers
There are folks out there who scour domain names, seeking .coms for high value concept domains. These people, once they find what they feel is a TLD (Top Level Domain) then turn around and attempt to sell it at a prices of hundreds even thousands. Then, when you search for a .com, you can discover that the domain you want is out of reach price-wise.
Watch Out for the Bait and Switch
Just because you purchased your domain name for a certain price, doesn’t mean that when you pay to renew it, that it will be available at the same price. Some domain registrars do this as a kind of “bait and Switch:” you pay one number to register your domain at first, and then another much higher price to renewe it.
So there you have it. Welcome to the challenging and sometimes even fun process of finding your perfect domain. Good luck!