So if you were say focused on Canadian surfers, you would want to use a .ca domain first? But if you wanted people from all over, you would want to try for a .com/net/org (depending on what you were)?
Am I understanding the discussion right here? Or am I missing something here?
(2012-02-18, 04:42 AM)MadComp Wrote: [ -> ]So if you were say focused on Canadian surfers, you would want to use a .ca domain first? But if you wanted people from all over, you would want to try for a .com/net/org (depending on what you were)?
Am I understanding the discussion right here? Or am I missing something here?
Yes, I believe this is the case. If you were targeting Canadian people, having a .ca domain would be highly advantageous.
Otherwise it kinda renders country-specific TLD's a bit pointless, except that you know what country the website is from or what language it is in.
Although, just because a site is using .ca instead of .com, doesn't mean they won't both show up in the same Google query. If the content on those sites is relevant to the search, then they should appear.
I think the reason that websites in other languages don't show up that much on google.com (or other google sites in English - .co.uk, .ca, etc) is because your query is in English rather than the language that the website is in, so there isn't a search keyword match.
So for example, if you have a .it website and the content is all in Italian, you would expect a higher ranking on google.it instead of google.co.uk because the Italian people would be searching from google.it, and using Italian in their search query's.
Okay, that makes sense. It explains why so many Canadian companies have a website url that ends in .ca. Thanks!
(2012-02-18, 09:00 PM)MadComp Wrote: [ -> ]Okay, that makes sense. It explains why so many Canadian companies have a website url that ends in .ca. Thanks!
No problem, happy to help!
Well sometimes it's redundant though. CanadaComputers.com uses a .com. I'd assume without the .ca it's canadian.
(2012-02-19, 06:21 AM)Lo. Wrote: [ -> ]Well sometimes it's redundant though. CanadaComputers.com uses a .com. I'd assume without the .ca it's canadian.
Yes, this is exactly true.
And because it has "canada" in the domain name, you would expect it to rank on the Canadian Google at a similar level to a .ca domain.
With Google being google nowadays, I'm not sure. I think .com's work better with people, but the more I search for things with my google account on, the more local results I'm getting. Most of these have .ca's (Not sure if that's just conicidence or nothing.)
(2012-02-17, 11:12 PM)magicstuff Wrote: [ -> ] (2012-02-16, 11:12 PM)Jordan L. Wrote: [ -> ]Labrocca Wrote:You don't know that for a fact. You're speculating and I think your opinion is wrong.
COM has top billing in SEO searches fairly often. Also Google's patent for their algo does involve domain information. Lots of SEO experts feel that extension does matter.
And I prefer CNO in that order. However I've never had a site be successful on an org but that's likely because of my own lame attempts. I focus on com and net mostly. I also only use net if the com is a parked page or doesn't resolve. Last thing I want is my net to lose traffic to the com or for there to be brand confusion.
Ever heard of the expression "pot calling the kettle black"? You're willing to say that you think my opinion is wrong yet you fail to prove actual evidence rather than a "feeling that the extension matters". If Google had decided to use .net as their priority instead of .com, do you think it wouldn't still be the company it is today and the #1 most viewed website? No. Google.com and Google.net are the same idea, the same name, the same company except for the fact that it has a .net TLD. Unless you include the TLD in the website name, e.g; del.icio.us, the TLD simply doesn't matter for SEO purposes rather than people who don't know any better thinking every website ends with a .com, which is what I stated in my original post:
Jordan L. Wrote:The TLD has nothing to do with SEO, unless you're talking about the way people remember the site.
I know from personal experience that if you have a .co.uk domain, it won't rank as highly on google.com than google.co.uk, for example as it is a UK specific domain name.
I would presume that this is the same for other country specific TLD's -
Eg. if you have website.it, it will rank higher on the Italian Google (google.it) than on the UK Google (google.co.uk) because the domain is affiliated with the country's Google that you are searching from. (if you managed to follow all that 
)
.co.uk is not a TLD. It is a SLD
I want to say this - for all we know, one domain may have a slight advantage (and I mean slight), but if you're relying on that for the SEO push then something is coming to hit you on the face. Domains ranking higher than others is only really relevant when both sites lack any content, traffic, backlinking and SEO optimisation. If you're dedicated to the site, it can be successful with a .com, .net, .org, .co, .whatever it is as long as you follow SEO guidelines.
It depends on the purpose. For small, testing websites (or when I'm broke, hah) I love using .co.cc. Most other times, when I don't want to make money off it, I will use .org or .net. Other than that, .com is probably best.