If the domain for a .com is taken will using a location distinct domain such as .com.au make too much of a difference in search volume, if I am targeting four different countries?

[GerryMoz]

Domain name question

[JarnoNijzing]

Dear Gerry,

How much of a difference it makes i'm not actually sure about but what I do know:

Some of my projects were started on a country domain (.nl). They ranked well, got some nice traffic etc. But on those terms where the competition was fierce it could not beet the competition. Then we build 2 of those projects on .com domain names (which actually is for the USA) and we started to see differences in rankings for the more fierce terms.

So domain extentions do matter. If i were you and I couldn't get the exact domain you wanted maybe you could get a different version of that domain name (eg. with -'s in the url or with an extra word in it perhaps?)

Hope this helps

Regards
Jarno