.Co Domains - Any thoughts?

[bigtimeseo]

Hi Guys

I'm not sure which section this one belongs in as I didn't see a section for domains/tlds.

I wanted an opinion on the future of .co domains. We own a gift company (www.xperiencedays.com), as well as a gift recommendation site (www.uniquegifts.net), and invested in a few gift occasion .co domains (www.birthdaygifts.co, christmasgifts.co etc). This was partly because they were cheap and easy to come by, but also with a hope that they soon gain some public recognition.

My question therefore is whether anyone within SEOMOZ has an opinion on whether .co will be widely accepted, whether they will (as google claims) be treated as a non-country specific url, and early success stories you know of, and finally whether the recent news from Overstock to rebrand as O.co (http://www.overstock.com/guides/faqs-about-o-co) is the kick start that .co need. I realize that is more than one question

[caseyhen]

Hi,

I definitely believe Google that these won't be treated as country-specific domains, and if I were offered a keyword.co versus a keyword.info domain, I'd most certainly go with the .co. I think that it will resonate with people due to being similar to what they're used to seeing. This, of course, has nothing to do with a technical advantage: we'd like to believe that a TLD doesn't mean much from the perspective of a search engine, although you do see .com keyword-rich domains ranking better than other TLDs with the same keyword, in a lot of cases. Again, you don't want to confuse cause and effect: does the .com really help, or are .com domains usually owned by people who put up better websites? Hard to say.

When big companies use a TLD, that certainly lends some credit to it, and I think the domains you've bought are good. I don't think you've wasted your money, especially if they were quite cheap!

I wouldn't spend too much time or money buying every .co. domain under the sun, but I do think they're a better investment than many other TLDs. I don't have any stories of big successes yet, and I'd go as far as to say that the TLD is a bit too new to know what its fate will be. I do, however, doubt it will become as highly spammed and disregarded as the much-maligned .info and .biz.

[Jenni_HeartInternet]

Casey gave a great answer, but just to add another point...

Even if they don't get public recognition in terms of appealing to customers and becoming mainstream, generic names like www.birthdaygifts.co have considerable value to domainers and affiliates, so they are definitely worth holding on to even if you don't develop them.

[Dan-Petrovic]

Just to add that I would personally be scared of having domainname.co if I know my competitor has domainname.com - too easy to spell it wrong and send free traffic the wrong way.

[Thos003]

I agree with you on buing a .co when a competitor owns the .com.

But I think in time the .co will gain value as the public becomes less fixated with the .com's. But having a .com will always be preferred. Like having a 800 number vs a 888, 877, or 866 number. If I had to put them in order.

[WillFrank]

I think that that is a great idea buying a .co where a competitor has the .com but i have also has to buy the .co for my company just so that no one else can do this to me. When these were first released it seem to tak an age for google to see them and rank them high but i think that now they have been around for a while google seems to be ranking them higher, although I am yet to see a .co overtake a .com in google's rankings which is annoying as they are quite expensive compared to .com or .co.uk etc but you just have to buy them so competitors cant use them againsed you.

My advice would be to buy it just encase becuase you would be very annoyed if a competitor bought it and overtook you in the rankings.

[NickPateman81]

.co is the ccTLD for Colombia. It was packaged up by Godaddy as a TLD for 'Companies' 'Communities' 'Corporations' and other things that it doesn't represent. Buying a .co ccTLD and trying to rank in Google.com is like buying a .au ccTLD and trying to rank in .Google.com. If I had the choice between .info and .co I would go with .co for branding reasons and .info for SEO reasons. Why for SEO? Because I've seen and worked with companies that have acheived with .info but yet to do so with .co. Search "William Shakespeare" for example and look at the .info outranking the .edu's.

If I want to rank globally I'd have to pick gTLD over ccTLD but I definitely feel like I'm going against the grain here! Who's with me!?

[SteveOllington]

And vice versa though? Could you end up with more traffic mistaking you for your larger competitor?

[joyoboyo]

Just to add my four bob to this thread. We recently had the case of a client wanting to use the .co version of his business name as opposed to his .com.au. The .com belonging to a competitor. His re designed website was launched under  the .co domain and the feedback from his clients and colleagues who he emailed using the .co email address was that the .co looked suspicious and spammy, as an email address firstly, and the web address was seen as something that did not resonate well with the local and international market.

I think the .co domain will take some time to be accepted for  regional search engines such as Australia until the domain name becomes more readily accepted into mainstream website development and more commonplace.

[WebMarkets]

I, personally, am not a huge fan of .co domains from a branding perspective. I believe it easily confuses prospective clients with .com domains.

[WebMarkets]

This is the exact reason why I am hesitant to purchase and run with .CO domains. I would rather exercise all of my options to make a .com work rather than running with a .CO.