.us domain extension for US locales

[Millibit]

I have a large US travel site and am looking to make targeted pages for specific locations, attractions etc around the United States.  With many of the TLD's already purchased for these niches, I thought about using the .us extension as it seemed relevant to the topics.  Does this hurt seo possibilities or does the .us extension come across as spammy?

[SeoStallion]

I have always been of the impression that a website other than .com/.co.uk is a bit spammy however recently there has been an increasing number of very authoritative websites on other TLD's. I have personally been working on a .co and have found it very useful as I have managed to get a very competitive URL ranked.

[DanDeceuster]

From an SEO perspective, all TLD's are supposedly treated equal, but I have my doubts. So the text book answer is your TLD has no affect on SEO. Now if you got a .co.uk for a US travel site, that could be problematic. But a .us is supposedly the same as a .info or a .com or .net or whatever else. Again, I have my doubts.

The problem with a .us domain is in your branding. Let's say you were YountTravel.us. You cannot brand yourself as Yount Travel because by default everyone thinks .com. So you have to brand the .us with your brand name so people will actually remember your website.

My best advice is to not pay any attention to keyword rich domains. Google said they won't for long. I would build any website around a brand, so I think a brandable .com is infinitely better than a keyword rich .us.

[Millibit]

I really like the thought of moving towards brandable domains.  It seems that we all get lost in the immediate value of the domain keywords and treat the site itself as an afterthought.  I am looking forward to seeing Google's statement indicating their future plans in how they value the domain name.

[Millibit]

This is great to hear that you have done well.  I have always believed that, all things being equal, the domain extension should have minor effects on SERPs.  With the spamming of the .info and other cheaper extensions I would imagine that Google would have to put some check in place to eliminate the abuse of the cheaper domain.  I wonder if it is possible that the .co (being a newer domain extension) didn't have the checks against it that a .info would

Danial made a very valid point about branding vs keyword rich domains... we shall see as we move forward.

[DanDeceuster]

Here's a good place to get started: http://www.dotsauce.com/2011/03/17/google-may-adjust-keyword-domain-rankings-how-to-avoid-getting-dropped/

[SeoStallion]

Yeah I wouldn't sacrifice branding but we made the decision that at the moment keyword rich domains are doing very well. I have no doubt that this success will be short lived and the project I worked on did still have a branded domain, our plan was to create a landing page with a keyword rich domain on .co because of the easy at which it could be ranked and within weeks we were ranking 3rd on yahoo for the keywords in the domain. When it is re-evaluated I'm sure that the site will be dropped well beyond the first page however currently the project itself has actually made a sizable revenue steam since the page was created. My strategy is that opportunities come and go every day and that this was just another opportunity to gain business.

[Millibit]

You make a good point.  That depending on the project requirements and timeline, the extensions may not matter too much.  Great job on the quick rankings!