Is the extension .info a bad thing?

[wanzulfikri]

I am just wondering since the extension is quite cheap and can save a lot of money. Is it a bad thing to have .info extension?

[splok]

It's not inherently bad, but people may perceive the site to be inferior or spammy because of the TLD. Also consider, if you put in the time to build a successful site on a .info, would you want someone else buying the .com? If you're going to put enough time into the site for it to matter what anyone thinks, it's probably worth the $8/year difference. Of course, if the domain you want has all of the other main TLDs taken, that's a different set of issues to consider.

[chadcharlie]

Originally Posted by splok

It's not inherently bad, but people may perceive the site to be inferior or spammy because of the TLD. Also consider, if you put in the time to build a successful site on a .info, would you want someone else buying the .com? If you're going to put enough time into the site for it to matter what anyone thinks, it's probably worth the $8/year difference. Of course, if the domain you want has all of the other main TLDs taken, that's a different set of issues to consider.

Yeah, exactly. It's not bad, but the bulk of the recalled traffic, like someone remembering your name is going to land on the .com.

If you tell me you're greenflowers.info, a week later I might think of green flowers, remember you, and try to path to greenflowers.com. If a competitor of yours is on the .com, he just got my traffic, for the seed you planted.

[learnalifetime]

Originally Posted by chadcharlie

Yeah, exactly. It's not bad, but the bulk of the recalled traffic, like someone remembering your name is going to land on the .com.

If you tell me you're greenflowers.info, a week later I might think of green flowers, remember you, and try to path to greenflowers.com. If a competitor of yours is on the .com, he just got my traffic, for the seed you planted.

Yeah indeed, I would probably never go for a .info TLD. I know a company that uses this .info, and I still go to the .nl (it's a dutch website) every time.

.com (or in my case .nl) is the usual place to look, so I'd register a .com. I would even change the domain name / idea in order to get the .com.

[chadcharlie]

Originally Posted by learnalifetime

I would even change the domain name / idea in order to get the .com.

Yes, I was just talking about this with someone who's website I'm helping out on. If you can't get the .com with the name you wanted, create a different one, don't struggle to try to work in a .org, .info, a dash, or an ambiguous name.

[Curtis2011]

Google has stated that the domain name extension plays no role in how they rank a website, so any considerations of good or bad should just be based on "how will my visitors perceive this?" or "will my visitors remember that it's .info and not .com?"

[learnalifetime]

Originally Posted by chadcharlie

Yes, I was just talking about this with someone who's website I'm helping out on. If you can't get the .com with the name you wanted, create a different one, don't struggle to try to work in a .org, .info, a dash, or an ambiguous name.

Yeah I made a mistake there myself. I have a website with a dash in it, because the one without the dash is not available (I have to buy it through GoDaddy).

Problem is that I've already based everything around that name, so I need to find a solution there

If your website is hello-world.com, people will remember "hello world" and go to helloworld.com next time.

[chadcharlie]

Originally Posted by learnalifetime

Yeah I made a mistake there myself. I have a website with a dash in it, because the one without the dash is not available (I have to buy it through GoDaddy).

Problem is that I've already based everything around that name, so I need to find a solution there

If your website is hello-world.com, people will remember "hello world" and go to helloworld.com next time.

Precisely. I made an ambiguous mistake also, and learned from it...or rather pay for it every year Our comedy company is called Hard Knock Laughs (plural laugh), but people who haven't been to the show remember "Hard Knocks" or Hard Knock "Laugh." So now I own both domains and forward one to the other.

When its established enough that all your links are based on the original, you just find workarounds. Better to get it right from the start though

And likewise, from the example above, if your site is HelloWorld.info because the .com was taken, people will remember "Hello World," and normally route to HelloWorld.com

[newmark]

The only reason to buy a .info domain name would be if all the .com .net and .org's had already gone.

[splok]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Google has stated that the domain name extension plays no role in how they rank a website, so any considerations of good or bad should just be based on "how will my visitors perceive this?" or "will my visitors remember that it's .info and not .com?"

I mostly agree but just wanted to point out that it may not be safe to assume that what google says and what google does is 100% consistent.