PinkyPainter, You must be

technologynow — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:01:52 +0000

PinkyPainter,

You must be having a laugh if you think a .co domain name is almost as good as a .com name!

For anyone tempted. I'll tell you why.

.com is a GLOBAL name. Google tends to give these extra weight in the USA, but otherwise treats them as GLOBAL.

.co is LOCAL name for Columbia (as is .co.uk for the UK, .au for Australia and so on).

Google assumes that your website is specifically targeted at the LOCALITY of your domain name. For example, if you have a .co.uk name, Google will assume your site is specifically relevant to people in the UK. It may be listed number 1 on Google UK, but not listed at all in America or Australia, or if it is listed it may be listed in the hundreds.

Similarly with the .co COLUMBIA website name. If you do business in Columbia and want to be listed in Google.co then go ahead and register with a .co name. But take note. You may never be listed in Google.com, or Google.co.uk, or Google.au

If your site targets the USA, there is no substitute for a .com name. It will be listed in Google.com
If your site targets the UK, there is no substitute for a .co.uk name. It will be listed in Google.co.uk
If your site targets Australia, there is nothing better than a .au name listed in Google.au
If your site is international, there is no substitute for a .com name

If your site targets COLUMBIA, there is no substitute for a .co name. Otherwise, don't use it!