The .COM vs .CO Debate

Since the release of the .CO domains several months back, Go Daddy has put on the big push advertising these new domains. For a quick snippet there, Go Daddy even set the .CO domain as the default domain when using their domain search. While it has since faded away and they are back to the .COM domain as their default, they haven’t given up on the .CO push.

Have read numerous articles on the .CO domains, and concerns with search engines such as Google NOT giving the .CO domains priority in search rankings, this stirred up some great debates and concerns with domain investors out there. It has since been proven as a myth. A properly indexed and SEO optimized .CO domain name will in-fact rank higher than a .COM name with the same URL if it hasn’t had the same SEO completed. What this means is, for businesses out there looking for a domain name that may have been snatched up by someone else and they are using an abbreviated domain, or maybe a hacked up domain name, you can now buy the .CO domain name and still rank highly in search engines.

There has been some controversy about the .CO domains standing for the initials of the, “District of Columbia,” and sure that is a valid point. However, the intended use of the .CO domain was to stand for, “Company.”

Here at Apex we had a very difficult time finding the domain name – apexadvertising.com. As some domain investor purchased, and parked the domain name and now wants an astronomical amount of money for it. However, the domain investor slipped and missed the new .CO domain name and we now own it! Forced to use an abbreviated domain name currently, apexadllc.com, we will be making the transition over to our new .CO domain shortly. Not only does this allow for easier communication with clients to find our website by telling them, “Visit us at www.apexadvertising.co” but it allows us better organic search rankings when someone types in Apex Advertising in the search bar. By indexing and properly carrying out our SEO efforts, we should be in the top spot for the search rankings for our name.

While we still have a few concerns about people misspelling our domain name and accidently adding a .com at the end and not finding our site, we feel like the overall advantages associated with the domain name far outweigh what we are currently dealing with. Time will tell…

What are your thoughts on the .COM vs .CO domain names?