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Startups needs to think twice when they decide to use a .io domain. .io domains aren't top level domains like .com, .org, or .net. They're ccTLDs - country spe
by highace 14y ago
Startups needs to think twice when they decide to use a .io domain.
.io domains aren't top level domains like .com, .org, or .net. They're ccTLDs - country specific domains - like .co.uk, .us, or .com.au. Io is the local domain for the Indian Ocean states. Unlike the TLDs, and a handful of the early ccTLDs, Google doesn't treat .io as a global domain - it treats them as domains specific to the Indian Ocean. This means you're immediately at a disadvantage at being found by your target market via a google search (unless they're specifically searching for your brand).
So while you're more likely to get a common-word .io domain, and they have the obvious relation with technology, if your start up is going to be relying on search engine traffic or might be dealing in a slightly grey area, you should probably just save yourself the bother and go for getX.com or Xapp.com, where X is your website name.
- prezjordan 14y agoge.tXapphq.com
- TallboyOne 14y agoI don't have the source (tried to find but buried), but Matt Cutts has stated because so many tech companies use .io as input/output webapp connotation, that behind the scenes, google treats it as a gTLD even though technically it's a ccTLD. I know because I did a ton of research for http://pineapple.io http://pineapple.io as well as talking to a lot of other people who were ranking their .io domain. Likewise, there is a movement to get it officially branded as a gTLD just like .me, etc. I would say choosing a .io domain is just fine.
- stordoff 14y agoIt is from a few years ago, but there is this: > The question came up about whether it matters which TLD (top level domain) you’re using. For example, do .com domains carry more weight than a .net, .us, .info, etc. He said that TLD doesn’t matter–that’s the way Larry and Sergey originally designed the Google algorithm. The algorithm doesn’t care where the page is located, it’s all about pagerank (LINKS) of the particular page. At the end of answering this question he did admit that they might have started to look at particularly cheap (and spammy) TLDs differently than other TLDs–or they might start considering TLD in their algorithm if they’re not already doing so. https://www.seo.com/blog/conferences/matt-cutts-does-domain-roundtable/ https://www.seo.com/blog/conferences/matt-cutts-does-domain-...
- lifeformed 14y agoCan't you get both, and redirect to the .io one? Or is that bad practice.