.org domains

[MortimerJazz]

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I'm on the verge of buying my first .org domain.

Normally, I've tended to stick with more traditional TLD's like .com, .co.uk and .net.

I guess I just need a little re-assurance before going into new waters. What are forum's opinions of .org domains? Are they treated well by search engines?

[monty]

.org is just as traditional as .com and .net

As such it certainly shouldn't earn you an new-namespace issues.

What I don't know is if the search engines would give any penalty for a blatantly commerce site (i.e. a web shop etc) operating on an inappropriate namespace.

If however the nature of the sites content is appropriate for the spirit of .org, then I certainly wouldn't have any issues with it.

In terms of how end users would react to search results. I'd say you if you are after people looking just to buy (and it is not a rare product) they might not associate .org with a route to them buying the product.

If however they are looking for more information before they buy or are setting out with just the intent to get information, then no problem.

[gadget]

I can only comment on org.uk domains. IMO Google generally treats these in the same way as com and co.uk - I have a org.uk site that's at number one in G for my prime keyword.

UK Offer has several org.uk sites that all seem to fair well.

The point about how G will treat an eCommerce site on a org domain is an interesting one.

I'd always considered org to be a US org domain, but maybe that's my misunderstanding.

Whilst .com and co.uk are always better than org or org.uk, I'd say go for an org or org.uk with good keywords in the name rather than a poorly formatted com or co.uk.

To conclude, if it's UK traffic you're after, then I can fully recommend org.uk domains.

[accelerator]

I guess I just need a little re-assurance before going into new waters. What are forum's opinions of .org domains? Are they treated well by search engines?

If it's a strong keyword then they are worth buying when you can't get the .com or .net. I have a few.

Rgds