Interesting observation - is .com really the king?

[draggar]

I own a domain with the 3 top TLDs (.com, .net, .org).

All 3 are parked at Parked.com

Over the past year:

The .org has 33% more traffic than the .com
The .com has about 40% more traffic than the .net

Google search for "domain.tld" shows:

.com has 35 results
.org has 8 results
.net has 37 results

As for "searches" - the .org has twice as many as the .com and the .net is about half way (a little closer to the .org).

The only 404 is on the .com so all the traffic is either a back link to the domain itself or a type in.

[bobovia]

I gots lots of .orgs!

[INVIGOR]

...

[cbk]

Dragger not a very good observation if you think just one case study reveals a conclusion like that, shame on you, you should know better. By not knowing the domain my opinion would have to be that the traffic to the .org would be confusion to another developed .org site of similar keywords.

Forgive me if I missed your abbreviation but do you mean that the Google search is 35k, 8k, 37k? If not, that low of search results and I am surprised your getting any traffic at all.

[Arizal]

For SEO all three are great when it comes to exact phrase based ranking plus the local TLD of the local SE adaption. But .com might be best to remember and .org has a lot of style for certain projects, but less for obviously commercial niches. There I would go for com or net.

[draggar]

Dragger not a very good observation if you think just one case study reveals a conclusion like that, shame on you, you should know better. By not knowing the domain my opinion would have to be that the traffic to the .org would be confusion to another developed .org site of similar keywords.

Forgive me if I missed your abbreviation but do you mean that the Google search is 35k, 8k, 37k? If not, that low of search results and I am surprised your getting any traffic at all.

The results don't have a "K" but that is for a search for the domain itself. I think it is safe to assume the traffic coming in is mostly type-in.

Yes, this isn't conclusive at all and I'm sure it's the niche (I do think .org would be more popular, or at least more "ethical" than most people would think the .com is).

But - with another set (.com, .net, .org, .us, and .info) I have for a phrase that I made an educated guess with (in a very similar niche), the .com is ruling with traffic while the .net is second, the .org and .info are tied for third and way behind is the .us.

[Gerry]

that low of search results and I am surprised your getting any traffic at all.

Google search returns is by no measure a means of gauging the success of a site or even PPC.

Many niche sites or subjects have low search returns from Google.

But, that audience may be small but still very active.

I know draggar has many dog breed specific names. I have many medical specific.

Getting to the top of the heap on 37,000 returns is much easier and you have much less competition than being ranked 37th out of 100,000,000 returns.

Honestly, when was the last time any (or many) of us went through the first few pages of results looking for something?

Yes, I do it on occasion but if by, say, the 5th page...I still have not found what I am looking for I am very apt to re-evaluate AND CHANGE my search terms.

[PokerPie]

Depends on the niche. In Germany domains with dashes are better than domains with no dashes. Some types of sites will be better on the .org. I can't think of any that will be better on the .net but I'm sure there are some - especially those with similar sites on the .net (for example I have a wordword.net where a high traffic site is at word-word.net).

Think this thread title is kinda dumb and the person who made it knows the answer. Yes, .com is king - though there are exceptions in certain niches.

[katherine]

In (Western) Europe you can live without .com. Many domains registered in the local extensions are even available in .com
In America it's different.

IMO it's about .com + ccTLDs,
.org has its own market while .net looks more and more like the fallback extension when the .com is taken.