Retired older guy trying to pick a domain for our home business

[stay@homedad]

We have a small business that we run from home. We etch custom designs and logos into all kinds of drinking glasses. We have been running our business for over 3 years now thru an online Venue called Etsy. Over the three years we have seen a lot of changes on Etsy and its time we stop counting on only one source for our income for our business, in today's times you just never know when a big company will close its doors or get shut down.

Over the last few weeks I have been looking at domain names for our business. Everything I want is already taken with the .com.

From what I remember reading and from what little bit I think i might know, it used to be you need to have a .com name if you want to be successful online (Maybe I'm wrong and I am talking 5 to 10 years ago). Now it seems there is every domain extension one can think of.

Here is my questions:
If we are in the U.S. and we run a business that only sales and operates in the U.S., would it be okay for me to pick a domain name with a .US extension ?

Also if I build the site right, keeping SEO in my thoughts and plans the whole time and if I am able to drive traffic, will a .us domain get ranked with google and all the others or will the sites that have the .com still over ride all the other domain extension, forcing them to fall back to pages that are never even viewed from a simple search.

I am sorry this post got a little long, THANK YOU in advance for any info, tips or advice I hope to get from this post.

Rob

 

[Mr. DeletedMr. Deleted is verified member.]

Of course, that CAN be OK for first-time visitors, but if you want your customers to return to the website, you will want to own the .com. In other words, if they remember and type in xyz.com instead of xyz.us, you just lost a visitor, and maybe a repeat buyer. If they type in xyz.com, you want that to be your website. Message me if I can help you further.

 

[stay@homedad]

Thank you for replying and what you are saying makes a lot of sense. I never thought that far down the road I guess.

Sent you a message.

 

[Karim Nasser]

Hello,

I would stay clear from anything which isn't a .COM
It isn't about SEO, it is about what people are used to. SEO can change, as anything else can, as you mentioned.

Registering a new name will not help SEO. You need a memorable brand, even if it will cost you.

That is my opinion.

 

[dynadotdynadot is verified member.]

Since .US is a country code domain extension and not a generic domain extension (which is what .COM is), Google will see it differently. It sees country code domains as indicators of a geographic location, so your domain/website won't rank as well outside of the domain's indicated geographic location - i.e. the US. Since your business and your customers are in the US anyway, it sounds like this isn't much of an issue, but it's still something to consider (there are also ways around this if you do go international - here is more info: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?hl=en&rd=1).

Beyond the SEO side, it is important to consider how memorable the domain and domain extension you choose will be for potential customers. You don't need to limit yourself to .COM, but if you do choose an alternate extension, we recommend making it part of your marketing - an example of this would be About.me where the extension is part of their name and branding.

 

[accurate]

Best to use a more generic extension.

I actively build and buy .US domains and like the extension. High quality traffic users and buyers come from US.