Update on .co vs .com experiment
Okay, it’s been five days since we started our .co vs .com experiment. If you did not see the first post make sure to read it first.
Here is the scoop so far:
- Both domains (27conversions.co & 27conversions.com) where made live at the same time on Thursday July 21st at about 8:30am (MST).
- The .co domain was optimized for the keyword “27 conversions”, the .com was not optimized (other than the exact match domain name).
- Both domains were blogged about and Tweeted at the same time on Thursday July 21st at 9:03am (MST)
- On Thursday July 21st at 7:38pm Google indexed 27conversions.co first! It was ranked on page number seven of Google.
- As of today (July 26th) 27conversions.com has still not been indexed by Google. (clearly Google is ignoring it because it’s not optimized, even though it has some page content (coming soon…) and an exact match domain. This is supports the theory that the optimized site should rank higher when the domain names are the same and the TLD is different.
- As of now (July 26th), 27conversions.co is ranking #3 on the first page of Google!
- Now what? We customize the .com domain and see what happens!
- July 26th at 12:00pm (MST) we optimized the .com domain but used different content that is not as optimized as the .co domain. In theory the .co should remain ranked higher unless Google gives more weight to the .com domain vs. the .co domain.
We’ll see what happens and keep you posted.
Tags: .co vs .com, .com vs .co
6 Responses to “Update on .co vs .com experiment”
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Would love to see what happens to the .com once its indexed. We assume the .com will get more weight, but this can also prove that what really matters to google is the content itself and not the extension.
WIll return back for your final results. Great stuff.
My hypothesis is that they will rank it based on the content. Especially since we are moving into the age of novelty domains where some fairly popular websites have a TLD from a completely different country. I suppose your experiment will allow us to know for sure. ^_^ This was an excellent idea!
Yes. I agree that content is Google’s real focus. However, they clearly give more weight to the .com vs the .co. The .com is now ranking higher than the .co for the keyword “27 Conversions”! Even though the .co is slightly better optimized and was indexed first.
Drats! I’m a bit disappointed in Google for this one. I am now wondering if that would still hold true if you tried optimizing for a keyword that wasn’t in the domain itself. Keep us updated on the experiment as results come in! Very interesting stuff.
Found this little gem after looking at a few .co domains.. This is a great post guys. I’ve just searched the term ’27 conversion’s and for me (in the UK) the .com is now around position 5 and the .co is position 15.
It seems more weight is still given to the old faithful, which scuppers my plan!
Indeed. .com wins. In the USA the .com is number 3 and the .co is number 4:(
Somethings are good though. Such as the .co getting indexed first. We might try to further optimize the .co to see if the optimized version takes out the less-optimzed .com or if Google says “no, no, no you don’t…the .com is king of the hill no matter what”!