Does choice of domain suffix affect Google ranking?

1. 60

   advocoposted 14 years ago

   Hi.  I have an English business based in Spain - my customers can be in either Spain or the UK and will be searching in English for an English business.  However  I chose the suffix .es for my website because .com wasn't available.  None of my competitors are .es and most .es sites are Spanish language, for Spanish people.  Do I have a problem?
   
   Thanks in advance to anyone with some experience or insight on this one.
   
   Fellow hubber
   James

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2. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 14 years ago

   This is an interesting question. 
   
   I usually recommend .com domains for targeting multiple countries in english.  Then, I suggest country specific domains to be produced in that countries language. So I think this is the way to go, but you don't necessarily have a major issue.  I'd need to understand more about the terms you are targeting and your site's structure.
   
   If you search from specific countries, you tend to see more representation of country specific domains in the results.
   
   You might want to post this on webmasterworld, or do some searches related to you and see if your site is showing up.  I know, searching in the US, that I rarely see .uk sites, and even more rares is .es.

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3. 71

   thranaxposted 14 years ago

   I never see .es sites here in the US. These formats I see more commonly:
   
   .com
   .net
   .biz
   .org
   
   A few random sites I been to have had:
   
   .co.uk
   
   This is a free domain name open to everyone, but I don't know if Google or any search engine would accept it, its called:
   
   .tk
   
   I personally used it for a site but lost my name due to inactivity. It's best to buy a domain that the world can use like .com or .biz . There are a few other ones that might apply to your website. Normally the generic ones on GoDaddy are world ones.
   
   ~thranax~

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4. 71

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   As the choices of .com and .net domains decreases , other country codes are gaining popularity.
   
   recently I bought a bunch of .cc 's , all of my research pointed towards theories that sites will not be valued differently with such endings
   
   .info's are frequently seen as spam delight (as they are cheap) but I have been shown many an example of such sites topping the rankings.
   
   Since age is a ranking factor, most .coms and .net are usually the older sites and are also more commonly used (which may change) so there is a much greater concentration of those sites to be seen in everyones search results
   
   this is my theory, with some extrapolation
   
   I def would still take the .com when available anyday

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5. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

   I remember researching this and was told that where the site was hosted was more important than the suffix (so, for instance, if I had a site targetting Australia, Google would give it more cred if it was actually hosted here).
   
   If you're selling something Spanish then I could see the .es suffix as being a good thing, because it shows you're a "real" Spanish site. If you're trying to pretend you're in England, then it could be a drawback - I'd think most internet-savvy Brits would know .es is Spanish.

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