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Is .co a good alternative if .com is taken?

Discussion in 'Domain Names' started by 0ccul7, May 27, 2020.

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  1. #1
    I am looking to establish a start up, but the .com of the name, the name is 4 letter only, that I thought of is already taken and the seller wants $25,000 for it. I dont have that type of money for a startup, hence wondering if the .co of that domain would be a bad choice or what? Its a 4 letter domain hence its a premium .co as they say it.

    Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
     
    0ccul7, May 27, 2020 IP
  2. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #2
    A lot depends on your target market
    • will they notice?
      I had an google ads agency try to log into one of my sites because their client had the .nz while we had the .co.nz and they didn't notice. When I contacted them they denied it was them because I was quoting their domain as a .co.nz and they have the .nz - even though they actually have both. If online professionals are too lazy to notice most end users won't.
    • Will they ever have to type in the domain?
      The days of giving your email address over the phone or getting someone to go to your website are long gone. Now most people will get to your site from an email, social media, a web search.
    • Is the .com parked or in active use?
      I'd probably give it a miss if the .com was being used and there was a possibility my site might be construed as leaching off the .com.
     
    sarahk, May 27, 2020 IP
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  3. netmaster123

    netmaster123 Well-Known Member

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    #3
    .co is a good alternative but customers might end up going to the .com

    I would find a 2 or 3 word .com alternative, try the Godaddy domain generator and see if you find a good option.
     
    netmaster123, May 28, 2020 IP
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  4. JEET

    JEET Notable Member

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    #4
    .CO is short for Colombia. Its a country specific tld. Its not short for COM...
    This is not good for SEO if your target market is not Colombia.
    Go with more common tlds like .NET, .ORG, or choose from those new niche specific tlds like .club, .design, .party, .top, etc. Hundreds are available these days.

    by the way, when registering a 4 character domain, make sure its not too complicated to remember.
    Like, CNOP, NOCP, NCPO, all are similar, and people get confused a lot with names like these, which are not really pronounceable.
    Its better to have a 6-7 character domain rather than having a confusing 4 character one like this.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2020
    JEET, May 28, 2020 IP
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  5. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #5
    Meh, I wouldn't worry about the Colombia thing. I'm not sure too many people could point to Tuvalu on the map, but will visit a .tv site without associating the site with that tiny island nation.
     
    sarahk, May 28, 2020 IP
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  6. JEET

    JEET Notable Member

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    #6
    @sarahk
    Not people, I'm talking about google.
    Google will definitely consider it as a country specific site. It'll be lot harder to get it ranked for general stuff.
     
    JEET, May 28, 2020 IP
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  7. IAmTheAnswer

    IAmTheAnswer Member

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    #7
    I would suggest that maybe you should find an alternative name for your domain. Much better if you use more than 4 letters for your domain name - easy to read and easy to remember.
     
    IAmTheAnswer, May 28, 2020 IP
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  8. Furquan Ahmed

    Furquan Ahmed Well-Known Member

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    #8
    If your startup is related to tech then I suggest to get .io domain. There many domain name extension available check.
     
    Furquan Ahmed, May 31, 2020 IP
  9. JEET

    JEET Notable Member

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    #9
    @Furquan Ahmed
    .IO is not short for "Input Output" as in tech.
    Its short for British "Indian Ocean" territory, as in region specific.
    It will have the same problem as .CO domain will have.
    Registrant will have to work harder to get any good ranks, to make google understand that its not a region specific site.

    So far I have only come across "one" website in search which has a .IO extension, keywordtool.io
     
    JEET, May 31, 2020 IP
  10. winson

    winson Well-Known Member

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    #10
    you got no ideal what you talking about
     
    winson, Jun 8, 2020 IP
  11. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #11
    What do you mean?

    upload_2020-6-9_17-46-54.png
     
    sarahk, Jun 8, 2020 IP
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  12. JEET

    JEET Notable Member

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    #12
    @winson
    I think its you who doesn't knows which TLDs are assigned to which country.
    All of these 2 character TLDs are country specific.
    You can "assume" an elaborated form to be anything you want, that does not changes the fact that its a country specific TLD, and not a general TLD.
    Google will definitely follow the TLD registry rules, not your "assumed" meaning of the TLD.
     
    JEET, Jun 8, 2020 IP
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  13. c4cyber

    c4cyber Well-Known Member

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    #13
    No. It's not a good alternative.
    users might confuse .co with .com and your traffic/customers might end up going to .com. You don't want that. Right?
    t
     
    c4cyber, Jun 14, 2020 IP
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  14. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #14
    Depends on where your customers are coming from

    - are they remembering a domain from signwriting on a car or a billboard?
    - are they searching and clicking on a result?
     
    sarahk, Jun 14, 2020 IP
  15. Aelko

    Aelko Member

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    #15
    Right now, some registrars are offering good .co domain discounts
    Here are the registration prices:
    Epik $0.99
    Godaddy $0.99
    Sav $0.99
    IONOS $1.00
    StableHost $1.00
     
    Aelko, Jul 4, 2020 IP
  16. NAZAM.COM

    NAZAM.COM Well-Known Member

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    #16
    I've avoided registering .cos because people could end up going to the wrong website. Most people have very poor IT skills let's remember, and they could:

    - type an "m" at the end of your domain name, so go to the ".com" of your domain name instead of your site
    - think the ".co" is just part of the TLD and so type the full TLD as something like ".co.nz" or ".co.uk", once again meaning they go to someone else's site.
     
    NAZAM.COM, Jul 7, 2020 IP
  17. zoink59

    zoink59 Well-Known Member

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    #17
    If 99.9% of your traffic will come from search and/or online ads it won't matter. People will just click your link in the search results and, possibly, bookmark the site. If you are depending on people remembering your domain via branding campaigns and typing it into their browser, expect issues with people typing ".com" in place of ".co". I have no stats on how often such typos happen but why risk losing any hard-earned traffic?
     
    zoink59, Jul 7, 2020 IP
  18. Aelko

    Aelko Member

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    #18
    In terms of SEO, .com and .co are identical. Since 2013, Google has ranked .com and .co equally well.
    More details here:
    https://www.seroundtable.com/google-cctld-generics-16729.html

    By the way, Colombia is not currently managing the .co extension. These extensions are managed by Neustar (the agreement has recently been extended for another 5 years). And GoDaddy bought Neustar this year for $218 million.
     
    Aelko, Jul 8, 2020 IP
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  19. pssajit

    pssajit Well-Known Member

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    #19
    I would try to find a matching ".com" domain name. Try abbreviations of your brand name or two word domains. I don't think there is any SEO advantage between .com and .co but often customers tend to type .com against the domain names. I agree there is no point in purchasing a domain name for a huge amount for a start up.
     
    pssajit, Sep 16, 2020 IP
  20. mmerlinn

    mmerlinn Prominent Member

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    #20
    Yes, it WILL matter. Google tends to serve up pages nearer to the searcher. If the searcher is not in Columbia, the results will be banjaxed and the searcher may never find those pages.

    First rule of SEO is that one MUST target one's customers. Using .co in most cases will NOT serve up results that your customers are looking for. IF THEY CAN'T FIND YOU, YOU WON'T GET ANY VISITORS.
     
    mmerlinn, Sep 29, 2020 IP
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