Domain extensions - .com vs .us

[dmyre]

Being that REW sites are heavily optimized for SEO, how much weight do you put in the domain's extension? An obvious choice would be a generic .com with natural type in traffic to develop a website, but if you primarily focusing on SE and PPC traffic, would a premium .us be just as good as a .com in ranking?

For example, would realestate.us rank as well as bobsrealestate.com

[jamesww]

From all the testing that I have done I cannot find any benefit in SERPs for any certain domain ending. This has lead me to believe that there is no benefit between a .com or a .us when it comes to search engines. Now when it comes to the likelyhood of a consumer remembering the correct domain that is another story.

[dmyre]

That's my belief as well. It's good to know that I'm not alone...

[belgradeinvestments.com]

It wont make a difference, but when it comes to viral marketing it's far better to have .com because people tend to remember that more easily. But the downside is that geo targeting is better with national domains. But again that is small comparing to .com

Conclusion: it's the same, but I like .com better

Greetings

[escapeso]

I always figure if you get a site doing well that is xyz.net its going to help out whoever owns xyz.com. Kind of in the same way that the launch of bing helped bling.com.

[belgradeinvestments.com]

^ That is also true.

[JimOlenbush]

.com is the only way to go. Any other extension and you will be losing some return traffic