Need a new web host or having a problem with a script? Tips and advice on the best way to design, build and maintain your most valuable asset - your website!

Question on the .us extension
heavysm
Posts: 69
Joined: 08 Mar 10
Trust:
18 Oct 10 5:36 pm

Question on the .us extension

I know affiloblueprint recommends the .com domain extension for our site url's, but I did a virtual checkout for a .us just out of curiosity and it seems one can only purchase .us if they are an American citizen or otherwise residing within the US. Does this mean that the .us extension cannot be seen by international parties searching google?

This confuses me because I know other countries need their own country extensions for their domains, but does that mean .us is isolated to traffic in the US? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but my current understanding is that the only difference between .com, .us, .biz etc is what people are more used to, or basically reputation of the extension. It would mean a world of difference if .us was only able to get US based traffic.
  • 1
milansangan
Posts: 55
Joined: 07 Oct 10
Trust:
19 Oct 10 6:18 am

 Hi. I believe yes, you can only get a .us extension if you are a US citizen or have a US based business. Anyway, I recommend that you check out the link below if you would like to know how a .us extension really works.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Which-URL-Ext ... id=4594227
  • 1
Site Admin
michellerana
Posts: 1874
Joined: 05 May 09
Trust:
19 Oct 10 10:25 pm
heavysm wrote:Does this mean that the .us extension cannot be seen by international parties searching google?

This confuses me because I know other countries need their own country extensions for their domains, but does that mean .us is isolated to traffic in the US?


All domains including sites with a .us extension can be accessed by anyone. Country related domain extensions (like .us, .de, .uk) rank much better locally but it's harder to rank well internationally. You won't usually find a .us domain in search results.
  • 1
Michelle
Customer Support
=========================

Limited time special - Pathway to Passive for $37: http://www.affilorama.com/pathwaytopassive
 
PremiumMember
ampie g
Posts: 381
Joined: 15 Oct 08
Trust:
20 Oct 10 6:20 am

 It's best to use a country domain extension if you're targeting a certain country (.uk, .au, etc.). But in the case of a .us domain, I don't see its advantage over using a .com domain.
  • 1
michael025
Posts: 197
Joined: 07 Oct 10
Trust:
20 Oct 10 12:50 pm

 I agree with Ampie. You normally only target country based extensions(.us, .uk, .sg, etc.) if you're targeting local traffic. But that does not mean that the traffic is isolated to that specific country. You would still be able to find .us domains by doing a global search on google, but it's still best to go for the globally known extensions(.com or .net).
  • 1
rudolf55
Posts: 119
Joined: 29 Sep 09
Trust:
24 Oct 10 11:11 pm

 Not true! I recently registerd a .us domain name and live in the Netherlands.. I registered at http://www.americaregistry.com.
  • 1

This topic was started on Oct 18, 2010 and has been closed due to inactivity. If you want to discuss this topic further, please create a new forum topic.

Topic locked