Do people use .co domains? are they worth buying?

[Siick26]

I'm thinking of buying a .co domain name, and just wondered if they're worth buying or not. They're quite expensive (£30) per year for this one i want. I never seem to see many around.

[dvduval]

I think yes. I seem to recall Matt Cutts saying that google treats .co like .com and there are certainly some good opportunities to get good domains that are .co still.

[felgall]

All top level domains are treated the same by Google - the Columbian .co domain is no different from the international .com domain except that it belongs to Columbia and so that country can dictate who is allowed to use it and how much they have to pay.

[dklynn]

As Stephen pointed out, .co belongs to Columbia and is a local domain tld similar to .co.uk, .co.nz and .com.au. For me, if you're marketing to Columbians, use the .co, if you're marketing to the UK, use .co.uk, use .co.nz for Kiwis and .com.au for Ozzies. If your market is international, though, use .com (if you can get it). It's all in who you're marketing to.

Regards,

DK

[Siick26]

Right i see, well my site is marketed internationally, it's targeted at everyone around the world, and unfortunately .com is not available so would you say .co is the next best option? .net and .co.uk are also taken.

[Stevie D]

Right i see, well my site is marketed internationally, it's targeted at everyone around the world, and unfortunately .com is not available so would you say .co is the next best option? .net and .co.uk are also taken.

What about .biz? Of course, the biggest problem with registering any duplicate domain name is that it is a duplicate ... and that can confuse people. If you market "website.co", there's a very good chance that people looking for your site will type in "website.com" and go to your competitor's site. Is that what you want? Can you be sure that all your marketing isn't going to give someone else a load of free traffic? Could you register a different domain instead and get the .com address?

[Pixelgeek]

Google may associate your site with Colombia rather than the US. Even if the content is in English or not Colombia related. It's a possibility.

[TechnoBear]

Google may associate your site with Colombia rather than the US. Even if the content is in English or not Colombia related. It's a possibility.

You can use Google Webmaster Tools to specify a geographic target, irrespective of your domain extension.

[felgall]

The problem with using any country specific domain for international use is that the domain is actually owned by that country and there is at least a slight possibility of their deciding to re-purpose their domain at some future time and cancel all existing sub-domain registrations on their domain as part of the process. This is more likely where the country currently make their domain available internationally where they may decide in future to impose restrictions that limit their domain to use within their own country. You could end up losing a domain that you have worked with for several years and have to start over with a different domain.