.CO domains from a SEO perspective

by Terrell on July 30, 2010

I came across a recent article at Domain Name Wire that cited  a PCPro.co.uk article announcing that Google will rank .co as international domain if the content is globally targeted, as opposed to just ranking them for Colombia.

The article states:

While the .co domain is still assigned to Colombia at the moment, a Google spokesperson said that would soon change. “We will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted. Webmasters will soon have the functionality to be able to specify this by using the geotargeting options in Google Webmaster Tools.”

I really don’t see this as a big deal nor an extra benefit  to buying .co domains as international targeting is common.  Here are a few other Google searches returning country code domains outside of the native country:

  • “url shortener” returns bit.ly as the #1 ranking (Liberia)
  • “despicable me movie” returns despicable.me as the #1 ranking (Montenegro)
  • “justin” returns popular live video streaming site Justin.tv (Tuvalu)
  • “matt” returns WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg’s blog (Trinidad and Tobago)
  • “free internet radio” returns Last.fm (Federated States of Micronesia)

Now the real bonus would be if Google were to give .co domains the exact match bonus internationally as is done with .com, .net, and .org.  I don’t see that happening anytime soon though.

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Hot Tub Time Machine MovieBeing a work-at-home entrepreneur with a 2-year old running around doesn’t allow for much free time.  Usually that free time is spent outside, but with us approaching 100 degrees here in Texas, we are stuck inside many evenings.

Well this weekend, we had an expiring Amazon On Demand coupon and decided to rent Hot Tub Time Machine.  It was crude and certainly a movie to watch after the kids are asleep, but it was entertaining.  The premise is that four guys on a weekend retreat stumble across a Hot Tub Time Machine.  The time machine takes them back to 1986, when there were only 60 domain names registered and none were in the Top 10 Most Expensive Domains sold.

At one point, Rob Cordry’s character realizes he already knows the future and can change it.

Here’s the line from the trailer, skip to 1:55

Change time, change the future…
There’s money to be made here, man? We could invent iPods.
A Prius. Match.com. Short ribs.
We could combine Viagra with Twitter.
What?
Twitagra! Boom!
…and kick some past…

My first domain name was registered for me by a friend while I was in college in 1996 but a few years later abandoned the site and moved on.  Later when Penny and I got married in 1999, I bought a few more domain names related to my cattle software business but didn’t buy anything else that I didn’t think I “needed.”  If only I had a Hot Tub Time Machine.

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Groupon uses trademark to acquire Groupon.com

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Quick Domain Tools lookups with Google Chrome

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Do you have more domain names than you do websites? If you answered “Yes” and are just leaving those extra domain names showing your registrar’s Coming Soon page full of ads, you are leaving money on the table. I’ve found forwarding domains to be a great way of bringing additional visitors to my sites and [...]

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Interview on entrepreneurship for MO.com

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I was recently interviewed by Brian Null for a segment entitled “What’s Your MO?” on his new entrepreneurship blog at MO.com. Brian has a successful track record in entrepreneurship having sold OfficeSupply.com, GolfCourses.com, and Saws.com among others so I’m excited to see what he does with MO.com. I really like Brian’s slogan “a casual hangout [...]

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