A friend is starting a consulting company and her web/seo people are telling her that having a company url ending in .biz (as opposed to .com or .net) isn’t good.

Is this true? And if so why?

Thanks in advance –

.com – US Commercial Website

.net – Internet Network or Networking Site.

.biz – US Buisiness Site

.org – Organization Site – (sometimes non-profit – clubs – gov)

.info – US Information Site (no restrictions)

There are hundreds of designations. It used to be that you were wise if you took the .com for your website and also reserved (purchased) the others so no one could buy say, the .net and build a site that spins off your reputation.

 
It is always best to use .com whenever possible. If someone already has the .com it is not a good idea to purchase the .net (same domain name) or any of the others as then you could lose business to the .com.

.com is the most common and it is hard to remember the .net, .biz, and .info for any given website.

.org is different as people recognize it as usually NOT a business.

thanks for the comments – I’ll pass this on to my friend (whose business name is the same as someone who has the same business name with the .com.)

@pchiappa We use .biz domain as test and beta environment for the web projects we do i.e. the .biz is used as to communicate a certain state of project. Our main business site has the same name but goes with .com.

@pchiappa

As mentioned by them earlier, people are wary about going to .biz sites.  Com is more recognizable and associated with URLs.  Stick to it, if you can.

SideNOTE:

Many .com’s are purchased in bulk by domain companies who then put them up for sale at exorbitant prices.  Two of my clients over the years have run into this. When I could not talk one of those into purchasing a different name (a much better one really) we were forced to purchase the .biz but ALSO I insisted on purchasing the .net, .info and .org also.  Knowing no one else would ever purchase the .com, that has worked well.  The purchased (hijacked really) name was up for sale at a cost of $1,000.00.  Although to my client, this was not that much of a high price, they refused to pay, on principle.   

The URL you purchase does not need to be a company name, in fact that often hinders later efforts at SEO.  Take into account the fact that your URL should contain your main (or one of them) keyword(s) and you get the idea. The URL is a web address, nothing more. The company name is the brand (most of the time).

great input, thanks @supereb

so glad you asked this question, I was womdering myself @pchiappa

@pchiappa

Did you try for bowling-balls <<< with the dash in there? That might be available.

Dashes are now acceptable and many times you can get the name by putting in a dash or two (three words).  What about custombowlingballs or is there a brand name? Like wheeler-bowlingballs? You can almost always figure something out. 

@ Pat Chiappa

OH – Sorry! Heh – That’s funny.  Well, it’s still an example of how to get around those .coms that have been gobbled up for no reason other than greed.