Help me decide ! - .co vs .com (with prefix)
Hey all. Help me decide between two options. I've got an ideal domain name picked out for my project which I intend to launch within a week.
The ideal name is 12 characters long. But the dot com is being squatted on and not-updated.
So I own both the ideal name's .co variation as well as the .com variation but only if I add the word 'The' in front of it.
IDEALNAME[dot]co
or
theIDEALNAME[dot]com
Here's the caveat - it's community based product which will have avenues for monetization. Adding 'the' will work based on what the name is. Where as another TLD like .app or .io would not work based on the product type.
side note: I could totally overtake the squatting domain in the SERPs with the .co variation. But was slightly worried about people mistyping thinking it was supposed to be .com and sending traffic to the other page.
So these seem to be my two options. Thoughts?
.com is still the most reputable domain, though. I think a lot depends on the actual name -- whether it sounds well with "the" or not
It would sound good with 'the' in front. Though the name is already 11 letters. Adding the prefix would make it 14.
if it sounds good I don't see a problem, however might be worthwile to check what do search engines think about this
Worry about mistyping? How much are people actually TYPING addresses these days? They usually land on a page from somewhere with a direct link. So I wouldn't worry about URL at all and go for quicker option to implement, so you would focus on delivering value instead.
From my experience, if you're successful enough, you will come up with a new name and rebrand your project for larger audience, potentially.
Valid points. Likely wouldn't rebrand based on the niche. But I do see what you mean, I barely type addresses anymore.
In my experience, mistyping quickly corrects itself. Browser history relies on frequency of usage.
If you have some kind of audio marketing material (video ads or podcasts), you could drive home the .co difference really well. That said, the second or third time users would probably rely on browser history, which should point them to your domain.
Thanks for the response. You're right. I think the best route might be to go with .co