Opinion on .so domains?
Hello, people! ☀️
I've started a nice new project and I'm also thinking about branding, name and all that.
I'm a bit intrigued about .so domains.
I've seen that lately, there are a bunch of cool web projects using it, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks about using that extension.
Thanks!
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.so domains looks very awesome and modern. Btw, I love Notion.
Hi Andrei,
I also don't know how to judge SEO benefits of .so domain name. But 2 popular Community Software websites are using .So
Probably, they have used it to mean the term Social.
I have wrote about these Startups in my blog too - https://www.communitysoftware.co/
Having said that, I have analyzed their SEO performance too.
It's not bad because Tribe ranks really high on Google for some good keywords.
You can be assured it won't bother your SEO benefits but ask yourself if this domain matches your product or business.
Good luck
Venkat
Thanks a lot for the reply!
I also looked at tribe, shape.so (by designcode.io), even notion (who admitted it was the only extension that was available with their word, but they since got notion.com).
So it gives me the vibe of cool web projects (maybe this is just in my mind, though).
Originally, the TLD is for Somalia.
I see. You do further research. Ask your friends or family members if they like the name. Take a days time and decide.
I think the problems Notion had with .so weren’t so much around SEO, more around many companies blocking .so domains.
It makes sense from a corporate security point of view: what reason would employees have to visit a Somali website, except if they’re being lured into a scam by a self-described Nigerian prince?
If your project is long-term, you also have to ask yourself whether you trust the Somali government to keep your .so domain available to you, as a non-Somali citizen, into the future, for a reasonable price.
Personally I’d steer clear of .so
It's probably ok for a side project, but you're better off with a gTLD.
.so is a ccTLD for Somolia.
I heard that Notion had to do a lot of extra SEO work because of their .so domain.
I was also considering .so at one point, but decided to go with .io instead because Google treats .io as a gTLD.
Hope that helps, and good luck!
I also read that there's no rankings difference between TLDs, according to this https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2015/07/googles-handling-of-new-top-level
This is true for new gTLDs (sometimes called nTLDs). but .so is still a ccTLD so the implication is that a .so domain is targeting Somalia. Obviously lots of businesses like Notion don't care and .so is now in a weird spot where it's technically a ccTLD but many non-Somali businesses are using it.
Thanks a lot for the insight! (that actually cut all my enthusiasm, because I had some pretty cool simple names for .so 😅). But super valid points nonetheless!
Is there a place I could see the "safe" gTLDs?
Here you go:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/managing-multi-regional-sites?visit_id=637728147063630455-3676583188&rd=1#generic-domains
TBH, you'll probably be fine with a .so domain. You can always start with a .so and then switch to another domain later.
Good luck!
It's a cool TLD, but every time I see it, it prompts me to wonder if "so" is supposed to be part of the brand name.
I'd suggest .co if .com is not available.
Or something super creative that IS part of your brand name! My company is PeopleFish. Domain is people.fish.
Thanks for the input! PeopleFish seems awesome!! I also have a .fish for another project <3
.com all the way. I would pick a slightly longer/different name of the project just to get the .com.
of course, that will be a slightly controversial topic here with Indie makers... :)
.so is blocked in my company. ;x
😱hm... how so?
It is blocked in mostly all multinational IT companies. This tld have bad reputation history.
Even Notion is blocked in many companies because it's association with .so tld.
Not sure, to be honest. Everything else is allowed. That would be my main concern
Is .is blocked? Like my app https://baseline.is ?
works fine! :) Loved the project btw! Nice job!
Thanks for checking and the kind words!
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