Ask HN: is using a .me extension bad for SEO?

7 points by thomaaas ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I'm planning to buy a domain name for my personal blog. After spending a lot of time trying to find an available .com domain, I gave up, and found a cool .me domain instead.

But do extensions have an impact on SEO? Is using a .com better than a .me SEO wise? Thanks!

3 comments

[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 14.5 ms ] thread
.com is better. People tends to auto-assume .com when remembering "CoolName". If CoolName.me is "cooler" that CoolName.com - then register both and redirect .com -> .me Otherwise if someone else owns CoolName.com and you grabbed CoolName.me - you're always at disadvantage. There are plenty of great .com domains to be found with a bit of creativity.
It matters, but not enough for you to worry about at this stage. Do whatever, it really doesn't matter unless you get some traction on your blog, until then you're just over-thinking it.
I recently started forwarding my old MyFullName.me domain to my company's MyCompany.com domain and have noticed my traffic tripling during the day.

Patrick McKenzie has a very informative post on SEO. It's worth the read: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/01/24/startup-seo/