Real Estate .net.au

[Rhythm]

Hi.

What's it worth?

Which brings me to my main question:

How feasible would it be to SEO for a keyphrase .net.au domain with equivalent Australian Local Search Volume for they keywords 'real estate' for the month of August? Assuming that at present, no other search result for the term on Google has these keywords in their domain?

Edit: Just to clarify, the only thing my keyphrase domain has in common with 'real estate' is the exact LSV (800,000+) for the month of August. It is not specifically in the Real Estate Industry ie not property related, as it is pretty generic.

 

[dotworx]

I am not sure if I understood you correctly: I would be very surprised if Google discriminate .net.au.

But I suppose in general, .net.au sites have less creditability comparing to a .com.au site among the average users (unless it's a well-known sites liike ABC.net.au), therefore lower click through rate. But SEO wise, I don't think it matters.

 

[Jonathan]

Agreed - from what I've read, Google doesn't discriminate against .net.au's, but it does make your site harder to 'brand' in the offline world.

Anyway.. value? It's a top 10 .net.au, I'd put value in the low to mid $XX,XXX range. The thing is though, it's such a competitive industry. It'd take a huge amount of time and money to compete with RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au.

 

[Ben]

Google has never treated .net.au or .com.au the same. If you actually had tested, done SEO, or even had a clue what you were talking about you wouldn't make these statements.

dotworx, you don't know the answer to this at all - be honest + cycloptik, where did you read they were treated the same?

Sorry to come down on you guys, but this is why people think SEO is bullshit. Because people that never even tried it are telling other people what to do.

Rhythm you'll find the .net.au a LOT harder to rank, especially if it's a uber competitive term.

 

[Jonathan]

I dunno. I admit, I've never tried to develop a .net.au, but I'm still not convinced.

Do a Google Search for 'SEO Australia', a very competitive keyword. First result is a .net.au.

EDIT: It also ranks on the first page for 'SEO Melbourne'

 

[Ben]

cycloptik, I have done seo for 13 years. I'm sure your suspicions and left field examples are incorrect.

 

[Ben]

But hey, I dunno and don't assume. To be honest this is the exact reason people don't share knowledge - you can't. People are too ignorant.

Power to you all.

 

[dotworx]

I don't know but I am free to share my thoughts.

I am surprised by what you said and I would like to see more evidence supporting it.

Ben, take it easy.

cheers
Jeph

 

[soj]

Ben - I feel like im listening to a repeat of your interview on OzDomainer haha.

I would say that .net.au are treated differently than .com.au. If you want to find out, do a test. Register a .com.au and .net.au of the exact same keywords, then put a link from a couple of sites on each, with the exact same format. See which one ranks higher than the other, and you have your answer.

 

[DavidL]

I agree with cycloptik - I don't believe Google discriminates against net.au's.

However, if you do break it down, CTR is a factor that comes into play. And net.au results are a little less likely to be clicked on than com.au results. So, as a secondary effect actual ranking might suffer.

Ben - do you have evidence to the contrary? If so I'm keen to hear it?

 

[DomainMarketPlace]

I've developed both .net.au (working on two right now) and .com.au sites for years and i've never seen any evidence to suggest a bias towards .com.au in google.

Granted their may be some descrimination from the user, but as i've said before it's that easy to phish the average user that I believe they don't even notice the links they are clicking on most of the time. If you rank in the top three you'll get a decent CTR.

A few googlers including Matt Cutts have said before that they don't descriminate against TLDs (even .cn and .info). Even if they did, with such strong regulation for .au i think they'd all be trusted sources.

Alot of people think .edu or .gov get PR faster and rank better than .com or .net but IMO they usually have high quality content that more people are likely to link to making them authoritive.

 

[Jonathan]

I just don't see the logic in Google (or any other search engine, for that matter) disciminating against non .com extensions. I'm not saying they definitely don't do it, I just don't understand why they would.

But to get back to the domain in question, imho it will take you tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars in SEO and promotion to get anywhere near the front page of Google for most real estate terms.

Sidenote: I did a whois on RealEstate.net.au and the owner comes back as one 'Craig Oehlers'. A Google search on this individual comes up with some interesting results

 

[Rhythm]

Agreed - from what I've read, Google doesn't discriminate against .net.au's, but it does make your site harder to 'brand' in the offline world.

I agree, branding is an issue. That's why we have bookmarks!

Anyway.. value? It's a top 10 .net.au, I'd put value in the low to mid $XX,XXX range. The thing is though, it's such a competitive industry. It'd take a huge amount of time and money to compete with RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au.

But what I'm getting at is that is it possible to compare two keyphrase domains based on G search volume alone? By the way, the domain has no direct connection with property but for the similarity in exact local search volume.. See 1st post edit.

 

[Rhythm]

Rhythm you'll find the .net.au a LOT harder to rank, especially if it's a uber competitive term.

Which is a fact I am willing to (grudgingly) accept. So now the question is:

How much harder? Twice as hard? 10x more difficult?

 

[Rhythm]

If you want to find out, do a test. Register a .com.au and .net.au of the exact same keywords, then put a link from a couple of sites on each, with the exact same format. See which one ranks higher than the other, and you have your answer.

Looks like something I'll have to do. Whatever the result, the SEO experience will be worth it.

 

[Ben]

Sounds like a plan Rhythm, I'd be keen to see your results. Sadly the flawed logic isn't my fault, and many that just open their mouths show how little they think in general.

Ranking a .net.au on a non-competitive term simply doesn't count. Term in question is Real Estate, that's Uber competitive, so unless your example is Home Loan or something, do everyone a favour (especially yourself) and STFU. I'm not here to prove you wrong, that way I make less money - I couldn't care less.

So if I owned something like resume.com.au and let's assume it had a really nice link profile like say, umm, resumes.net.au (400+links in Y!), don't you think it would certainly be in the TOP 100?

I should have learned the old adage about arguing with idiots and I shouldn't do this. It won't happen again ;-)

 

[soj]

Ben - so your saying now that Google doesnt differentiate between a .net.au and .com.au on non-competitive terms, and only on competitive terms it will be advantageous to have the .com.au? What would a competitive term be, at what limit does the advantages of a .com.au run out? Are you therefore saying that Google treats a .com.au and .net.au equally on non-competitive terms.

PS. Theres no need to be rude to other members here, its only a discussion with peoples opinions, which is just what yours is...an opinion.

 

[DomainMarketPlace]

Ben just listening to you on the podcast here:

http://www.ozdomainer.com/domain-names-podcast-episode-14-with-ben-wilks-my-seo-go-to-guy/

Your explanations are very clear and consise. I'll take your word for it on this topic as it's obvious know what your on about and have tested your theory.

 

[dotworx]

I should have learned the old adage about arguing with idiots and I shouldn't do this. It won't happen again ;-)

Regardless who you were referring to, I don't think it earns much credit for you.

Forums like this are for people to share ideas: people come here to exchange thoughts and learn from each other. Everyone is entitled to express their ideas. I don't claim to be a search expert or anything, because I am not. I therefore used phrases like "I'd be surprised...", "I don't think..." in my comment, as I knew I could be wrong and I was happy to listen to other people.

While you might be right on this topic, "I've been doing this for X years and you guys are idiots" type of attitude is not welcomed. Constructive debate is what's appreciated here.

 

[cbayley2001]

@benwilks...
For a start:
1. I have seen so many muppets claim +10 years of experience in this industry and it counts for nought. 13 years in SEO means your first 9 are wasted.
2. If ur so good at it you wouldn't be consulting
3. If ur so good at it, why are you not ranked #1 for "grow", instead losing to grow.net.au (the irony)
4. Why bother spamming this forum with your grow.com.au link. The nofollows are missing but you'd admit there is 0 value
5. You are bearish on paid search. What were you thinking? Plenty of large acquisitions from Photon Group, ValueClick et al have happened all around you on the back of PPC. I'm saying that the smarter people do both, I don't really respect one trick ponies, they stay small.

Everyone has perfectly good examples of .net.au's performing better than .com.au's. There's no penalty for .net.au's, just that CTR plays a role and it may be lower with an unknown brand. Horses for courses though, every serp is different