: I now own both, .net and .com extensions for a business page. Should I change the default? Back in 2007 I purchased a .net domain for a certain company because the .com was taken. The website
Back in 2007 I purchased a .net domain for a certain company because the .com was taken.
The website grew, and I consider it to have a good amount of visits, keeping in mind its a business page, and not eCommerce.
It also attracts a lot of customers, and the owners are very happy with it.
A couple of years ago, I was also able to purchase the .com domain, and I never really did anything with it but forward to the .net domain.
Now, .com domains were supposed to be used for commercial sites, but are also the most used in the world for any other type of site, while .net were supposed to be for networks. We know a lot of people, including myself don't always follow this.
Now, in my opinion, I always thought of websites ending in .com as more trustworthy. I'm not sure why, if because they were always more widely used, or if because, as in my case, .net were usually the sites who could not get the .com extension.
Part 1
My questions are:
A - Do people share this vision of .com being more trustworthy?
B - Should I think about moving to the different domain name?
C - And if so, what proper steps should I take to make sure I don't lose any rankings?
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A: In general, yes, .com is sometimes thought of as being more trustworthy. If for no other reason than that it tends to cost more for a .net address.
B: I suppose it depends on how vested you are in the .net domain. Since this is only a small change and you do still control both domains the cost is minimal. If you were designing this today and had both it'd be pretty obvious that the .com is best for external use and the .net is best for internal stuff.
C: A 301 redirect is the most important step. Here is a guide by Google (I think): googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html.
D: If you do this then update your designs and get rid of your current material. It's OK if customers go to the .net address; you'll be setting up redirects. Just don't order anymore of it.
A - Do people share this vision of .com being more trustworthy?
.com is better known but that does not equate to more trustworthy.
B - Should I think about moving to the different domain name?
Only if you think it will somehow benefit the website. If the established website is doing just fine making arbitrary changes usually do more harm than good.
C - And if so, what proper steps should I take to make sure I don't
lose any rankings?
Just do a 301 redirect from the old URLs to the new.
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