Personal Website .net or .org?

[tobywuk]

Im trying to increase my name standing in the google search engine so my name comes up top when searched.

What would be best for my personal domain, a .net or a .org? (.com is taken)
I may register both but which one should I use for my primary one?

Also when registering my personal domain, would it be best to use my full first and last name or just my first initial and surname as the actual domain name? eg JamesSmith.net or Jsmith.net (this is not my name just an example)

[Cepe Indicum]

I was actually looking into this the other day (similar situation to yours), and got reading the Wikipedia articles - this is the link to the .net article.

It seems like ".org" (and ".org.uk", etc.) are used mainly by big business or charities. ".net" on the other hand seems to be a bit more "personal"... But I doubt this is "the law", just general practice.

So, I would choose .net over .org... and, in fact, I did!

Hope this helps.

[tobywuk]

thanks,

Should I go for Jsmith.net or JohnSmith.net? (not my name, just an example)

[Cepe Indicum]

Originally Posted by tobywuk

thanks,

Should I go for Jsmith.net or JohnSmith.net? (not my name, just an example)

Hmm... I'm going to leave that for someone else to comment on. My personal preference (just based on the way it looks / reads) would be the full name, e.g. JohnSmith.net, but I'm not an expert on search engine rankings, which I think is why you are seeking the opinion... right?

[John Jacob]

Register both of them. And you don't need one of them to be primary; you can have them both alias to the same website.

I use .org, but that's only because I was two weeks late for .com and .net. If either of those had been available, I would have registered them too.

[SrWebDeveloper]

I use .net for mine, and it's far better than using .org which is a top level domain available to anyone, but is INTENDED to be for large organizations including charities and business entities or group affiliations.

The .net originally was for large networks affiliation, but since it's top level people gobbled them up also. Anyway, your personal web space is a social network these days (with potential for blog, forum, chat, pics, videos, all kinds of easy to install interactive features) so it fits the modern connotation.

I think if you use .org for a personal domain, it probably looks a little silly to those who know the real meaning of the .org domain name. It literally would be like you renting a huge 20 story office building down town only to end up with one office occupied - yours. Anyone can do it, but it's impractical, right? That's the analogy of a personal domain with .org.

So I suggest you save your money, SEO doesn't differ between any of the top level domains of this type. Just get the .net! In your case someone else has the .com, and these people don't change the extension in their browsers like the old days when search engines sucked. Some might suggest registering all 3 (.com, .net and .org) if the domain name wasn't already in use and a BUSINESS is involved - simply to avoid confusion, but it's really a waste of money for personal use.

For SEO, be sure that www.yourdomain.net and yourdomain.net both resolve properly for web access, use valid headers with keyword,description and title set properly and you'll be fine.

-jim

[tobywuk]

thanks for your input, I went with .net.

The question is, I now own

wilkinsnet.com
Twilkins.net
Twilkins.co.uk
TobyWilkins.net

I am going to link all the domain names to the same site, but which one Do you think I should use as my primary one and the one I use for my personal email account?

[matperk]

Originally Posted by tobywuk

thanks for your input, I went with .net.

The question is, I now own

wilkinsnet.com
Twilkins.net
Twilkins.co.uk
TobyWilkins.net

I am going to link all the domain names to the same site, but which one Do you think I should use as my primary one and the one I use for my personal email account?

I would probably use tobywilkins.net. Just my personal preference.

[SrWebDeveloper]

Sounds good to me! Enjoy your new domains!

[Ugg]

Originally Posted by tobywuk

thanks for your input, I went with .net.

The question is, I now own

wilkinsnet.com
Twilkins.net
Twilkins.co.uk
TobyWilkins.net

I am going to link all the domain names to the same site, but which one Do you think I should use as my primary one and the one I use for my personal email account?

TobyWilkins.net looks best to me.

Another way of doing it is to use a subdomain like Toby.Wilkins.net
if you want to create a separate website for your dog whose name is Andy, you could then use Andy.Wilkins.net.

My nephew is interested in building his own website and since I have extra space and bandwidth, I'm going to make his: (nephew's name).copelan.net