Now that the dust has settled from the Google infrastructure update of last year (I don’t like to use the stupid names people give these things), it certainly appears that the TLD (Top Level Domain) name that you are using may play more of an important role than ever. I have seen a lot of different things happen over the past 6 months with old domains and new and what seems to be one of the biggest factors in finding top rankings on Google is the domain name. This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows the search game, but I am sure that many of them don’t really get it, because there are still many great names out there in the .com TLD. I have seen brand new sites go to the top and stay there for over a year now with the right TLD and a few links (not bought and nothing super special). FYI, I am not talking about some BS term with 6 keywords in it. I am talking about some of, what are believed to be, the most difficult areas to work in when it comes to rankings. So, if you are trying to figure out how to get to the top for a set of related terms, make sure you are using the right domain name (no hyphens please).

tags: domain name, google, rankings, serps