Is there any point in registering a .us?

[DanWesson]

I know that it is not one of the big three tld's that are easier to rank. I have a project I'm starting where I need to have a somewhat generic domain containing one or two keywords which I then will create subdomains on top of.

I found a one-word .us which is so obvious for this project that, even though it's not one of the big three, I'm amazed it's available.

I have never tested this tld, and honestly this project is too big and will require too much work to use a "test" domain, so I was hoping someone had some real world experience and maybe even some success with these using SEO. In case you're curious, I haven't had much success locating a good, domain out of the big three, but there are a couple of honorable mentions to fall back on.

So, is a .us worth using for any SEO project or is it too difficult to rank?

 

[NameTrader.com]

For one thing, like any other ccTLD, .us will primarily be suited for its own country and may struggle ranking all that well in others. Having said that, UNLIKE other ccTLDs where they may at times get preference in their own country for terms, I haven't witnessed that with .us and quite honestly it seems to pale in comparison to com/net/org in terms of ranking power. I can only back it up with observation as I have not owned all that many .us domains. I simply have barely seen any of them ranked for anything, and it's not like there aren't a lot of registered .us domains around. In general, it's better to stick with a gTLD and primarily with com/net/org OR if you are targeting a country, consider that country's ccTLD, except that .us is maybe the only exception to the rule regarding that. Long story short, I wouldn't really recommend anyone getting a .us now unless it was really really good. You did say it was 1-word...if it completely fits what you're doing and your other choices aren't really that great, it wouldn't be the end of the world going with it.

I buy/sell domains for a living and I can tell you in the domain world, .us has really dropped in value since the economy started tanking. Domains in general besides premium ones haven't exactly been peachy, but anything besides com/net/org and strong ccTLDs have really taken hits, and .us is largely seen as unnecessary when most American businesses will just use .com anyways.

 

[EmJay]

I've ranked really well with .us before.. don't worry about that. Just make sure you actually live in the US to register one... or it will end up like video.us and be taken away from you by the registrar. I'd register that name right away so it starts to build age...

 

[dsiomtw]

I used to own many thousands of LLL.US domains. Made a nice little bundle selling them for $100-160 a pop. Today they are worth about $30-40. US domains are dead ... for now anyway.

 

[EmJay]

I was also effected by the LLL bust. From an SEO standpoint though, its much more beneficial to have a good quality Keyword.us than some XZY.us. Its great that domainers consider .us to be dead, because all the developers can capitalize on this now. Can't sell a good keyword.us for 40$? Develop it and make 4,000$. WIN!

Dan you can do it!

 

[dsiomtw]

You can buy tons of generic keyword .us domains right now for pretty cheap. A majority of them are owned by a relatively small group of people, and they are selling.