Are .jobs domains frowned upon or okay for a start-up?
We are looking at creating a job board and wanted to use a .jobs domain name? Good idea or do we stick with .com ? The domain is very short and simple and describes the job board perfect.
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You question is impossible to answer. Both .com and .jobs domains have specifics and can be useful for one or other purposes. – Ross 13 years ago
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When .com is available get .com over anything else. – Mike Nereson 13 years ago
2 Answers
The most common use I've seen for the .jobs domain is for a jobs site to an existing company using the .com domain. For example, ibm.jobs takes you to IBM's career site. In general, domains like .jobs or .mobi are meant to be supplemental domains in that they are used on sites that augment the core website, i.e. like my IBM example, or in the case of .mobi, a mobile version of the website.
I would get the .com, assuming it is available.
I'm not a big fan of domain names that don't end in .com because it can only hurt you. It's likely to create confusion among those looking for you, which is never a good thing. Plus you open yourself up to someone geting the .com version of your name and stealing traffic from you. Lastly, I've heard it may affect your SEO because .com seems to have higher authority among search engines.
Assuming the .com version is available, my advice is to get both the .com and the .jobs version of your name. Use the .com as your primary, and redirect the .jobs name to your .com name. That way you can take advantage of the cool aspect of the .jobs in your marketing, but maintain all the benefits that come with owning a .com.
For example, Bitly owns both bitly.com and bit.ly. If you type bit.ly it redirects to bitly.com.
You may also want to take a look at these other threads:
what's more important - .com or name? Non .Com Domains - Does it Really Affect Branding? .CO domain names What could go wrong if I put my site on a Somalia (.so) domain?
