Any thoughts on .aero domains?

[theeastcoastwest]

I can’t speak for the aviation industry, but general guidance is that you should always have the.com version of your domain name. It’s what people recognize, it’s what people trust, and it’s what people expect to see.

That said, Google treats differing TLDs exactly the same in as much that a .aero isn’t going to affect your ranking, provided you transition from the.com already in existence in such a way that existing backlinks and page rank are transferred without loss. That’s fairly straightforward to do.

I’d advise picking up the .aero domain, but only use it for marketing purposes such that you would no index any URLs or perhaps even just a blanket redirect it to your dot com.

[alphawave2000]

I have a single word domain name with an unusual extension. I get emails asking for advice about the niche and only one person has ever got it confused with the .com (which I don’t own). Different extensions are becoming more and more common and I don’t think people are so wary of them as before. I also get plenty of natural links and I think the short domain name helps.

Aviation is quite a modern technological industry and I’m sure the .aero would work well. It sounds like it’s what it’s made for. I understand your nervousness about changing an existing site over. But it is a common thing to do.

[reshxtf]

I sincerely prefer a .com domain over anything at all. Most people are familiar with .com and .net domains and that’s what they trust.

It seems aviation is a more mature industry so I don’t think you should have any issues with a .aero domain but I would advise you guys stick with the .com.

[NHRADeuce]

This isn’t an SEO issue, google doesn’t care what your TLD is. This is a usability issue. People know that there are different and industry specific TLDs, but everyone still defaults to .com because it’s the most common and best known. Using a custom TLD is just one more thing the user has to remember.