Do tld's really matter in the game of seo?

you can make any site rank with development as unique content is king, with that said though a keyword rich .com domain that describes the exact product or service you sell will have a slight advantage based on how many searches a month are shown for the exact keyword phrase as a high amount of searches for a generic term will translate into type in traffic, type in traffic converts as they typed in exactly what they were looking for so if what you have developed is a match $$$$ in the bank, my opinion is based on 1000+ domains under control and over 100 developed into niche stores and white labeled and the keyword .coms always do the best whether I park them, make them niche stores, white label them or fully develop them as any type in traffic will always fall to the .com as it is the most widely known and promoted.

Nice opinion thanks, what if if your going to get little or no typein traffic though

.com then .net or .org . .info and some of those crappy domain names really don't compete.

Yes it does make a difference. Of course you can still rank if you do your SEO well and really push the right buttons, but the .com then the .net etc will make it easier.

I agree although im not really a SEO person.......with a com its always gonna save time/effort ...and of course you always have to worry about losing your customer to a .com type in if you have the same product/service.

Just my view.

while you CAN rank a .ifo, i wouldn't waste my time. i have a feeling .info domains are going to really lose their trust. the amount of legitimate sites that are built on .info domains are far and few between and are mostly just used as throwaways for any number of shady use by blackhats. all you're gonna ind on .info is a bunch of crap 90% of the time....

.info and .biz ftw.

seo is a game...

I would prefer to build on a good .com over a great .net etc... as any developing you do will only generate type in traffic for the .com holder so your work benefits them or causes confusion as .com is the most recognized, promoted and has a higher trust factor. If it was a premium one word alternate extension then I would consider it but if it's a 2-3 word domain .com is the only extension I develop. You can get anything to rank with good SEO but even if the advantage a .com holds is only a small advantage I prefer to take any advantage I can get as it just makes things easier. I have hundreds of domains parked, about 100 turned into niche product stores, 3 white labels and 6 fully developed sites and when I compare my brandable domains and alternate extension domains versus dead on keyword .com domains my earnings through adsense, cj.com, linkshare.com, shopping.com, parking programs and various white label programs earnings always favor the keyword .com domains even when zero promotion is done as the keywords do get a trickle of natural type in traffic so although the keyword .com domains may cost a bit more to acquire they usually come with a trickle of type in traffic that continues each month so it counters the initial acquisition cost.

can learn something here

In terms of ease of ranking:

.com
.net
.org

The others can rank, but with much more work on your part.