Non .Com or .Co Versus .ca or .fm sites - In terms of SEO value

[Chaits]

We are launching a new site with a non traditional top level domain . We were looking at either .ca or .in as we are not able to get the traditional .com or .co or .net etc .

I was wondering if this has any SEO effect ? Does Google/Bing treat this domain differently .Will it be penalized ?

Note : My site is a US based site targeting US audience

[gfiorelli1]

Mmm.... try to use a termination which is not a country level one. .CA or .IN automatically are targeting they respective countries and you can't avoid the inconviences of that geotargetization if not doing an huge link building in your real target country.

Try to check out other generic termination (avoind cc.which is banned by Google)

[RobertFisher]

Chait

I think there are really two questions you should ask: the one re SEO effect, Google/Bong, etc. and, how they are perceived.

As to Google others have stated correctly there is no penalty. I am not sure that using a .ca/.in is wise even if you are US based, use US server, and make correct geotarget selections in GWMT.  The reason is not Google/SEO per se, but perception. 
It is a given that in some countries, having a cc tld that is different is not wise due to bias. A documented one is the French bias in Europe (no hate mail please, my son was born in Paris - yes France, not Texas). In the US, as open minded as half of us seem to be, there will always be a bias if someone knows the .in is India and there may well be one with .ca especially if you are in more northern states that are more likely to see it.

So, you have to factor all in and then ask: "Why am I going this way?" Is whatever domain name so critical that you are willing to sacrifice for it? Have you considered using hyphens?

We do a lot with EMD's using hyphens and without. At the same time, I believe many over emphasize EMD and could spend time and energy better elsewhere. Is there a second best EMD and then spend all the energy on something else SEO?

I cannot imagine, short of a known and, likely, very well known brand where I would risk a .ca or .in in the US for that EMD.

Good Luck, let us know what direction you take and how it works,

Robert

[Chaits]

Thank You for the answers . To extend this discussion further (to help me and others interested)

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347922&topic=2371325&ctx=topic

Google apparantly treats some ccTLDs (such as .tv, .me, etc.) as gTLD

.as
.bz
.cc
.cd
.co
.dj
.fm
.la
.me
.ms
.nu
.sc
.sr
.tv
.tk
.ws

[YvonneMartin]

Google should not penalize you for using .in or .ca however  like William said Google may give top priority to the .com version of your site especially because you are targeting the USA and your SEO effort will benefit the.com more than it will benefit you especially with branded names and direct traffic. Hope this helps.

[William.Lau]

It won't rank you as well. Penalize too harsh of a word. You will still rank but your rankings increase much more if you have a TLD, .com, .net, .org.

Of course these statements can be irrelevant if the site is a viral site. But even bit.ly moved to bitly.com(not exact reason why they changed though).

EDIT: Not to mention that the .ca or .in could be liable for Canada and India laws respectively.

But hey, if you are looking for business in Canada or India, it would be an awesome domain!

[Chaits]

So if I understand you correctly .. Google will Penalize me when ranking(in the US) when I have .in or .ca

Is the above a fair statement

[William.Lau]

.com would be best but .ca and .in will most likely not work well if your target is in US.

.ca and .in is used and definitely considered when ranking. I suggest you come up with another variation of the domain and get a .com.

One of the main problems I can see off the bat is that the current owners of the sites .com, .net might already have a huge presence and it will hinder majority of your efforts because you will most likely never beat out the .com(unless its nonexistent or spam).