Slow indexing and lower rankings on ccTLD vs TLD domain

Question

Recently I have decided to move my site form a .rs domain to a .com one. With that I also upgraded my software (OpenCart 1.5 to 2.0). Both the .com and .rs sites are currently operational. What I have noticed that in a matter of days Google has indexed the .com version of the site and in most cases is ranking it higher than the .rs one that has been operational for some two years.

I am confused to why this has happened, is it related to the domain, or does it have to do with the new software? I am pretty new to SEO and this has me puzzled.

Answer 1

I have always seen That Google doesn't make differences between .com and .foobar, but users make the difference. All end users know .com TLD and are familiar with it, but not everyone know that something ending with .rs could be a website.

The fact that you see an increment in your website ranking probably relates to the new software, and may be people visit it more often or link your site more with that familiar domain.

Google confirms this in the article Google's handling of new top level domains:

Q: Will Google support my SEO efforts to move my domain from .com to a new TLD? How do I move my website without losing any search ranking or history?

A: We have extensive site move documentation in our Help Center. We treat these moves the same as any other site move. That said, domain changes can take time to be processed for search (and outside of search, users expect email addresses to remain valid over a longer period of time), so it's generally best to choose a domain that will fit your long-term needs.