Why A Top Level Domain Matters To Your Business
Every great company has a great website, but choosing the perfect domain can be stressful. Here are some tips to make your decision easier.
You might not be familiar with the concept of top level domains, but you will have used them numerous times without realizing. As the final part of a website address, a TLD identifies either a site’s nationality or its intended purpose. A .gov TLD indicates a governmental organization, the .fr suffix relates to a site hosted in France, and so forth.
Where Do Domains Come From?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was founded in 1998, to regulate steady growth in the availability of TLDs. Today, there are over a thousand domains on the open market, representing everything from countries and regions through to proprietary brands and common acronyms. A growing proportion of TLDs are lightweight domains such as .rsvp and .xyz, while the likes of .pizza and .fm have obvious (if limited) appeal.
.com As King
With the .com TLD alone accounting for almost half of global domains in 2016, availability is becoming increasingly limited. Choosing a top level domain requires careful consideration, and making a decision about which suffix to adopt can often rest on three key factors:
Being Country Specific
Almost every country and region in the world has its own TLD, from Catalonia to Vanuatu. Choosing a geographic TLD benefits search engine results in that region, with algorithms programmed to prioritize local sites over foreign ones.
However, the opposite is true from an international perspective. A national TLD isn’t recommended for any brands attempting to reach overseas markets, so multiple country-specific addresses may be required instead. This is one of the reasons .com retains such popularity – despite strong connotations with America, its appeal, and adoption, is global.
Being Traditional
Given its ubiquity, the .com TLD always deserves consideration. However, every possible combination of four-letter .com addresses has now been reserved, and the five-letter combinations are heading the same way. That means website names have to be longer, with every additional character diminishing the address’s simplicity and recall among audiences.
Other conventional TLDs come with minor restrictions – the .edu suffix requires proof of academic intent, while the .org domain is meant for non-profit organisations. Although companies like Craigslist have adopted .org as a suffix, it’s not advisable for retailers or businesses. Nevertheless, ICANN’s introduction of .biz in 2001 enabled firms to identify themselves as a business without paying .com prices.
Being Brave
The wealth of global TLDs has alleviated demand for conventional .net and .com suffixes. We live in a world where web addresses can end with .soy, .tube and .sucks. Start-up firms adopting popular names like Astra or Acme can still acquire a suitable domain, providing they’re willing to be creative. However, there is an obvious credibility gap between a site ending in .com and a site ending in .george.
It’s been suggested that new TLDs take a decade to permeate into the public consciousness, which may never happen with niche domains like .wang. While these addresses are temptingly affordable, they lack a degree of professionalism – and there’s always a risk of customers mistakenly visiting a rival .com site by mistake…