The importance of choosing a Top Level Domain name (TLD) for your website may not be something you’ve considered before. If you’re setting up a website you will no doubt have thought long and hard about choosing the website name which makes up the beginning of your web address, but overlooked the suffix at the end. In this article we’ll take a look at the importance of choosing a TLD and how it can help create the perfect domain name for your new website.
What is a TLD?
A TLD is the bit that comes right at the end of a web address, for example .com, .net and .org. Choosing the right TLD gives your site authority and helps to establish trust with your target audience. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which is the standards organisation that oversees global IP address allocation, recognises three types of TLD:
gTLD – Generic Top Level Domains. gTLDs are the most common top-level domains and anyone can register one. These include ones that we are all very familiar with such as .com, .org, .net, .biz and .info.
sTLD – Sponsored Top Level Domains. These domains are sponsored by a specific group like a government or business, for example .gov, .edu, .coop, .museum.
ccTLD – Country Code Top Level Domains. These domain extensions are reserved for countries , territories and sovereign states, for example .uk, .eu, .ca, .fr
How does the right TLD create the perfect domain name?
Have you ever thought about what .com stands for? The answer is ‘commercial’. If you run a professional website, for example a business or a blog, it’s a solid choice as people see it as trustworthy and credible. Most top tier news, ecommerce and entertainment sites have .com addresses for more than two decades now, meaning users are very comfortable with it and will often type it in as a domain name suffix by default. It’s the most recognised and easily memorised TLD around the world, and therefore a great choice for your website.
What if my .com domain name isn’t available?
Because .com TLDs are the most popular, it means that your choice may not be available. If this is the case, do not panic. Millions of successful businesses use a TLD that doesn’t end .com, so it certainly isn’t the end of the world if you can’t get one. It’s not worth sacrificing the beginning of your domain name, for example the actual name of your business, by altering it just so you can have a .com TLD. There is also no need to worry about whether not having a .com suffix affects your search ranking, as Google has confirmed that it doesn’t.
When choosing a TLD other than .com, the best way to go about it is to choose one that best represents your site’s purpose. For example, if your site is a non-profit or charitable organisation, choose .org or if you are a business, choose .biz. There is now a huge amount of choice in terms of gTLDs which help describe your business, such as .digital, .build, .club, .bar, .pub, .travel or .soccer. Experts predict that, as more and more websites spring up, new TLDs will become as common as traditional domain endings, and many prominent businesses have adopted new TDLs, which only adds to their legitimacy.
