There’s a lot of options out there when it comes to choosing a domain name and extension for your business website. The preferred choice is easy; but getting it can be tough when you consider there are hundreds of millions of registered domain names currently out there.
.com still rules
The good old .com has been around since 1985. Surprisingly, .org and .info domain extensions were released and offered at the exact same time, but haven’t gained the commercial success of the .com for obvious reasons.
The .info was created for informative sites that were, well “information-based”.
The .org was created for charitable and non-profit “organizations”.
That was the original intent of these extensions, and still is, but don’t expect Google or your customers to trust you implicitly if you choose one of these extensions for your business site – particularly if you plan to set up a shopping cart, portal for accepting donations, or intend to include affiliate links to helpful products on them. These extensions have been spammed to death in recent years – so have the .com’s – perhaps even more so…
However there’s a big difference between how each of the top 3 are perceived by visitors: of the 250 million (approx) domains out there, over 100 million are .coms. Look at the graph displayed on this page, and it should be obvious that people buy and view .com’s more than any other.
And so the .com was for “commercial” websites of all kinds, and has become the standard for everything that doesn’t fit into the .org or .info standard.
Think of a .com as more neutral: Everyone has been deceived at some point online, but with thousands of .org and .info sites out there for virtually every affiliate and other questionable products imaginable, it’s no surprise they have negative stigmas attached to them when you compare the registration numbers.
Other extensions
Oh boy! There’re too many extensions to choose from really – to date, there are 1,300-ish generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) to choose from! .food, .cars, .today… the possibilities are limitless.
Watch this official video from ICANN in its effort in promoting the diverse choices people have today:
Some have inherent value, while others are taboo and suffer from the same preconceived notions of spam as .org’s and .info’s do currently.
From a business owner’s stand-point, there are three main ones that you should consider:
.biz
A .biz extension might seem like a perfect fit for your “business” right? Unfortunately, affiliate marketers, people who create websites strictly to sell products they don’t own – for a cut – have used .biz’s since they were released, and many a web-surfer has learned to avoid them like the plague.
Google rarely puts .biz’s in the top of their search results either. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use them, and there are plenty of successful businesses who have established their brand with a .biz – however, you might find the branding process much more difficult over a .com.
.co
Okay – to me, this extension looks like a bad typo of .com domain names, but the trends show that .co is gaining in popularity as a good and well-accepted domain name for business and brand. It has a way better reputation than the .biz counterparts.
Some big profile examples: Angel.co (AngelList – THE angel investing site,) Vine.co (Vine – THE short video app which takes over the social media world,) Sprint.co (Sprint – wireless/Internet services,) and many more.
.(country)
Country specific domains are very popular, and great if you’re a local or national business. Still, you won’t have the international reach that most small, medium and corporate businesses are looking for in the digital age. These are better than nothing, but really are best as a supplemental domain where you would redirect traffic to a main TLD .com. If all you have is a .(country) you’ll inevitably lose traffic to the .com if it’s in use.
Imagine a premium quilt-making business “Country Quilts” located in Manchester UK. They make the most beautiful elaborate quilts found anywhere, in any country. The owner buys “countryquilts.uk” so they can sell these quilts all over England, and to global customers too.
The domain “countryquilts.com” is owned by a reseller located in New Jersey, who buys well-made cheap quilts at wholesale, then sells them for a massive profit.
Do you think most customers looking for the UK-based business they’ve heard wonderful things about are going to know they’re on the wrong site? Some maybe, but most – probably not!
So how to choose?
If you have a business name already, the first order of business is to see if “yourbusinessname.com” is available. Even if you never use it, $10 per year in registration fees is a small price to pay for insurance that nobody will use your brand in an online capacity.
Think just for a second about the following fictional scenario:
You own the business “Hard Rock Contracting”, a multi-trade contracting company that specializes in industrial building and repairs of all kinds…
Some unscrupulous marketer discovers that thousands of people are searching for your business online using various keywords and decides to buy “hardrockcontracting.com” “hardasarock.com”, etc., and other various related keyword-rich domains, then starts selling sex toys, male/female escort services, porn site memberships – etc., etc.
Now the first thing prospective companies will see when they do a Google search (as most of us all do) to find out more about you will be dirty, filthy sites instead of relevant information about your company. Even if they’re smart enough to make the distinction, this could still mar the first impression that prospect will have about your contracting company – just imagine the associations and mental pictures that will flood their head!
So look for a .com first. If someone owns it, or has it “parked” you can use “whois info” and try to track down the owner. There are lots of domainers out there; people who buy domains strictly for the purpose of holding on to them, and then selling them at a premium when a legitimate business owner with a brand that matches that domain comes a calling.
Here’s a great article describing an effective process you can use to purchase a domain owned by someone else: How do I buy a domain name currently owned by someone else
There are also plenty domain brokerage services that can help you track down domain owners. Hire a private investigator you trust if nothing else works and you really want it.
Without the .com, you potentially run the chance of losing valuable traffic to the website owner who holds your domain. Once a prospect knows your business name, they’ll usually assume you must own the .com – this can be devastating if a direct competitor buys your domain and steals leads that you could be using to grow your business.
Takeaway
If you asked me, I’d answered that the best option will always be the .com. In fact, 95 percent of the websites I own is using .com.
Buy any other domain extensions you wish, to prevent people from squatting on your brand and using it to their own advantage. You may also want to do so to preserve your branding while using the domain name to serve different purposes for your organization.
As an example of the best practice in using domain extensions, have a look at how HubSpot – one of the leading marketing companies – is using their 2 domain names: HubSpot uses Inbound.com for an informational site on their annual marketing event, INBOUND. They use the .org variation, Inbound.org for a marketing content sharing/discussion site.
It’s not a bad idea to buy hyphenated domains too (e.g., “country-quilts.com), for the same reasons you would other supplemental extensions, then redirect them to your main .com site.
The .com preference among web-surfers is something that won’t change anytime soon. The fact is, we’re creatures of habit – and .com has (and will) always be synonymous with the Internet.
So, what do you think? Will there be a new domain name extension which will take over .com role as the preferred choice for website domain name extension? Please share your view by leaving a comment on this post.
