Does TLD Affect SEO?

Choosing a domain name would be little easier for your business as it may have a lot of alternatives. But what about the Top Level Domain?

According to the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), presently there are approximately 1000 TLD, now choosing a best TLD from this huge list sounds typical. But, this task can be made a little easier if you have a knowledge about some major domain extensions.

Before coming to the choice of best TLD, firstly understand what is TLD.

What is TLD (Top level Domain)

TLD refers to the domain residing at the top level in the hierarchy of the domain name system. More specifically, the last section of the domain name after the “dot” symbol is known as Top Level Domain. For example, in the web address www.example.net, the .net is the Top Level Domain and example is the domain name.

Which TLD Should You Choose For Your Business

Choosing a right TLD for your business website is fairly a crucial task, especially when you are new to the business market. In the first glance, the default option in the mind is .com TLD, but what if it is already registered by another company. In this situation which another TLD would be best for your business?

However, Google assigns the same weightage to each of the generic TLD, until it is not targeted to specific locations but still there are pros and cons of major domain extensions which you should know to choose the best TLD for your website.

• .com – .com is the highest demanding and most popularly used Top Level Domain by nearly 50.8% of websites. Picking a .com domain is the first priority of every business owner because it is universally accepted and almost known by all the users.

There are a couple of reasons for giving the first priority to .com domain: –

• .com domain creates an initial assumption in the user’s mind that the business is more legitimate and authoritative.
• Anyone can use this domain extension regardless of the type of their business. Whether you are providing services, promoting any product or want to start your personal website, the .com is always a best option.
• As a business owner you will always want that the users can easily recall your business website and practically, it is more easy for users to remember the website name with .com domain extension.
• .com domains usually cost a little as compared to other domain extensions.
• From the SEO perspective, Google treats all the gTLD in the same way, but when it comes to conversion rate, .com will definitely have higher benefits over the other new gTLD.
• If someone wants to navigate directly to your website, he would probably type .com in the URl unless your business has developed any strong brand presence in the market.

But in case if the .com TLD is not available for your business, it never means that the other domain extensions are useless. There are other TLDs also, that you can consider for your business.

• .net– .net is the second most widely used top level domain, when .com is not available. Specifically, the .net domain extension is preferred for technical or networking companies, as .net stands for “Network”, but now it has become a second choice for all types of businesses.
• .org– If your business belongs to a charity or nonprofit, the .org domain extension would be the best option. The .org domain extension creates a trust and credibility in the user’s mind and is well recognized for authority.

But using .org domain extension can create a misconception in users mind, if your business is not associated with a charity or nonprofit because for users, .org simply means non profit.

• .info– It is the next most popular domain extension after the .com, .org, and .net. If your website is intended for some kind of information, you should pick .info domain extension. But if you are promoting your product or services, it is clearly not recommended to use .info.
• .biz– .biz domain creates a primary intention in the user’s mind that you are selling something. Usually .biz has a trust problem and generally not considered as a right solution for your business when the other generic domains are available.

These were the most commonly known gTLDs. Initially the number of gTLDs was limited, but due to the rise of new domain extension every year, the list got extended to a very high range, which has added an extra level of competition and now there is an endless list of available domain extensions such as .me, .name, .diamond, .travel, .pro etc. However, these new TLDs are not as common as .com, or .net but still can be used based upon the type of business.

Google also consiger the all gTLD’s equally with no ranking advantage to any other gTLd’s with keywords like .photography.

ccTLD (Country Codec Top Level Domain)

Choosing a ccTLD (country code top level domain) for specific countries such as .co.uk (United kingdom), .au (Australia), .ca (Canada) is the best option when your business is global. Google always gives higher preference to ccTLD over the gTLD and also the visitors are more likely to click on ccTLDs. Thus, if you are internationally, targeting the audience for the business, choose the appropriate ccTLD for specific location.

Conclusion

However, a general advice is always to use a .com domain for every business entrepreneur, but still there is an endless list of new domain extension with top 10 gTLD’s as below,

1. .SHOP
2. .WEB
3. .SITE
4. .MUSIC
5. .HOTEL
6. .ONE
7. .BLOG
8. .ECO
9. .SPORT
10. .LOVE

That you can choose based on your business category.

If you have any case study on gtLD or ccTLD or any suggestion then share with us in below comment.