Why .COM Is The Best Of All Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD)Written by John W. Furst, has got 10 Comments. There is a huge debate about which domain extension to use. Internet marketers usually have a different opinion than registrars who want to sell the most exotic domain extensions like .BIZ .TV .ME .NAME and so forth for a nice profit. Here is my answer to to that discussion.The short answer: .COM is recognizable as Internet domain by the largest group of people when compared to the wide-spread of other generic top level domain extensions (gTLD) like: .NET .ORG .EDU or .GOV When you say, MyBrand.COM, almost everybody will know instantly that you are talking about your Internet domain and they will associate it with a website as well. .COM is definitely the strongest brand among all top level domains As the domain name space has filled up rather quickly new gTLD were invented for use by businesses worldwide: .BIZ .INFO And as I have read today the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN.org, which is the governing body of the Internet, plans to introduce hundreds of new top level domains. That said I still believe that .COM will remain the strongest domain brand. At least in the Western world.
With .COM you simply cannot go wrong
Some SEO (search engine optimization) specialists also claim, that .COM domains are treated favorably by search engines, especially by Google. Although Google likes .ORG domains these days as well. Besides recommending the .COM extension, what makes up a good domain name? A Great Domain Name - Some quick rules
These rules are targeted toward the human psychology. However there are more marketing and SEO related rules that you might want to keep in mind as well.
Last but not least the legal part of it. Follow the legal guidelines given by your registrar and the registry, which you will agree with during the process of your domain purchase. Just don't infringe any one's trademark and make sure your chosen domain name does not include a brand name or other trademark. You have certainly noticed that I have chosen one of the worst possible domain names for this blog. I started it when I knew little about these issues. Anyway it's just not a priority of mine right now to move the blog to a different domain or to restart it from scratch. One additional note. Email marketing has its own and additional rules. For example the .BIZ top level domain is associated with spam. Email sent from a .BIZ domain is more likely to be blocked as spam. In general it's not a bad idea to send your email marketing campaigns from a separate .COM domain that you register just for that purpose. That way your regular email traffic is distinct from your large email campaigns. I see many companies and Internet marketers do this (for various reasons, but in general it diversifies risk of getting blocked.) Resources
Update 2009-03-09: Check out the comments as well. Good stuff. Yours John W. Furst Defined tags for this entry: domain registration, marketing, usability, web site development, webmaster
Posted by John W. Furst in Marketing, SEO, Usability, Web Site Development
on
Sunday, March 8, 2009
has got 10 Comments.
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Comments
If www.laptopcomputers.com wasn't available (for example) but www.laptopcomputers.org or laptopcomputers.info were available...then the .info or .org would be just fine. Both .org and .info are growing rapidly in popularity (and both are 'accepted' by Google). Andrew thanks for your comment. I agree that choosing the domain name should not be the sticking point. (*) It is also always desirable to have your main keyword in your domain name! This will help you get more free traffic as well as cheaper PPC traffic (e.g. Google AdWords quality score  ) Yes, you MUST do keyword research !(*) It should be easy to spell, hard to misspell. Therefore, avoid hyphens or numbers. (*) Some say .TV will be big. If you do anything with video it makes sense to reserve an appropriate .TV domain(s). Hope that helps. JeM I have been doing some keyword research lately, and I have noticed that the first result in Google usually has the keyword in the domain, even if that domain has less page rank than competing sites. It is only with a domain with a page rank of 5 or above, that I have seen it consistently rank at #1 even without the keyword in the domain. So I should not have used my name as my domain name, I guess
Besides that: Google maximizes search user experience relentlessly. Finding commercial sites in the .INFO space doesn't taste particularly well. You still can get good .COM names, but they probably won't be short. A short domain name is not as important anymore as it used to be any. Well, Pat, write a book -- not a normal book, but a New York Times Bestseller -- and all of a sudden hoards of people will search for your name. Then your domain name choice will pay off.
Speaking of domain names, I should be the last person you listen to. I mean look at my below average choice. Not even writing a book can help me. (But at least I know it.) I am obviously just blogging for the fun part of it, and make money elsewhere. PS. Cannot wait for you next blog post.  Enjoy this blog? Buy me a coffee or a drink. May I suggest a Spanish Cafe Olé for $5? Or choose any amount you wish to tip. Click to donate » (↑) |
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