Americans almost always type in .com to find the website of their choice. Many times, they’re right. However, for most, even .gov, .net and .edu take some getting used to. With an increase in websites, more domains are needed. New York City demonstrated this need by obtaining a top level domain (TLD) to be released at the end of 2013. As more TLDs become available, will .com always remain the most popular?
The Dot Com Kingdom
When you’re looking to complete domain registration, .com websites can make your business seem more legitimate and trustworthy to consumers. The average Internet user will feel most comfortable with websites that end in .com because that’s what they’re used to. For consistency’s sake, choosing .com might be most beneficial. However, as TLDs continue to increase, you can be more creative with your web address.
Even if you’d prefer to have your official website with another TLD, it might be beneficial to register the .com version of your website address as well. This will also allow you to keep your branding consistent. You wouldn’t want customers typing .com instead of .biz and ending up on the wrong page. That will become less of a problem as users get more accustomed to different TLDs.
The Land of Other TLDs
The number one benefit of other TLDs is that small businesses will no longer have to settle for available domains. When some businesses go to register for a domain name, they discover that it has already been taken. This means that the owner either has to name the website something unrelated to the business or even change the name of the business based on the domains that are still available.
Some of the new suggested TLDs would allow website owners to be more creative. Trendy businesses might prefer .biz while a new digital encyclopedia might go with .info. The addition of these TLDs also allows websites to sort themselves into more categories than have been provided in the past.
Some suggested TLDs, like .pro, might even be able to give you more credibility than a .com site. Those wishing to register a site with .pro might prove that they are a professional in that topic. The .pro sites may become highly trusted sources of information.
What’s my Domain, Again?
In this debate about the future of domains, some are pointing out that domains may not even matter. Unless your visitors frequent your site and can type it in from memory, they’re probably visiting by clicking links through e-mails, search engines or shortened links on social media.
As the number of available domain names increases, it will be interesting to see if .com remains the preference or if domain names become even less important than they are now. Businesses that have previously had to rely on whatever name was available will have an easier time registering a relevant domain name because of the increase.
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Originally posted on July 15, 2013 @ 1:10 pm