Do You Ever Use Or Recommend Getting any Domains Other Than .com?


Ah, interesting question…

There are now tons of TLDs (Top-Level Domains) like .vegas .realty .realestate and so on. In general here is what we find.

  • Funky TLD’s are often associated with spam emails or spammy type sites
  • .com seems to be taken more seriously by both people that search the web and the search engines.
    • We suspect that those two behaviors are interrelated
  • There is no evidence that a keyphrase orientated TLD provides any ranking benefit
    • What evidence there is, the suggestion is the opposite – it seems to be harder to rank non .coms

In general, we recommend companies stick with the following, at least for now…

.com (commercial),

.net (originally intended for Internet service providers, but now used for a variety of purposes),

.org (non-profit organizations),

.gov (U.S. government agencies),

.mil (military),

.edu (educational organizations).

Opinion

We think the primary benefit of new TLDs is that they are a way for domain registrars to make more money.

  • Example: Canon HAS to buy .canon (just to protect their brand), result – instant dollars for domain registrars

Technically when we say “domain registrars” we mean the whole food chain. The food chain comprises the registrar (the store you purchase the domain from), the registry (the whole-seller of the domains), and ICANN (the regulator of the domains). Who makes the most money? The whole-seller does by far.

For a better insight into how this all works see What actually happens when you buy a domain name?

Theoretically

Over time we may see more TLD usage consistent with business types, i.e. .attorney, .plumber, .hvac though this is far from certain. We think it is more likely that companies will have to purchase the business type TLD in addition to their .com.

Example:

  • JoesPlumbingService.com has to also buy JoesPlumbingService.plumber AND JoesPlumbingService. plumbing in order to protect their brand.
  • On the other hand, if ” JoesPlumbingService ” was a new business could he really afford to just purchase JoesPlumbingService.plumber and risk someone else purchasing JoesPlumbingService.com then redirecting it to their site?

 

Related article:

https://www.cmdsonline.com/blog/the-looking-glass/top-level-domains-brand-building-agency/