How to choose the right TLD?

When getting ready to set up a website for yourself or your business, a few things are more important than selecting a good top-level domain, or TLD.

Simply put, the TLD is the part of your website address that comes at the end just after the dot. The most common example is the .com. The top-level domain for the VPSExtra website is .com. 

Deciding which TLD you want should be done as soon as possible because it will have a significant impact on a variety of different things related to your site going forward. In general, it is actually a good idea to know which TLD you want before you even pick the main address of your site. 

In the early days of the Internet, nearly every website had a .com top-level domain. At that time, choosing anything other than .com would be a major obstacle to overcome when building popularity because most people on the Internet didn’t even know that other TLDs were possible. Today, however, that is not the case. While .com, .net, .edu, and .org are by far the most popular options, there are hundreds of others that you can choose from and most people online understand that putting .com at the end of a website address isn’t always going to be correct. 

Picking Your TLD 

When trying to find a good website address for your site, you may start out thinking that you want to use a .com or .net TLD. The chances are that the address you want for these popular TLDs won’t be available, or will be available only at an extremely high price. Fortunately, you can now choose from various different TLDs that might fit more closely with your business. 

If you run a local rock shop, for example, it may make sense to get a domain that is YourName followed by. rocks if the .com version is not available. A TLD that fits with the type of business you are running can make it more memorable. In addition, most people visit websites based on a search anyway so they would just click on the link rather than having to type it all into the address bar. 

It has been shown that all TLDs are in fact identical as far as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is concerned. This is especially true when trying to register a domain for a local business, which is less likely to have competition from a major company that has a similar domain name. Of course, not everyone will want one of these newer TLDs, and there is something to be said for picking a website name that will be available on one of the more popular TLDs. 

Whenever choosing your TLD you will want to think it through to make the right decision. To start with, consider the following points: 

1. Short and Simple: Some newer TLDs are quite long, which can make it more difficult to remember or even spell. To the extent possible, find a TLD that is as short as you can find.
2. Purpose of the Website: The type/niche of the website or the purpose of the website should be reflected in the TLD. So that anyone can have an idea about the website by looking at the domain and website address.
3. Purchasing Multiple TLDs: Many businesses buy multiple TLDs so that they can prevent others from stealing some of their potential traffic. This is more of a backup plan for some businesses.
4. Consider the Price: The more unusual TLDs tend to be quite a bit cheaper than the major options out there so if budget is a concern, this may be the way to go.