If you want to launch a successful website, one thing you will certainly need to do is purchase a domain name. You may be used to seeing the more traditional top-level domain extensions such as .com, .net and .org. However, these are no longer the only options available on the market.
ICANN, the non-profit organization that assigns domain names, began introducing a far wider array of generic top-level domains, commonly referred to as gTLDs for short, in 2012. While you may not be familiar with many of these newer gTLDs, there are many benefits to choosing one for a company website.
A Plethora of Choices
One of the great things about these newer gTLDs is that your options for a top level domain extension are not nearly as limited. You won’t be forced to only choose between boring options like .com or .net that have been around for 20 years. Instead, you can use more original sounding extensions like .guru or .solutions. ICANN has introduced hundreds of new choices over the past few years, and you can obtain such domains names by purchasing them from websites like NetworkSolutions.com
Thematic Branding
Another benefit of choosing one of these new gTLDs for your domain name is that they can allow you to better control the branding of your website’s URL. While there may be a seemingly endless number of websites with .com addresses, there are certain to be far fewer with a .jewelry address. Such an URL is likely to be better retained in the mind of a consumer. If you’re a jeweler and your company is named after yourself, let’s say Zickermann’s Jewelry, zickermanns.jewelry will obviously convey what you sell to consumers far better than zickermanns.com.
Inexpensive
Another one of the great benefits of domain names that implement one of these newer gTLDs is that they can be obtained for far less than those that use traditional top level domain extensions like .com addresses. Many .com addresses may have already been registered years ago. As a result, purchasing one from the owner will require a good amount of money. The market for the gTLDs that began being introduced in 2012, however, is nowhere near as saturated. You can buy domain names that use a gTLD extension such as .company, .expert and more for very reasonable prices.
Search Engine Optimization
Lastly, another big upside to obtaining one of these newer gTLDs is the possibility of improved search engine optimization. Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO for short, is a website design philosophy centered on obtaining high rankings on major search engines like Google and Bing. While SEO was once mostly limited to website content, the possibility to choosing a gTLD that is thematically tied to your service can now be done for SEO purposes. If you run a law practice, a .lawyer extension may be a better choice for SEO purposes than other options.
Overall, there are many possible benefits to choosing one of these newer domain extensions over more common traditional choices. Certainly consider these benefits when deciding on what domain name you should register for your website.
