Is a .com the Perfect Domain Extension for Your Website?

You have decided a perfect name for your new website. It perfectly described the services you sell and quite catchy too. The next step is registered it to a reliable web hosting company you have chosen. Unfortunately, when you attempt to register it, the .com version is not available. Someone has already taken the .com domain. Typically your hosting company will offer alternatives domain name, such as .net and .org.

If you are not sure whether to choose for a.com or use the other top level domain extensions, these are some points to put in to your consideration:

• The .com is the most popular domain extension out there but it doesn’t make it the most effective one. Its effectiveness is depend on many elements. You can find some companies and organizations that not used .com but they still can manage high popularity and numerous visitors. Possibility, they have gained good reputation and acknowledgment from their products and services, not just because they have domain name with a .com after it. This is where branding your products and services are more important than a domain extension.

• When a customer looking for a particular product, they very likely enter the type of product on search engine’s box, not the brand. Such as, cheap laptop rather than Apple or Sony Vaio. For this reason, you should create a domain name that has your targeted keywords in its total. Thus, the domain extension is not prominent.

• Domain extensions like .net and .org could be a great option. These two suffixes are considered have better SEO purposes than other suffixes like .biz or .name. It will better if you consider changing your domain name if .com, .net or .org are no longer available, instead of using .biz, .name, .cc or .info. Why? Because websites with these suffixes are ranked low in Google search engine. They have gained bad reputation as being associated with junk or spam website.

• You may want a country level domain name if you are planning to operate in just one country. Or you are about to start a business in a particular country besides maintaining a home base website. These domain extensions are including .us for USA, .jp for Japan, .uk for United Kingdom and many others. Some organizations decide to do not have a country level domain name since they have products and services available world-wide. But using a country level domain name give your business more values. It creates the sense of exclusivity; it shows that you are giving 100% effort in doing business in that country.

Well, this is just my point of view. If you have different or other opinions, you are welcome to share them here.