Domain registration: do you register the principal TLD?

Agx · 6 Jan 2014, 08:08 AM

Hi, when you register an internet domain, do you register only the .COM or all the most important TLD ? (NET/National TLD/etc...)

William9 · 6 Jan 2014, 10:15 AM

It depends on how much you want to protect/own your domain name. A business with common, descriptive domain name would want to own at least the most common TLD's (i.e. com, net, org). If you have a really good domain name that is interesting to many, you will want to own several top TLD's -- and common misspellings. If you have a personal domain name that no one else is interested in, then just choose either .com or .net. When doing so, you should imagine what impact it would have on you or your business if, for example, you owned agx.net and someone you didn't know then bought agx.com (even a competitor or rival)!

kijinbear · 6 Jan 2014, 01:00 PM

The .COM is worth more than all the other TLDs combined.

So if you already own the .COM, there is little reason to buy anything else. Of course you're free to buy all the domains you want, if that makes you sleep more easily at night... but seriously, there's not much to worry about unless you're one of the Fortune 500 companies or you have an archenemy who will try to screw you at every opportunity.

The same goes for .ORG if you're a non-profit organization. There is no need for a non-profit organization to own a .COM, it might even hurt your image because it looks too much like a commercial website.

But if you own something like .NET or .US and you don't own the corresponding .COM, that could be a problem. People will be confused when they instinctly visit <yourname>.COM and don't find you there. Also, using something like .BIZ or .INFO as your main TLD just looks scammy.

If you do a lot of business in a certain country and the country's ccTLD is widely recognized, it wouldn't hurt to get it, too. It makes your customers feel like they're dealing with a local business. But again, if you already own the .COM, this is just an extra perk.

The above advice is for small and medium businesses. For personal websites, all bets are off. Many people still consider .COM to be the most important TLD, and I personally own <myname>.COM. But others seem just fine with .ME or even an exotic domain hack. Also, personal websites generally don't have much stake in market competition, so there's even less risk of someone else setting up an intentionally misleading website at another TLD.

Tsunami · 17 Jan 2014, 05:35 AM

My last employer registered their name in at least 15 or more ccTLD's in addition to the .com version.

I guess it can avoid confusion amongst customers, although indeed .com is king, so if you own the .com you're likely to lose very little traffic if a competitor uses the same name with a different suffix.

For me, but then I registered a domain for my website promoting my artistic work (writings, poetry), I only did the .com because I thought it was unnecessary to register more. People are likely to try .com first anyway, and if you have to register the domain in any country you may end up performing some day, then the bill would be sky high. I'm glad with the .com ; if the new .art TLD would get approved I may try to grab that one too purely to avoid confusion. Why is there no .poetry TLD?

PS: keep in mind that ".com is king" may change now that companies can register their own trademark as a suffix. The moment we have .coca-cola , will coca-cola.com still be that important for them if they got their own TLD handy?

FredOnline · 17 Jan 2014, 06:11 AM

IMHO, your search engine placement is more important than any particular domain suffix.

MichaelH · 18 Jan 2014, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

My last employer registered their name in at least 15 or more ccTLD's in addition to the .com version.
. . .

Mine did the same thing. They made sure to register as many as possible. If you are a registered business, with a brick-and-mortar store, you want to make sure to stake your claim to a domain name as thoroughly as possible. That way, you reduce potential conflicts in the future. If you are, indeed, setting up a business, your lawyers will probably tell you how far to go. (You wouldn't want to end up in a lawsuit like the one for the WWF some years ago.)

On the other hand, if the website is just a hobby, then you don't have to be so thorough. The .com TLD is, of course, the most popular, and the one most people are inclined to type in if they forget a site's URL. Otherwise, they turn to the search engines. In this case, the TLD plays a minor role in your site's ranking in the SERPs. The more important factor is how much work you have put in to it to make it rank high.

Finally, even if you do register a domain with several TLDs, there is still always a chance somebody with deeper pockets can come along and push you off it. Remember mikerowesoft.com?

Tsunami · 18 Jan 2014, 09:21 PM

What if you are not a business but what you do means so much more to you than a hobby?

I write and perform my poetry and take that as serious as I can. I realise poetry will never reach enough people to become a "famous artist", but I still want to get as far as I can with my poetry. So it's much more than a hobby ; but not a business neither.

I have the .com of the name I perform under, for now that suits. But if there'd be an .art TLD upcoming (or even better, a .poetry TLD) I'd want to grab my stage name with those TLDs too, in addition to keeping the .com name.

David · 19 Jan 2014, 01:18 AM

If you are big (as in business) or talented, people will find you, wheresoever you go. It's not all that important, imho

William9 · 19 Jan 2014, 02:39 AM

One concern, of course, is a competitor or adversary using the same name except with another TLD such as the .net version which could garner traffic -- and use it for their own purposes.

MichaelH · 19 Jan 2014, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

What if you are not a business but what you do means so much more to you than a hobby?
. . .

In that case, I think it is subjective: go as far as you want.
If you'd like to buy one or two of the other TLDs for your domain, and can afford it, go for it. Domain registration is not expensive.

If you'd like to buy even more, and are willing to spend money to simply be a squatter on these domains, that is fine too. It is completely up to you.

synodbio · 20 Jan 2014, 07:05 PM

.com .net and .org are the top ones to pick..

Tsunami · 7 Feb 2014, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

If you are big (as in business) or talented, people will find you, wheresoever you go. It's not all that important, imho

Not necessarily. I remember over 10 years ago, before the overload of suffixes, someone told me ".com is king anyway because everyone is so used to it that they think every URL ends with .com"

Unfortunately, he has a point: a lot of people just think .com by default because it's been a habit for so many years. In some cases maybe both .com and the own national ccTLD, but there it ends. My parents for example, I have to explicitly emphasise if the URL is not either .com or .be ; they probably never heard of suffixes like .nu or .tv even though those are widely used.

Also, if you are big (either a good business or a talented artist) there is still no guarantee people will find you. Of one of my favourite bands, there exist fan sites with .net, .org, .nl, .fr, ... I am not sure if Google will always automatically put the official website on top in search results. People could just as well end up on a fan website which is outdated or contains errors.

Tsunami · 7 Feb 2014, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by synodbio

.com .net and .org are the top ones to pick..

I'd add .info and the country's own ccTLD.

I'd stay away from .name, .biz, etc unless no other option remains. I would definitely stay away from things like delicio.us or blo.gs , mouth to mouth advertising is best kept simple rather than having to emphasise the URL is a wordplay.

The Scottish band Chvrches already made it hard for themselves as they call themselves "Churches" but chose to replace the u by a v to be recognisable in search engines. And then someone had the "brilliant" idea to use chvrch.es as their official site's URL. So you have to emphasise both the replacing u by v, and the fact there has to be a dot before the "-es". For mouth to mouth advertising, this is an example of how to make things complex. They could have been creative and picked a .com or a .co.uk (they're lucky to be from a country with one of the most widely used ccTLDs) but instead chose to go for a Spanish suffix ...

Simplicity is king, which means: .com, .net, .org, .info, maybe your local ccTLD, but nothing too exotic because it'd only cause confusion.

FredOnline · 7 Feb 2014, 03:10 PM

With the evolving of the various browsers, one only needs to enter a search term, and then select from the results.

So, providing you have your search engine placement up to date, it's not necessary to know the domain suffix.

Tsunami · 7 Feb 2014, 08:56 PM

But the problem is: the search engine may not rank with the official website on top. With some bad luck, an unofficial site will be ranked first, and if that contains outdated info ...

I am a fan of the band A Perfect Circle ; they're not as famous as they used to be 10 years ago but still, they're still going. Official website is aperfectcircle.com but back in the days there was a fansite aperfectcircle.fr and another one aperfectcircle.it ; I am not sure if these are still around (I Always go straight to the official site) but imagine someone does not know the band and Google shows the fan websites on top of your search... If that fan website is outdated, the visitor will be stuck with outdated or wrong info without realising he was visiting a fan website rather than an official source.

I also found in Google searches, sports results from 2010 or older being listed amongst the results of the query.

6 Jan 2014, 08:08 AM	#1
Agx Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 164	Domain registration: do you register the principal TLD? Hi, when you register an internet domain, do you register only the .COM or all the most important TLD ? (NET/National TLD/etc...)

6 Jan 2014, 10:15 AM	#2
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	It depends on how much you want to protect/own your domain name. A business with common, descriptive domain name would want to own at least the most common TLD's (i.e. com, net, org). If you have a really good domain name that is interesting to many, you will want to own several top TLD's -- and common misspellings. If you have a personal domain name that no one else is interested in, then just choose either .com or .net. When doing so, you should imagine what impact it would have on you or your business if, for example, you owned agx.net and someone you didn't know then bought agx.com (even a competitor or rival)!

6 Jan 2014, 01:00 PM	#3
kijinbear Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: ~$ Posts: 652	The .COM is worth more than all the other TLDs combined. So if you already own the .COM, there is little reason to buy anything else. Of course you're free to buy all the domains you want, if that makes you sleep more easily at night... but seriously, there's not much to worry about unless you're one of the Fortune 500 companies or you have an archenemy who will try to screw you at every opportunity. The same goes for .ORG if you're a non-profit organization. There is no need for a non-profit organization to own a .COM, it might even hurt your image because it looks too much like a commercial website. But if you own something like .NET or .US and you don't own the corresponding .COM, that could be a problem. People will be confused when they instinctly visit <yourname>.COM and don't find you there. Also, using something like .BIZ or .INFO as your main TLD just looks scammy. If you do a lot of business in a certain country and the country's ccTLD is widely recognized, it wouldn't hurt to get it, too. It makes your customers feel like they're dealing with a local business. But again, if you already own the .COM, this is just an extra perk. The above advice is for small and medium businesses. For personal websites, all bets are off. Many people still consider .COM to be the most important TLD, and I personally own <myname>.COM. But others seem just fine with .ME or even an exotic domain hack. Also, personal websites generally don't have much stake in market competition, so there's even less risk of someone else setting up an intentionally misleading website at another TLD.

17 Jan 2014, 05:35 AM	#4
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	My last employer registered their name in at least 15 or more ccTLD's in addition to the .com version. I guess it can avoid confusion amongst customers, although indeed .com is king, so if you own the .com you're likely to lose very little traffic if a competitor uses the same name with a different suffix. For me, but then I registered a domain for my website promoting my artistic work (writings, poetry), I only did the .com because I thought it was unnecessary to register more. People are likely to try .com first anyway, and if you have to register the domain in any country you may end up performing some day, then the bill would be sky high. I'm glad with the .com ; if the new .art TLD would get approved I may try to grab that one too purely to avoid confusion. Why is there no .poetry TLD? PS: keep in mind that ".com is king" may change now that companies can register their own trademark as a suffix. The moment we have .coca-cola , will coca-cola.com still be that important for them if they got their own TLD handy?

17 Jan 2014, 06:11 AM	#5
FredOnline The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 2,616	IMHO, your search engine placement is more important than any particular domain suffix.

18 Jan 2014, 09:21 PM	#7
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	What if you are not a business but what you do means so much more to you than a hobby? I write and perform my poetry and take that as serious as I can. I realise poetry will never reach enough people to become a "famous artist", but I still want to get as far as I can with my poetry. So it's much more than a hobby ; but not a business neither. I have the .com of the name I perform under, for now that suits. But if there'd be an .art TLD upcoming (or even better, a .poetry TLD) I'd want to grab my stage name with those TLDs too, in addition to keeping the .com name.

19 Jan 2014, 01:18 AM	#8
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	If you are big (as in business) or talented, people will find you, wheresoever you go. It's not all that important, imho

19 Jan 2014, 02:39 AM	#9
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	One concern, of course, is a competitor or adversary using the same name except with another TLD such as the .net version which could garner traffic -- and use it for their own purposes.

20 Jan 2014, 07:05 PM	#11
synodbio Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Bangalore Posts: 11	.com .net and .org are the top ones to pick..

7 Feb 2014, 03:10 PM	#14
FredOnline The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 2,616	With the evolving of the various browsers, one only needs to enter a search term, and then select from the results. So, providing you have your search engine placement up to date, it's not necessary to know the domain suffix.

7 Feb 2014, 08:56 PM	#15
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	But the problem is: the search engine may not rank with the official website on top. With some bad luck, an unofficial site will be ranked first, and if that contains outdated info ... I am a fan of the band A Perfect Circle ; they're not as famous as they used to be 10 years ago but still, they're still going. Official website is aperfectcircle.com but back in the days there was a fansite aperfectcircle.fr and another one aperfectcircle.it ; I am not sure if these are still around (I Always go straight to the official site) but imagine someone does not know the band and Google shows the fan websites on top of your search... If that fan website is outdated, the visitor will be stuck with outdated or wrong info without realising he was visiting a fan website rather than an official source. I also found in Google searches, sports results from 2010 or older being listed amongst the results of the query.