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Which is the best domain extension for any website?

There are a number of top level domains (TLDs) in the domain name system (DNS) and it's hard to know which one to choose when you're starting out. Different people give different suggestions as to which works best. Although the content, utility, marketing and SEO makes a difference in the long term, it's best to choose a domain extension that is easy to remember for the general customer base that is being targeted.

Olympia typewriter with the words "Domain Search" printed on a sheet of paper

It's all about familiarity for the user which in turn makes it easier to remember and to use the domain name spontaneously when the need arises. This especially true for startups that don't have an app yet or don't need one.

What are the commonly used domain names and what do they stand for?

  • .com - commercial
  • .co - company or corporate
  • .io - Input/output
  • .net - network
  • .org - organization
  • .biz - Business
  • .ru - Russia
  • .ir - Iran
  • .in - India
  • .uk - United Kingdom
  • .au - Australia
  • .de - Germany
  • .ua - Ukraine
  • .tk - Tokelau
  • .cn - China
  • .nl - Netherlands
  • .us - United States

You can use any of the above commonly used domain names depending on which field your website focuses on and also depending on the country it's from or targetted to.

The .com domain name is one of the oldest domain extensions in the world and still remains the most sought after domain extension even after more than 3 decades. It has truly stood the test of time.

People will tell you to use .in, .io or .co and what not just to stand out or follow a new trend. But that won't last for long, especially if you want to reach a large and generic audience.

This holds true for countries all over the world. You could look back at history in the late 90s when there was the .com bubble in the United States. Any company with a .com domain name attached to it got the attention of the entire country and was perceived to be successful despite a lot of them having no real substance which later led to the collapse of the .com boom.

But despite this some companies did come out on top, namely, Amazon.com.

According to an article in Ionos, a web hosting company,

No matter which statistics you look up, more than half of all Internet addresses have the domain extension .com. Also high up in the rankings are the other two generic top-level domains .net and .org. Like .com, these have been around since 1985. The other domain extensions in the top 10 are primarily country code TLDs (ccTLDs), which are country-specific. .us isn’t high up on the list at all – possibly because most websites in the USA will use .com.

Even now, whenever people want to access a company's website immediately in a browser, they type in .com instinctively. Imagine if it shows an error and the website is not accessible. Now, will that user type in .in, .io or .co domain names and see which works? I'm not sure that's a good idea to let the user feel frustrated even for a moment, where you created this momentary bad impression about your company.

Conclusion

So, in my opinion, it's best to stick to the .com domain extension simply because it plays out instinctively for the user. But just having .com domain name doesn't count in the long term. There should be substance and utility in the company.

Also, make sure you buy the major domain extensions for your company name like .com, .in, .io and .co in order to avoid domain name squatting where people just buy top level domains of a company name with the intention of selling it for a profit to the owner of the company.


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