The internet has over a billion websites and growing. Consequently, finding short domains that are pronounceable and memorable for users is getting much harder to find in traditional extensions like .com. As such, many businesses and website owners are forced to rethink their brand and domain strategy.
No more settling for the second-best name for your website!
Following an application process to create alternatives to the existing domain names like .com, .net, .org, and others, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved over 1200 new gTLDs (generic top-level domain) just a few years ago.
The new gTLDs help overcome the availability challenges in the internet namespace. Now, users have choices to select from a number of multiple domain extensions according to their niche areas and availability.
We know what a new TLD is but what does it mean?
New TLDs means freedom!
We are no longer limited to a few choices for our online identity. We have the freedom of choice to choose from domain extensions that speak to us as a brand, community, cause, business, family, or maybe a blog…but something close to our hearts.
On top of that, new TLDs are fun and creative. These enable businesses and website owners to express themselves in ways never dreamed of before.
Now, users can achieve a significant level of specificity than what can be achieved with standard gTLDs such as as.com and .org since there are a lot more domains available.
For instance, registering a .yoga TLD for a yoga centre would generate authority in the yoga space.
Here are a few more examples of new TLDs::
- .blog: For anybody that has a blog – “for all the ways you share”.
Of course, this is our favorite new TLD, but other options include:
- .tech: With the increasing number of tech startups, a .tech TLD will make your website stand out.
- .luxury: High-end fashion brands, car companies, furniture, these are all services that can succeed under the .luxury domain extension.
- .design: This domain best fits the design professionals, including web designers, interior designers and more for their portfolio page.
- .restaurant: Set your restaurant apart from other eateries using .restaurant domain. For example, http://www.pizzajoint.restaurant describes the pizza business.
These are only a few of the many new TLDs available, each providing a unique value to your web presence.
In addition, we can all benefit from new TLDs in several other ways. For instance, new TLDs are:
- More descriptive. There is at least one new TLD that matches the purpose of your website, thus making your URL easy, memorable, and relevant.
- Good for custom links: You have more freedom when creating branded links and vanity URLs.
With a total registration of over 27 million new TLDs since 2014, the new TLD space is growing. And as awareness of new TLDs increases, these new and creative domain extensions will continue to remove barriers of our once limited domain space.
New TLDs may be taking some time, but they have the potential to take over the market in the future. So, next-generation web builders can take advantage of this new freedom now and be part of this change!