You visit a hosting provider website and there you are presented with a list of top-level domains (TLDs) that have different suffixes after the period that follows your preferred domain name. Some look familiar like .com, .net, and .org – but which one should you choose?

The Populars – .COM, .NET, .ORG

.com is by far the most popular TLD.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says there are 112,071,447 .com domains registered till 2013 around the world. The bulk of these .com domains come from North America, with almost 77 million registered in that one continent alone!

The .com TLD was originally meant to be used for commercial purposes (hence the short form “com”) but it’s now available for virtually everyone. Its popularity causes most people to assume that the website they’re searching for uses this TLD. It’s no surprise that most people automatically search for the availability of their domain name in .com first.

.net and .org are also commonly used for a variety of sites. In the past, .net domains were reserved for Internet companies, while .org domains were meant for organizations and non-profits. Nowadays, anyone can register their site with these TLDs since there is no regulation.

Choosing the Right TLD


Also, remember to consider Search Engine Optimization. Some TLDs will naturally rank higher in search engines compared to others. .com ranks the highest over other TLDs (which is just one reason why it’s so popular). In order to maximize traffic to your site, avoid low quality TLDs.

Finally, it’s also very useful to have more than one domain name directing customers to the same site. For example, maybe you own a little cafe and you’ve purchased the domain www.nicecafe.com. You can also purchase www.nicecafe.biz, www.nicecafe.net, etc. This can be very helpful in building your brand identity and stop copy cat.