An online business is one of the most promising ventures that can help you target audiences worldwide and generate more prospective customers.
When building a business website, you need to get the fundamentals right, such as choosing a good domain extension or top-level domain (TLD). Selecting a suitable extension is as important as creating a memorable domain name for your business site.
If you are looking for the perfect top-level domain name, we are here to help you. In this article, we will cover the top five domain extensions that are suitable for any business website. Let’s get started.
Why TLDs Are Important for Online Businesses
Domain names are an essential part of a website and are maintained by an internet corporation known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). A website domain is a web address that consists of two fundamental components – the domain name and the domain extension.
Each component has its own function and purpose. For instance, the domain extension helps identify the attributes of a website, such as its owner, purpose, or geographical location. Furthermore, it plays a crucial role in the domain name system (DNS) lookup process as it points users’ web browsers to the correct IP address.
Generally, TLDs don’t directly affect search engine optimization (SEO), but they can influence customers’ perceptions of your business website.
For example, using one of the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), such as .us for the United States, can help improve local search engine rankings. That’s because search engines will see your website’s content as more relevant to local search queries, increasing your web traffic and visibility.
In this case, ccTLDs can be a good domain extension option for business owners who want to promote their online businesses to local target audiences or specific countries.
Best TLDs for Your Online Business
With various new domain extensions available, business owners have more opportunities to create memorable and unique domain names.
In this section, we will cover five notable domain extensions that may suit your online business website.
1. .biz Top-Level Domain
.biz is one of the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) with over three million registered domain names. It is available for purchase at most domain registrars and hosting companies starting at approximately $9 per year.
Since .biz stands for business, this domain extension is a perfect fit for any online company. Moreover, building a landing page or personal brand with this generic TLD is beneficial, as visitors can immediately identify it as a business website from the domain extension.
2. .store Top-Level Domain
.store is quite popular among generic TLDs with approximately 1.7 million registered domains. That being said, this new generic top-level domain can be quite expensive, costing around $29 per year.
The .store extension can be a great solution for an online store that sells any kind of product, from gadgets and furniture to apparel. With this TLD, the target audience can easily recognize your website as an eCommerce site.
3. .com Top-Level Domain
As of today, .com is by far the most popular domain extension with more than 200 million registrations worldwide. It is short for commercial and was originally intended for business sites. Most domain registrars sell this domain extension for around $12 per year.
As the most widely-used TLD, utilizing .com is a great option for establishing a professional business website. Additionally, people are more likely to trust .com, making your online business look more trustworthy and credible. However, finding a short and memorable domain name using .com is challenging as many of them are already taken.
4. .ltd Top-Level Domain
.ltd stands for limited and is one of the new domain extensions for limited companies. Several domain registrars offer this TLD for approximately $21 per year.
The .ltd extension is intended for companies or businesses that have LTD designation. With it, visitors and customers will see your online business as an official limited company. As such, site owners that utilize .ltd can convey that they are serious about running a professional online business.
5. .io Top-Level Domain
.io is one of the country code TLDs, and it is intended for the British Indian Ocean Territory with over one million registered domains. However, this open ccTLD is also popular among tech business owners, who often associate it with the term Input/Output (I/O). This TLD costs more than $30 per year on average, making it one of the more expensive TLDs on this list.
Many tech companies are adopting .io as their domain extension. A non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace is just one example of many businesses that can use the .io extension. Therefore, choosing this TLD can be a great solution if you own an online business in the technology industry.
Conclusion
To create a credible online business, users must consider various website aspects like choosing the right domain extension to create a strong business domain name. Using a suitable TLD gives your online business a higher chance of establishing a good first impression with visitors.
In this article, we have gone through a list of the five best TLDs for starting your online business. Here are the top domain extensions:
- .biz – a great option for any business.
- .store – recommended for online stores or eCommerce sites.
- .com – the most popular domain extension for any website.
- .ltd – intended for limited companies.
- .io – popular among many tech companies.
We hope this article has given you insights into great TLD options for your online business. Good luck on your online journey!