.tech, .blog, .cooking, and more
The internet has moved beyond .com, .net, .org, and .gov. Now, we have a bunch of Top Level Domains (TLDs) to choose from. When choosing a domain name, should you choose one of the new generic TLDs?
Suppose you have a website that offers a vegetarian recipe for each day of the year. CookVegetarian.com is unused.but not untaken and you would have to negotiate with the owner to get that domain name. Consider the alternative of using a generic TLD: CookVegetarian.today. This gives your domain name a certain dynamic cachet, immediately expressing the idea that you have a new recipe each day. It is also important to incorporate your brand in your domain name. So, this domain works even better if your company name is "Cook Vegetarian.". Not every TLD you can imagine is available, but there are more than a thousand.
Ranking on Google
Google confirms that TLDs are not being used as ranking factors. This means that you can feel confident that sites using ".com" will not get preference over your site. Of course, what does count in getting ranked is the quality of your site, its reputation as evidenced by back links, and all the other usual ranking factors.
Read More.Using country TLDs
If you are a U.S. citizen or resident or have a bonafide presence in the United States, you might consider using the TLD ".us". Each country has its own TLD. For example, "amazon.fr" takes you to the Amazon site in France and "amazon.ca" takes you to the Amazon site in Canada. If you mainly want to reach people in a certain country, outside the United States, you should use the country code because Google will then lift your site in the search rankings for people who search from those countries.
One drawback of using a generic TLD is that we all gravitate to adding ".com" when we type in a web address. People wanting to reach "CookVegetarian.today" might even type in "CookVegetarian.today.com". However, just as telephone companies add in more area codes when the supply of telephone numbers is exhausted, the new TLDs are here to stay.
