Does Domain Extension Really Matter!?

oriux

New Member
Hello everyone,

In my adventures of the web, people are always trying to buy up .com domains. I've asked some people why does everyone go for .com Is it really that big of a deal? I've gotten responses like its important to have .com because everyone uses .com or it makes your website look professional. I have to stop right there because if you break down a link its just a url to go to a page. Why so much pressure on its extension? If you have .com, .org, .net, .us, co.nyc, I can't possibly believe a .com makes a webpage look more professional only because the purpose of the extension is to abbreviate the type of website it is catagorized under which honestly nobody really cares about because once your on the page your there to do whatever the website offers.

In case you did not know here is a small breakdown of what they are short for.
.com - Commerical
.org - Organization
.net - Network
.gov - Government
.us - United States
.bz - Belzie
.co - Colombia
if you want to see the full list click here!

I think the extension should only matter if you want other countries to see your website other then that. In my opinion I could care less if your a domain or sub-domain or whatever your extension is . What matters to me in the end is your website good or not!
 

Hostlumina

Active Member
I agree the content and having a strong design with the user experience in mind creates a web site regardless your domain extension.

I do believe you need to look at a domain as your home or business address. With a home or business you are looking at location and easy to get to for personal reasons and/or your business for your clients to reach you during your business planning, right? Well, with a domain you are doing the same, you are looking for a good name and extension that you personally or business wise makes sense keeping your clientele in mind.

Examples:
Your business is located in the UK and your main target is in the UK. You might prefer one of the .uk extensions as it shows to the user where the business resides from or at least has an location in the UK. Same idea goes with all other extensions such as .us .ca .br, etc...

You are running a government site you will go with one of the .gov domain extensions as it makes sense for the residents of the state and country. Also, it assures them that it is an official gov site as they are the only ones allowed with such extensions.

Finally, the name. Well, you want something people will remember you by. I do not know how many web sites I have really enjoyed but unfortunately never returned due to their domains been either very long or confusing that I just forgot to write down or bookmark it.

In regards .COM the reason they are very popular is because they are hard to find. Its an extension on demand as you need to keep in mind that it was the primary extension when the internet was picking up in popularity so many can relate more easily to .COM.

I see them as the lottery to be honest, there are so many individuals buying and reselling mass amounts of domains (all types of extensions)hoping for that one domain that sells for a couple of hundred thousands of dollars.
Just look at this list - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_domain_names

I personally own one domain that I was offered a high amount of money from a high executive in the music/video industry. I passed on the offer but I can see why many go into this type of "business" as you can make your investment + profit back rather quickly with that one sale, it's a gamble.
 
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oriux

New Member
Its a very huge gamble because if your keeping the domain & nobody wants it then your paying into a domain nobody wants to buy. I agree with you the url needs to be a good name easy to remember as far as the extension of it like I said should only matter if your targeting specific countries to see your site. Me personally idc what my extension is as long as its not banned in the us for people to see then its good for me so if I got sitename.co.uk id be fine with that or a .org .com is not my top list of extensions to grab because its commerical.
 

PTTed

Active Member
Hello everyone,
I think the extension should only matter if you want other countries to see your website other then that. In my opinion I could care less if your a domain or sub-domain or whatever your extension is . What matters to me in the end is your website good or not!

Ultimately the quality of your site matters more than anything.

However, one thing you have to keep in mind is that most people aren't as technically savvy as people like us who join internet forums. The average person doesn't understand that there is a difference in domain levels and domain suffixes. A savvy person will realize that maybe it doesn't matter what your domain extension is. A less savvy person might think something is weird about it not being a .com. When it comes to doing business on the internet, it is all about gaining the trust of your visitors. If someone thinks something about your site is weird, then you are giving them one more reason to be skeptical about your site. (Even if it is a really small thing like your domain suffix.)

With that in mind, and for many other small reasons, it just makes more sense to go with the .com. There are only very rare circumstances where I would ever consider launching a website these days without using the .com. It would have to be a special circumstance. Otherwise it just makes the most sense to stick with the .com.
 
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ulterios

Well-Known Member
Domain extensions DO matter but I don't think that it's usually to look professional although I am sure that it does have some affect, sometimes. Having a .com is not about professionalism (for most people/businesses) but for other factors.

The .com domain extension is the one that most people will type by default if they know the domain name but not it's extension. This means that there will be some cases where someone forgets the extension for whatever reason and just types the name and ads the .com to the end. I call that extension leakage, meaning that if you do not use the .com extension then some of your traffic will leak to the owner of the .com version of your domain.

At least for right now the .com extension is the main and primary extension that most people will always know and type by default if they don't know the extension and just want to try to get to the site they are looking for. A big reason why the keyboards on smartphones and tablets often have a .com button! ;)
 

Traveler

Active Member
Some people know that a .com is more valuable so they can see that like you are doing well and maybe gain a little more trust. I don't think that's always the case but I know some people that will only use a .com for this and other reasons.
 

david smith

Member
The official word that came from Google was that it treats all the TLDs equally, but some individuals claim that they were profited by using GTLD. Thus is depends on the choice of the people what one wishes to have i.e. .COM or GTLD, remember if the website wants better positioning in SERPs then the website has to be optimised whatever the TLD is.
 

Traveler

Active Member
The official word that came from Google was that it treats all the TLDs equally, but some individuals claim that they were profited by using GTLD. Thus is depends on the choice of the people what one wishes to have i.e. .COM or GTLD, remember if the website wants better positioning in SERPs then the website has to be optimised whatever the TLD is.
Did they say anything about the country domains?
 

Kania

Active Member
I think that sometime it can matter because some people will type a domain extension because they are used to it. Here in the UK most people will type .co.uk first and then maybe .com after that. It is just because they are used to those.
 

Melker

Member
There are some countries where people use the country domains much more than some of the more common ones. I think the extension matters in some places but in others not as much.
 

Ben

Active Member
Your domain is like your business address and the extension is part of that so it does matter. If you have a business at a physical address and say the address is 123 Main Avenue you will have some people wind up on 123 Main Street because that version is more familiar to most people.

Yes the extension matters but with some it will only matter a little and some a lot.
 

jpy

Member
In the US, people assume a website is a .com unless told otherwise. In that case, marketing would have to emphasize the domain extension which adds a problem with marketing. For instance, BobsUsedGames.com can simply be advertised as Bob's Used Games, but BobsUsedGames.net would need to be advertised as BobsUsedGames.net. However, though, that's not a big deal for some people.

I think that sometime it can matter because some people will type a domain extension because they are used to it. Here in the UK, most people will type .co.uk first and then maybe .com after that. It is just because they are used to those.

Actually, this poses a funny problem - because a .com would actually do worse in the UK, assuming that the domain extension is not emphasized in the ads, logo, etc..
 
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Lee Ann Hargrave

New Member
I agree that .com would be a more common extension, however, for most people, it doesn't really make a difference as long as it is easy to remember. The hardest part of remembering a URL is not the extension but the site name itself. When naming your site be sure that you think about how one would remember it.
 
Well, the domain extension is a fundamental part of a website's URL and is thus strictly related to its name, so yeah, I think it does hold some importance.
A good, striking domain is like a good business card. Funny or smart names are more likely to impress viewers, who may decide to give your website a shot by virtue of your name. The opposite effect can also be achieved by employing shady extensions, or at least those that recall similarly untrustworthy environments, so picking the wrong extension can also have disastrous effects.
The extension can be just as important as the domain itself.
 

JohnQ

Member
Well, the domain extension is a fundamental part of a website's URL and is thus strictly related to its name, so yeah, I think it does hold some importance.
A good, striking domain is like a good business card. Funny or smart names are more likely to impress viewers, who may decide to give your website a shot by virtue of your name. The opposite effect can also be achieved by employing shady extensions, or at least those that recall similarly untrustworthy environments, so picking the wrong extension can also have disastrous effects.
The extension can be just as important as the domain itself.
Many people don't realize how important the extension of the domain can sometimes be thus they go and register some that will actually hurt them in the long run.

Some domains can be success killers, especially some of the free ones because they are often used to spam. Use them then lose them since they have no real value. That hurts everyone else who using those.
 
Many people don't realize how important the extension of the domain can sometimes be thus they go and register some that will actually hurt them in the long run.

Some domains can be success killers, especially some of the free ones because they are often used to spam. Use them then lose them since they have no real value. That hurts everyone else who using those.

Exactly. The free domain deal is especially bothersome, since that could have been an awesome way to customize your website's name without resorting to other expensive alternatives. Unfortunately, any free service is bound to be exploited for malicious intents, and with domains that ratio happens to be way too high. It's a pity, but there's not much we can do about it. They can't impose controls on a free domain as they do with, say, .edu domains, for instance.
 

JohnQ

Member
Exactly. The free domain deal is especially bothersome, since that could have been an awesome way to customize your website's name without resorting to other expensive alternatives. Unfortunately, any free service is bound to be exploited for malicious intents, and with domains that ratio happens to be way too high. It's a pity, but there's not much we can do about it. They can't impose controls on a free domain as they do with, say, .edu domains, for instance.
I agree and it would just have been better if they at least charged a fee for those free extensions. That ways the people that would be using it for bad reasons would at least be out a little money.
 

Dean

Well-Known Member
I think that the domain extension that you use for your site can matter sometimes. Say for example that you are using one of the domain extensions that are commonly used for spam, scams and other bad uses, like some of the free domain extension.

If you use one of those then there are going to be some people who will automatically assume that your site would fall into the category that the site should not be trusted.

It can also matter if you are really trying to target a specific country like Germany for example but you are using a .us (United States) country code domain. That would actually not give you the little SEO help that using a German country code domain would give. It's not going to be much but every little bit helps.
 
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