How to Choose Your Domain Suffix

When you launch a new website, one of the most important steps that you will take is choosing the right domain name. If you decide on something that is too long, too hard to spell, or too obscure, you will be limiting the amount of people who will casually find your website and give your company or organization business. But finding the perfect name, such as the "salon" in salon.com, or the "etsy" in etsy.com, or the "twitter" in twitter.com is not the only important part. You also need to think about what comes after the name of your website, i.e. ".com", ".org", ".biz", etc.



The most common of these suffixes are referred to as "generic top-level domains", or TLDs, and these are the ones from which you will most likely be choosing. Often, people default to ".com" when naming their new website, as it is the most common suffix, and will be the easiest for the public to remember. In fact, many individuals often assume that a website ends in ".com" even when repeatedly reminded otherwise. When the goal is increasing web traffic, it makes sense that individuals or companies would want such a common TLD for their site, as it keeps it simple for the customer and the client alike.



But it is not always possible to register a website as ".com", as so many domains that end in this TLD are already taken. Just try registering your floral shop at flowers.com. If the Internet were a person, it would laugh in your face! Sometimes, you might need to look at other suffixes if you want to keep the name part of your domain simple. But, if you are not particularly Internet-savvy, you may be unsure where to begin. Here is a breakdown of some other TLDs from which you can choose when registering a website name.



1. ".org"



This is one of the most common suffixes after ".com", and it is your best bet for keeping your traffic high. Many successful websites use ".org": consider Wikipedia.org (the online, user-altered encyclopedia), Craigslist.org (the Internet classifieds sites that has helped to destroy the print media industry!), bbb.org (the Better Business Buruea´s online directory), and UN.org (the United Nation´s homepage). This works best if your website is a charity, an association or club, a service, or a website that compiles data.



2. ".net"



This is another TLD that may not scare away too much web traffic. It was originally intended for network infrastructures, but now can be registered by anyone who wants a website that ends in ".net". The sound of this TLD is more generic than ".org", and perhaps can be applied to more websites.



3. ".info"



This suffix can be used effectively for websites that are supposed to be informational, although a quick perusal of websites that use it will show that its use is quite unrestricted. But if you are trying to convey that your company can be of use in some kind of analysis and that it is part of the information age, then it never hurts to have the word "info" following the name.



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