Domains and the world of commerce online can be a bit of a minefield. Rules, trends and algorithms are always shifting and improving, so it can be really hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with a quick recap!
A Brief History of Domains – Names…
The ‘domain name’; the URL that is registered to your company creates the online address in which your business lives. In every country, there is a domain authority – in the UK it is Nominet and in the US it is ICANN. These look after the domains introduced for their region (‘.co.uk’ and ‘.uk’ for the UK, ‘.com.’ for the US, and so on). Domains were originally designed to give a hierarchy to countries online. Although this has evolved, this hierarchy still exists to an extent. Google, for example, uses domain names to order information, as some domains have more weight than others.
- .COM: Originally intended for global commerce, ‘.com’ was quickly adopted by the US in place of ‘.us’. Furthermore, ‘.com’ is still, technically, intended for commerce but has heavy American connotations to go with it.
- .CO.UK: This domain used for UK businesses is to be supplemented with ‘.uk’ in the coming year for ease and to fit in with global trends.
- .ORG and .EDU: There are many non-country-centric domains also in use. For example, ‘.org’ is reserved for non-profit organisations and ‘.edu’ for education.
So, as you can see, it is important to pick the right strategy when considering your domain names.
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