Choosing Your Domain Extension: Why .COM?

This is a post I posted way back when I was a forum administrator for a webmasters forum.  

Choosing a domain extension used to be easy and fast. But with all the domain extensions that you can select, it gets harder to choose. Sure you can just go and register your company name as your domain name, but what about the extension? Which one should you select?

In this short post, I will give some fair amount of idea on why is it that a .COM extension is very much preferable than other domain extension.

Gone are the Days when .COM and .NET are the only Option

Obviously, a .COM extension remains the default option as well as .NET when choosing an extension. But what happens when some other domain is parked there? Should you think of another domain name and pursue the .COM extension? Or settle for the other extensions such as .BIZ, .NET, .INFO, etc.?

.COMmercial is STILL the Must-have

If someone had gotten first with the .COM option, then it would be better that you change your domain name and still pursue the .COM option. Why? Well, two reasons:

FIRST: that is what people are used to when typing a web address. Also, when you switch to another extension such as .BIZ or .NET, chances are, your site visitors, when they want to revisit your site, will end up typing .COM, thus, directing them to your competitor’s site.

SECOND: simply because .COM are the kind of results returned by GOOGLE.

NOTE: .COM is highly recommended for those website that are more on sales or those that are into the internet to make profit or for commercial use. (affiliates, etc.) Well, I am not discouraging you from other extension, but if your domain is available for .COM, then grab it. Unless, your website is designed not for making sales or profit, like a foundation, academic, etc., you can select the extensions below.

Also, getting your domain with a local extension can boost your page ranking in local search results. So if your server is, say, in Canada, then it makes sense to get one with a domain.ca as one your website. It will give you more boosts in penetrating your local market rather than competing worldwide, like in US for example.

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These are some of the other commonly used extensions that you can choose:

.ORG – represents the word ORGANIZATION and this is primarily used by non-profit organization and trade groups
.BIZ – is usually use for small business web store and sites
.INFO – more like a resource site where information can be obtained for use. 
.MOBI – for credible resource Web sites that is usually built for easy viewing of files or on mobile devices.
.TV – is for rich multi-media websites and commonly used by the media and entertainment industry.
.NAME – specifically designed for personal use. It is like your own personal email address that display photos and personal information of a certain person

Other extensions include the abbreviation of the server’s country such as:

.CH for China
.TW for Taiwan
.US for United States
.PH for Philippines
.IS for Israel .AM for Armenia
…and many, many others.