Domain Registration: How Many Extension Should You Register
September 29, 2005
When it comes to selection of a domain name, people are often inundated with several questions. One of the most important of them is which extension should I choose – dot-com or dot-net or dot-biz?
There are circumstances when you will think it is fit to register more than one extension. This article is aimed at helping you to make the right decision.
A common problem is that people usually type in .com all the time on net and land up on various other sites. This could be troublesome both for the business and the customer.
When you select a domain name, you are always given a list of different extensions to choose from. These extensions can help specify the type of products or services you are offering online or your geographical location.
To begin this article, I am giving some basic definitions of the extensions you can choose from:
* .com signifies “commercial”. It is the most well-known extension and preferred by all commercial enterprises. The acute scarcity of unforgettable .com domain names has led to creation of several other extensions.
* .net signifies “network”. It is generally used by internet service providers, web hosting companies, or other firms related to network or internet services.
* .org signifies “organization”. It is commonly used by non-commercial web sites. But, at present, many businesses register their matching .org extension to their .com domain names.
* .biz signifies “business�. It is used for business web sites. There are more chances of you getting this extension because of its low current penetration.
* .info signifies “information�. It is generally used for information sharing web sites. This too like .biz is gradually growing in popularity and there is more likelihood of you getting it.
Your first aim should be to get a perfect domain name for your business. Once you have done that you should then consider registering other extensions for the same domain name.
It is up to you to decide which extensions are most relevant for your business. It depends a lot on your customer base, range of products/services, and also your brand image.
You should always use domain forwarding service to redirect visitors from your other domains to your primary domain. This is quite essential since visitors may get confused about your web site address and may reach your competitor’s web site. For example, you domain name is home-appliances.net and your potential customers may reach home-appliances.com, which is your competitor.
Prevention is always better than cure. So, instead of buying a rival domain name from someone (at a high cost), it is always preferable to register that domain name yourself (at a low cost).
We find that name protection and greater coverage are the two key forces driving the need for registering more than one domain name. The accessibility of the site increases by registering more than one extension for a domain name.
There are other advantages of multiple domain name registration. It helps in creating a demand for similar domain names due to people realizing that so many domain names are available related to the primary one.
But some observers in the industry have a different viewpoint. They think that having more than one domain extension is very confusing for the visitors to these sites.
In conclusion, I would like to say that your primary target should be .com and thereafter, find out the relevant extensions for your business and try to register them also. I recommend you to register all relevant extensions so as to guarantee maximum coverage and minimum misguided competition.
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