What is a Top-Level Domain (TLD)?
The Top-Level Domain (TLD) is the last part of your domain name — like the “.co.uk” in mybusiness.co.uk. But it’s more than a few letters after a dot. That little ending plays an essential part of your website’s identity, working as a signature that ties your online brand together. In this guide, we’ll look at how your choice of TLD can give your website a smart finishing touch. We’ll also share some simple tips on choosing a domain name that’s clear, catchy and won’t break the bank. What is a domain name, anyway? To start with the basics: a domain name is the address typed into a browser to visit a website. Every site has its own unique domain, just like every house has its own postcode. Domain names serve to replace long strings of numbers, called IP addresses, with something that’s much easier for us to remember. So, instead of having to recall numbers like 191.124.184.129, visitors can simply type in (or search for) a web address like www.123-reg.co.uk — quick, easy, and memorable. After the “protocol” at the very start (usually HTTP/HTTPS), a domain name is made up of three primary parts: Subdomain: Most often “www” Second-Level Domain: The words or numbers in the middle, like “123-Reg” Top-Level Domain (TLD): The “.com” or other suffix at the end According to Verisign’s 2024 Domain Name Industry Brief, there are over 362 million registered domain names today. With around a million new domains added each month, the total is expected to hit 550 million by 2026. Why do we need Top-Level Domains (TLDs)? TLDs organise the internet by replacing IP addresses with easy-to-remember names, making websites simpler to find. They’re limited in number, keeping the web structured and manageable. Without them, the internet would feel chaotic. They also give visitors clues about the kind of site they’re visiting, helping to create an identity that matches the brand or business. Whether it’s a .com, .co.uk, or something a little more niche like .ai, .studio, or .life, that suffix at the end plays an important role in shaping first impressions. TLDs work to make websites feel more trustworthy, relevant, and professional. Why choosing the right TLD matters Choosing the best TLD is an important decision when buying a domain. It’s more than just what comes after the dot — it tells the world about the business and what it stands for. Your web address is often the first thing people notice about your brand, so it’s worth getting it right. As we’ll explore, buying a great domain name can have a huge impact. ☒ Crafting a memorable identity The TLD is one of the first things visitors notice. A relevant and unique suffix can help make your website more memorable and set it apart. For creative businesses, niche TLDs like .studio can reflect a brand’s personality and catch the eye. ☒ Telling your brand story A TLD can tell your brand’s story before anyone even visits your homepage. Whether it’s a classic .com or a specific option like .tech or .design, it adds context and sets the tone for what customers can expect. For instance, a green business might choose .eco to highlight its sustainability, while a creative business could pick .studio to show off its artistic side. See also: Names That Click – How to Choose a Great Domain Name A brief history of TLDs TLDs have been around since the early days of the internet. Back in the 1980s, there were just seven extensions to choose from – including .com for commercial business, .org for organisations, and .net for networks. Simple, but not a lot of fun. Altogether, the original seven domain extensions were: ✓ .com – for commercial businesses ✓ .org – for organisations ✓ .net – for all sorts of networks ✓ .edu – for education institutions (only for accredited institutions) ✓ .gov – for government entities (only for official use) ✓ .mil – for the U.S. military (restricted) ✓ .int – international organisations (also restricted, for entities like NATO) You’ll notice that, among the original seven TLDs, only three sorts of domain were even open to the public. It quickly became clear more were needed to support the rapid growth of the internet. The .co.uk was born just a few months after .com in 1985. Managed by Nominet, it fast became the most popular domain for businesses and organisations in Britain. (We can’t believe .co.uk is 40!) The expansion of TLDs is overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Formed in 1998, ICANN is a non-profit organisation responsible for coordinating the global domain name system. Their job is to make sure domains are unique — keeping the internet manageable and secure. As the internet grew, the original TLDs started to fill up quickly. To make more room, new ones needed to be added, released by ICANN in occasional batches. Fast forward to today, and there are hundreds of TLDs to choose from from when buying a domain name. What different types of TLDs are there? Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) More or less by definition, generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) are open to everyone. These domains have no restrictions and can be registered by all. .com was originally intended for commercial businesses, but there’s no limits on who can buy the domain today. There’s no need to meet any strict criteria as you would with, for example, certain country code domains. Similarly, .org was originally created for non-profit organisations, but over time became open to all. Today, the original big gun gTLDs remain some of the internet’s best known. Indeed, .com is easily the most popular suffix online. As of 2023 there are about 160 million .com web addresses registered, making it the web’s favourite domain ending by a wide margin. While .com domains get top marks for brand appeal, they’re heavily saturated. Many of the short and obvious choices (think “search.com” or “music.com”) were snapped
We’re ready for .it are you?
A new domain hits the 123-reg systems very soon, yet it’s strangely familiar. The .it extension is coming soon to 123-reg so you can enjoy the most descriptive computing domain name alongside all your favourites such as .com, .net and .co.uk. Now we know the .it domain is not new to everyone and we expect some of you probably already hold some .it domains but until now you couldn’t add them to your 123-reg portfolio. Since 123-reg is the UK’s leading domain market place for UK businesses we’re now adding the .it domain name extension, bringing an Italian flavour to our systems and helping our customers expand across the EU. If you don’t yet have a .it domain name you will soon be able to register yours via 123-reg in the usual way, showing availability on the extension when you search for any domain. If you already have a .it domain name, the introduction of the extension to our systems means you will be able to transfer it in and add it to your 123-reg domain portfolio. Owning a .it domain has a number of benefits. Not only does it protect your brand and provide you with a space for you to market effectively to customers in Italy but it also offers you the chance to highlight your company’s knowledge and expertise in the IT industry. You don’t need to be Italian to own one but you do need to be a resident of the EU to purchase a .it domain name. Otherwise the restrictions are few and far between. Any business setting up within the EU should be aware of the importance of .it domain names too as the following grid shows. Top European ccTLDs Germany .de approx 15,000,000 registrations United Kingdom .uk approx. 10,200,000 registrations Netherlands .nl approx. 5,000,000 registrations Russia .ru approx. 3,800,000 registrations Italy .it approx. 2,400,000 registrations There’s plenty of reasons why .it is a domain to be reckoned with and we think the addition of the .it registration to our systems is set to become extremely popular. So look out for our launch and remember to secure your .it domains.
URLs are your first line attack
URLs are important on-page SEO elements as we use them to travel from a page to another so they underpin your entire website. When you create a new site, create it with SEO in mind and try to come up with the best way to form URL structures for it. What Google says Google recommends using short URLs, thus trimming unnecessary parameters. In Google’s article on URL Structure it is mentioned that complex URLs can become an obstacle for crawlers and Googlebot may consume too many resources thus making it impossible to index all the content on your site. “Overly complex URLs, especially those containing multiple parameters, can cause a problems for crawlers by creating unnecessarily high numbers of URLs that point to identical or similar content on your site. As a result, Googlebot may consume much more bandwidth than necessary, or may be unable to completely index all the content on your site.” The ironic thing is that Google preaches but seems to be ignoring its own recommendations. Just take a look at all the Google Maps links, such as: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=98115&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1&iwloc=A What short URLs can do for your SEO Short URLs are easier to: Copy and paste Share over the Internet Email Write on a business card Write directly into your browser Spell when shared over the phone These are just a few of the benefits of having short URLs. However, even though the URL is short, it should be descriptive of the content the visitor will find on that page. For instance, here are some examples of good URLs from our website: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/domain-names/ https://www.123-reg.co.uk/vps-hosting/ How including keywords in your URLs can help Specialists recommend including in the URL the keyword we are targeting for that specific page. This will not only help with optimising the page for search engines, but also make it easier for any person to accurately deduce what information he will find on that page. Make use of Google’s Keyword Tool and SEOMoz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool as these are two great resources for your keyword research.
Why short domain extensions are better
We live in the world of social media and we have to do everything we can to adapt. This is a world where over 400 million tweets are shared every single day and each message has no more than 140 characters. If you’re using Twitter often, you know how difficult it is to convey your message in so few words, don’t you? When every character counts… There are some methods you can use to save up space and get more words in. One of them is to get a two letter domain such as .co, .tv, rather than a three or four letter one. A short domain extension is easy to remember and social because you can squeeze more in your tweets. Also, the number of people using mobile devices to navigate on the Internet is increasing by the minute, so this is another reason short domain extensions are an excellent solution. Using branded shorteners Many big companies started using a branded shortener when they discovered the benefits of short domains. Twitter, for instance, has registered t.co to convey the idea that every character counts. Now t.co is one of the most used domains on the web and it currently ranks 22 on Alexa. Not long after, Google also registered g.co, the official URL shortcut just for Google websites, Cisco got cs.co and Starbucks started using sbux.co. Why did so many of the big brands choose .co domains? Because it’s short, generic and easy to remember. Also, it’s similar to .com but not as popular just yet, which means the chances of finding your favourite domain name available are higher. For a limited time only, you can buy .co domains on 123-reg for just £14.99 for the first year instead of £29.99. That’s a fantastic 50% saving that’s hard to pass, especially with such a cool domain like .co, so go grab yours today.
Commuting the message – why domains are so important
I am sat on a London Underground tube train on my way into London as part of the commuter morning rush-hour. I don’t do this journey often now but 15 years ago it was part of my daily routine. Boy has it changed! Back in the day, we (myself and fellow commuters) would sit staring into space, out of the window or into each others eyes. Sometimes a few would scan a paperback novel and the odd newspaper but mostly it was a time to reflect about the day ahead – or the heavy night before. Nowadays WE are all connected! Standing (the overcrowding issue hasn’t really changed) here tapping away on my tablet, I look around and think that an alien landing on earth for the first time seeing this scene may believe us humans are actually powered by electronic devices. All bar three people on this crowded train carriage, from what I can see, are plugged in, absorbed or certainly engaged with an e-reader, a tablet, an mp3 player. I can even see one guy turning contortionist as he attempts to type on a full-size laptop with less arm room than a corpse in a coffin. Even those flicking through the pages of he free commuter newspapers are all plugged in with headsets into another device hidden about their person. Some fight with reception as we dip in and out of tunnels and they optimistically attempt to continue their mobile phone conversation. It’s a modern world! Then I look further at our surroundings. The adverts in the carriage, the branded clothing worn by my fellow commuters, the bags they carry, the buildings flashing by outside the odd overground bits of our journey, there another wave of technology is becoming day-to-day with few consciously realising. Back in the day, I would probably have been one of a few on that train with a domain portfolio. Many probably hadn’t even used the Internet! Nowadays the domain name is as vital as your formally adopted name – indeed some even think more important! Domain names are everywhere…and quite rightly too. I am an information junkie and a domainer but I know I am not alone in getting excited when I see a new domain name, perhaps with a catchy ring to it, or an intriguing description built in. One of my domaining regrets is letting a batch of off-the-wall domains expire when I had a domain cull, because nowadays it seems the quirkier the name for a business the better, especially if it includes an animal. So back to my commuter train. You see, full domain integration into our daily lives is not far away. You can already have a full range of personal domain names, some people have even tattooed that onto their physical being in some form or other. On your way to work you will probably ‘see’ tens of domain names but you may not take them all in. Domain names are very close to becoming a commuters norm as the electronic device has, but domains will become more powerful, especially for businesses. They will stand alone, with the catchy, memorable ones becoming etched on the minds of commuters, while many more will also be accessed during the commute via one of the multitude of connected devices the commuters handle. So there has never been a more important time than now to secure your domain name. Commuters love them, kids love them, even business entrepreneurs love them, so make sure it is your domain they are loving. A commuter train is not exactly the most obscure location for a domain name to be promoted, but is there anywhere in the modern world yet untouched by domain name fever? We’d love to hear the most unique place you have used or seen a domain name promoted.
I’m a .Pro you know
Taking countless exams and years of study – often in your ‘spare time’ not only shows dedication but also a high level of specialism in your chosen subject. That’s why becoming a qualified professional is something 1) you should be proud of 2) potential customers should be able to identify immediately. In domain terms now there is a badge of honour that can instantly show your professional status. The .pro domain extension is designed for professionals to promote their knowledge and business know-how to potential customers. Whether you use simply your full name (johnsmith.pro) or you go more descriptive (johnsmith-surveyor.pro) there will be no doubting your qualification status and expertise. At just £14.99 a .pro domain is a very affordable away of gaining trust from your potential customers and promoting your professional status to those who might want to know.
Win a new iPad!
10 million .uk domain owners can’t be wrong. As we reported last month Nominet recently announced that over 10 million .uk domain names have now been registered proving its continued popularity. As the UK’s largest registrar of .uk domain names we are proud to promote the .uk domain extensions too, so how about this for an offer from Nominet: If you register or renew your .uk domain name between now and 26th April you will automatically entered into a prize draw to win a brand new iPad – being dubbed the iPad3. Further information and terms and conditions can be found at http://www.agreatplacetobe.co.uk but effectively you don’t need to do anything special just register a new .uk domain name. So what are you waiting for?
A domain name can last a lifetime
Once you’ve got the domain name you want, you probably won’t want to let it go. And holding on to it’s even more important if you’re running a website or business – or simply rely on it for your email. Our domain name – 123-reg.co.uk – is 11 years old at the end of May. That’s nothing in the scheme of things, but it did get us thinking about the different ways you could use a domain name during your lifetime. Buy it at the start, and it’ll last till the end… At birth, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to buy a domain for yourself. But assuming someone does manage to register it for you, they’ll be able to embarrass you by putting baby photos online, writing a blog of your progress – and setting up an email address for good wishes. By the time you get to your teens, you’ll probably enter a rebellious stage. A website is the perfect way to express yourself. Get creative, or set up a private messageboard to keep in touch with your mates, away from prying eyes. After all, don’t teenagers understand the internet better than most adults? At university, you’ll discover a whole range of new interests. Maybe you’ll be setting up a website for a club or society, or trying to impress potential employers with an online portfolio or project. You certainly won’t struggle for ways to use your domain name. In your 20s and 30s? Isn’t that marriage and kids time? Replace wedding invites with a website. Include your seating plan, gift list and show people who else is coming. Or document every moment of your pregnancy and birth. (Ok, not every moment.) Kids growing up, more time on your hands? Spare evenings are a great time to pursue a hobby or passion online. Maybe you could start a website – or even an online business. Plenty of ‘five to niners’ make money by running an online company outside of normal office hours. If you’ve hit retirement, you may be what they call a ‘silver surfer’. That’s surely another good excuse to spend more time online. At 123-reg ,we do believe a domain name can last an entire lifetime. Like your mobile phone number, once you have one you like, you won’t want to change it. So don’t! Register a domain, and you’ll be able to keep it for as long as you need it. Got a domain you’re not using? Choose domain name parking as a potential way you could make money from these domains. ver Surfers’ Day was started in 2002 by Digital Unite, one of the UK’s main providers of digital skills learning. The aim was to introduce older people to the world of technology