Which TLD

Which TLDmost likely fair better in searches for search engines
Which top-level domain (TLD) to choose?than ones without keywords in the name.
By Clare Lawrence 10th March 2003 Clare is the CEOIf you do use keywords in your domain name
of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name— remember to be careful of trademark
registration service.issues.
I am often asked this question. Is it possible thatA good source of recent discussions on this topic is
search engines such as google give preference to theWebmasterworld:-
.com TLD? Or are TLD’s all treated equally?You might also want to keep an eye on Google
As a test I picked a random phrase “TechnicalAnswers , this is a paid service where researchers
services” and did a search onanswers questions on a range of topics including
The results:search engines.
1. .org 2. .com 3. .com 4. .net 5. .co.ukIf your preferred TLD domain name has been taken
Trying the phrase again using Google.co.uk (I am UKby a rival then it is clearly still worth using a different
based) .TLD particularly your own regional one.
The results.Duplicate domains
1 .net 2 .co.uk 3 .com 4 .co.uk 5 .orgBe careful of having duplicate content on different
Hopefully these results show that there is nodomain names, as this is seen as “spamming” by
preference given by search engines.Google and can lead you to being penalised or even
However there are far more .com domains out therebanned on Google.
than other TLD — users will be more likely toGoogle’s quality guidelines specifically state
key in your domain name and add the .com extension— Don’t create multiple pages,
themselves out of habit.sub-domains, or domains with substantially duplicate
If your market place is local then your regional TLDcontent.
can be helpful, this is because a lot of Search enginesYou can however register multiple domain names and
and Directories such as Google and Yahoo —use a 301 redirect. Such redirects are recognised as
offer the user a choice of “Search the web” orbeing completely valid.
“Search locally e.g. UK”Protecting your Brand
Having a local TLD can therefore be a benefit.If you are building a brand it is often good practice to
Directoriespurchase all the TLD’s for your name, once a
Some directories will use your TLD to categorise thedomain name is registered it can’t be
geographic content of your site, and thereforetransferred without your permission. If you add
exclude a site from inclusion solely because it doesweb-forwarding to each one of the domain names
not match their local market.other than your main site then what ever your
The Open Directory (Dmoz) lists sites by bothcustomers enters as a TLD they will still find you.
regional and market segments as Google uses theThis will also help to protect you against unscrupulous
Open Directory in part for its indexing — yourrivals who may register a domain name with the
choice of TLD will have a bearing on whether yourintention of capturing traffic from your site.
site is selected in a local search e.g. SearchingLooking for more advice?
Google.co.uk for UK domain name registrars will bringWe have built up an article bank on our site —
up our site because it is UK based.many from the leading specialists in each field, please
The TLD can therefore have some bearing on how afeel free to browse them The articles cover domain
site will be indexed.names, web hosting, SEO (Search engine
Keywords in your domain nameoptimisation), e-marketing and much more.
Search engines such as Google do give someConclusion
preference to keywords within a domain name, andThere is no evidence that any preference is given to
the first keyword in the description and Title tags, soTLD by search engines, though your choice of TLD
if your site’s domain name is your site willname may be influenced by your plans for it.