A revolution in domain names has been taking place over the last few months. Every website needs a domain name, the address of the site itself on the internet. For example our domain name is webfuel.com.
Every domain name is linked to a certain top-level-domain (TLD), in our case this is .com, one of the most popular TLDs on the internet. In the past finding a great domain name for your site was hard, because many good domain names on the most popular TLDs such as .com, .co.uk, .org and .net were already taken. Even worse many of these domain names aren't actually being used, they have just been bought up by opportunists hoping to sell them on at a massively inflated price to someone who really wants to use them.
But things are changing, because the number of TLDs has exploded recently. Following agreed changes to the way the domain name system is governed any company can apply for and implement a TLD. This costs a lot of money, but the companies then make it back by selling domain names on their TLD, in the same way as the administrators of .com or .co.uk do.
So now we have literally hundreds of TLDs to choose from. Here are just a few examples:
.academy .accountants .actor .agency .archi .associates .audio .bar .bargains .bayern .beer .berlin .best .bid .bike .bio .black .blackfriday .blue .boutique .build .builders .buzz .cab .camera .camp .capital .cards .care .careers .cash .catering .center .cheap .christmas .church .claims .cleaning .clinic .clothing .club .codes .coffee .cologne .community .company .computer .condos .construction .consulting .contractors .cooking .cool .country .credit .cruises .dance .dating .deals .democrat .dental .diamonds .digital .direct .directory .discount .domains .education .email .engineering .enterprises .equipment .estate .events .exchange .expert .exposed .fail .farm .finance .financial .fish .fishing .fitness .flights .florist .foundation .fund .furniture .futbol .gallery .gift .glass .global .graphics .gratis .gripe .guide .guitars .guru .hamburg .haus .hiphop .holdings .holiday .horse .host .house .immobilien .industries .ink .institute .insure .international .investments .jetzt .juegos .kaufen .kim .kitchen .kiwi .koeln .land .lease .life .lighting .limited .limo .link .loans .london .maison .management .marketing .media .menu .moda .moe .nagoya .ninja .nz .partners .parts .photo .photography .photos .pics .pictures .pink .place .plumbing .press .productions .properties .pub .qpon .recipes .red .reise .reisen .rentals .repair .report .republican .rest .reviews .rocks .rodeo .schule .services .sexy .shiksha .shoes .singles .social .solar .solutions .supplies .supply .support .surf .surgery .systems .tattoo .tax .technology .tienda .tips .today .tokyo .tools .town .toys .trade .training .university .uno .vacations .vegas .ventures .viajes .villas .vision .vodka .voting .voyage .wang .watch .webcam .website .wien .wiki .works .wtf .xyz .yokohama .zone
So you can now register websites ending in any of these TLDs, and the list is growing weekly. This is great as it allows you to come up with short, memorable TLDs, and you are no longer tied to trying to find something semi-sensible left on the .com or .co.uk TLDs. The cost of domains on these TLDs is a bit higher generally, for example up to around £100 per year is not uncommon. But this is actually a good thing. A domain is very valuable and in reality £100 per year is nothing for a business, but it does deter the domain sharks from buying up hundreds of domains and just sitting on them as they did with .com. So the fact it costs a sensible amount to register a domain is more reason you're likely to be able to find a domain you love.
So if you're looking for a new domain name for a current or new site then please give us a call and we can help you with finding and registering it. Remember that a domain name that utilises your site's SEO keywords can produce a significant SEO boost. We can also help with ensuring that all your existing links are redirected to the new site so you don't lose any existing SEO rankings.