There\u2019s an interesting phenomenon with regards to the internet that the more tech-savvy among us might not notice, and those less educated in the world of the web are prone to doing without realizing.<\/p>\n
The usual URL format is www.example.com.<\/strong>\u00a0We all recognize this as a website URL. However, there\u2019s one thing missing from that URL that is, in fact, critical. That\u2019s the HTTP:\/\/ part of the command, the hyper text transfer protocol, with or without the S for secure. At the same time, the www is not actually necessary for almost all websites.<\/p>\n The www is a relic from a time when subdomains ruled access to a server. The www was the world wide web access, the front-facing page. The same site at ftp.example.com would be the file transfer protocol access, which the site administrator could use to upload and transfer files. A similar URL, pop.example.com, would be the post office protocol, which usually directs to an email server.<\/p>\n However, these days, most web servers relegate this to ports on the domain. Instead of www.example.com and ftp.example.com, you might have example.com:80 for traffic to port 80, web traffic, and example.com:21, traffic on port 21, which directs to the file server. Alternatively, they might replace the HTTP with FTP:\/\/example.com, or\u00a0whatever other protocol they need.<\/p>\n Why do I bring this all up?<\/strong>\u00a0Have you ever tried to get someone in their 80s to use the internet properly? One thing you\u2019ll often encounter is how engrained the idea of www.example.com is for a URL. Even if your site is http:\/\/example.co.uk, getting someone to type that in can be unnervingly difficult. You\u2019ll see a surprising number of people typing in http:\/\/www.example.co.uk.com.<\/p>\n This is the primary reason why, when you\u2019re discussing top-level domain extensions,\u00a0.com is always going to be the winner.<\/strong>\u00a0The .com TLD, standing for \u201ccommercial\u201d as opposed to educational (.edu), governmental (.gov), or what have you, is the default for many, many people.<\/p>\n So, when you ask the question \u201cwhich domain extensions rank the best,\u201d you\u2019re adding the invisible subtext, \u201cafter .com.\u201d\u00a0The .com domain extension is always, always going to be the number one extension<\/strong>\u00a0for as long as extensions are commonly used at all.<\/p>\n There are a lot of top-level domain extensions. There are so many that, as of 2015, they are divided into six categories. These are Infrastructure domains, Generic domains, Restricted domains, Sponsored domains, Country Code domains, and Test domains.<\/p>\n Before the addition and reorganization of 2015, all the way back in the early days of the internet in 1998, there were only a relative handful of domains. You had .com, .org, .net, .int, .edu, .gov, and .mil. These are for commercial sites, organization sites, network sites, international organizations, educational sites, governmental sites, and military sites. The latter two are restricted to the United States, as well.<\/p>\n There are three general quality tiers of top level domains.<\/strong>\u00a0The high tier domains are the most valuable for use in marketing, search, and website optimization. These are domains like .com, .gov, and .edu. They\u2019re recognizable, they\u2019re common, and they have benefits to SEO in terms of authority. Restricted domains give you that authority, because they\u2019re implicit proof that you are who you claim to be.\u00a0They aren\u2019t as valuable as many people say they are, but they still have a bit of value to the owner of such a site.<\/p>\n The middle tier<\/strong>\u00a0are top-level domains that work for hosting a site, and that are perfectly functional, but aren\u2019t necessarily doing you any favors. Most country codes, most generics, and most sponsored domains all fall into this category. It is, frankly, the bulk of the domains available. No one is going to be better than any other, not really.<\/p>\n The bottom tier<\/strong>\u00a0are actively detrimental domains. They are often used for spam, and simply using one will give negative associations to your brand, and can possibly come with an immediate SEO penalty or lack of trust.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s an interesting phenomenon with regards to the internet that the more tech-savvy among us might not notice, and those less educated in the world of the web are prone to doing without realizing. The usual URL format is www.example.com.\u00a0We all recognize this as a website URL. However, there\u2019s one thing missing from that URL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,13,17,31,18],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet-marketing-internet-marketing","tag-best-online-marketing-company","tag-internet-marketing-india","tag-online-marketing-companies-new-delhi","tag-online-marketing-company","tag-search-engine-marketing-new-delhi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How Many TLDs Are There?<\/h3>\n
Three Tiers of Top Level Domains<\/h3>\n