subject: What Are The Benefits of a .com Domain Name? by:Tanya Smith [print this page] Dot com, internet and the web are often used to mean the same thing by many people, although they are all different. Dot come has come become synonymous with the World Wide Web, although it is just one of the domain extensions that you can use for your website.
When most people think of a website, we think of it as a dot com. This is both the cause of the popularity of the dot com domain extension and also the result of its increasing popularity. But is there really any benefit to having a dot com domain extension? Does it have any impact on the site's SEO?
The first consideration while building your website is to get a domain name that reflects your business. Easy recall for your customers is the next criteria. Next, you want to make sure that the domain is easy to spell and lastly, you can give yourself an SEO edge if you can include a keyword in the domain name. The domain extension does not feature in the top criteria for your domain name.
Of the billions of websites, a majority use the dot com extension. Every day many new websites are launched. And every new site that is planned needs a domain name. The launch of every new website means another domain name is taken up. This makes it that much harder to find "preferred" or "premium" domain names for your website.
Out of the more than 100 domain extensions, dot com is easily the most preferred and popular. But why is this so and why should you first look for a dot com domain name before even considering any other domain extension?
Here are reasons why dot com is most preferred domain extension:
* Credibility: With a high recall value, just about everyone relates a website with a dot com extension. If your site has a different and less familiar extension, then it have the credibility that a dot com extension would give it.
* Browser Default: Most web browsers will look for www.mywebsite.com even when someone just types "mywebsite" in the browser window. This means that, even if your visitors do not type the full domain name, they will not get an error message if your website uses a dot com domain name.
* Recall: Most of your customers are likely to try out "mybusiness.com" even if they are not sure of your domain name. Many of them may not even know of the existence of other domain extensions like.org, .net, .biz , etc., leave alone trying them in the browser window.
* Valuation: If in the future you ever consider selling your domain, a dot com extension is most likely to fetch you the best price.
Are other domain extensions useless?
No. But the dot come still rules. It is the most preferred domain name extension and you certainly want to try and get a dot com domain extension for your most preferred domain name before considering any other domain extension. If it isn't available, look for the domain name with a hyphen or try variations of the domain name with the dot com extension.
It is only if you still can't find a dot com domain name that you should consider other domain extensions.
About the author
Tanya Smith is an expert on private domain registration and web hosting at Ballistic Domains, USA. Ballistic Domains provides domain name registration, domain transfer, domain parking, dedicated web hosting and related services.
