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Dotcom

A couple of days ago I got this question from Heather:

I’m thinking about getting a domain name for my website. The .com is taken, but the .net and the .org is available. How important is it really to have a .com for your website? Can’t I just register the .net instead of the .com?

This appears to be a fairly common question, so I thought that I would share the reply that I gave Heather:

Hi Heather:

Good domain names, especially those that end with a “.com” are getting harder and harder to find these days. You can make do with a .net or a .org for your website, but really try to get a “.com” if you can, even if this means that you have to go for a slightly different domain name.

Why? Because “.com” is the domain name TLD (a TLD, short for top level domain is the domain name extension that follows after the “.”) is the one that is most well-known and well-publicized. Just about everyone has heard of the “dot-com boom”, the “dot-com economy”, and of course “the dot-com bust”. Most people when they are typing in a web address will naturally assume that it’s a “dot-com”. If they are not sure about your domain name, they’ll type in “.com” first before they try out the “.net”, “.org”, or “.info”. Some people might not even go as far as trying another TLD, they may just give up if they don’t reach your website after a couple tries.

Because “.com” is so entrenched in people’s minds, that’s makes it a lot more valuable than other domains that end in “.net” or some other TLD. Which also explains why it’s getting harder to find a good “.com” domain. In the future, other TLDs may start to get more familiar in the minds of people on average, but “.com” will probably be king of the Internet mountain for a while to come. So get that “.com” if you can.

If you have question about websites or promoting yourself online, click on the “Ask a Question” tab at the top of the page and send me your question. I’ll send you an answer to your question personally.