Your domain name gives you identity and your top-level domain and extensions give you association.

The TLD can give you weight on a specific search engine while your name gives you recognizability and quick identification. Both your name and your TLD can make a difference in the traffic you receive for your online business.

Your name is up to your discretion. However it can be an important decision when considering how web browsers will find you before they find any of your competitors. Being found on the net has a commercial value (whether direct or indirect) and much electronic commerce is built on visibility, competing for audiences in the 'attention economy' or providing tools (such as advertising) that channel traffic to particular locations. So be sure, when choosing your name, to make it something a lot of people can associate with your business' name and identity, quickly and easily.

It also pays to register other names that might be commonly associated with your services so that you can utilize our URL Forwarding services to direct other sources to your main site. Registering your name under multiple TLDs can also help your overall traffic greatly depending on the type of traffic you are trying to generate.

When you are choosing the specific TLD or TLDs to apply to your name there are some important differences to keep in mind. It pays to be knowledgeable about which TLD can give you the most presence in a certain market or geographic area. Some TLDs are weighted more heavily in certain geographically oriented sites. While the more common TLDs such as .com and .net are given the most weight in a general search online. As the number of TLD extensions expand, the number of decisions to make when creating your domain continue to grow. Whether you are trying to gain weight in a specific geographic location or associating your domain with a particular type of organization, Name.com gives you the ability to link your identity to a specified world-wide presence.

It must be mentioned, that an appropriate name can be a distinct advantage, but must form part of a wider and sustained marketing strategy and is not a substitute for overall marketing. There is no denying that the internet is where the world comes now for most of its business so registering a domain and getting that name out there into global identification is more important than it has ever been.

It is most evidently seen that registering a domain, and a meaningful one, is the first step in building an online business and keeping the offline portion of your business competitive. Once you have made the decision to purchase a domain and you have an idea of how you would like your domain to work for you or your business, some of the information on Name.com can most definitely help guide you through some of the choices to make that goal a reality.

Recognizability with .COM

.COM's are the most recognizable of all TLDs. Because .com, was one of the first TLDs to be capable of registration without geographic border it became the top generic TLD. Some statistics point to .COM's as composing about 50% of all final destinations for web surfers. It is obvious that a .COM domain name is the most desirable to own when attached to your preferred name. However, as stated above, the domain while an integral piece of your marketing strategy it is not its entirety. Registering your name with a .NET domain is no compromise. .NETs have been shown to compose the second highest amount of internet traffic in some studies. When registering a domain a .com is most likely your best option but be sure not to modify the name of your name too much so as it lose your recognizability.

The .ORG Advantage

Trusted across all backgrounds, ages and nationalities, .ORG is where people turn to find credible information, get involved, fund causes and support advocacy. When you buy a .ORG, your organization is linked to a well-established brand of trust and integrity. One of the original top-level domains (TLDs), .ORG became the registry of choice for organizations dedicated to serving the public interest, and today .ORG is considered one of the most trusted domains on the internet.

If your organization is a non-commercial entity, people expect to find you in the .ORG community - nonprofits, foundations, philanthropic and cultural institutions, religious, civic, arts, social and fraternal organizations, health and legal services, clubs and community volunteer groups all can benefit from the trusted name that goes along with a .ORG affiliation.

The benefit is not merely limited to a non-commercial entity as commercial businesses also benefit. Registering with .ORG lends credibility to the activities of a charitable arm, and it also protects your brand and trademark as represented in your other domain name TLD registrations. As a premier domain, .ORG proviting positives use .US domain names to promote themselves as American companies to inspire consumer confidence and to encourage consumers with the security that comes with the association of a .US domain.

Global Domain Registration

How do you build the online brand power of a Global 10 company with the resources of a Global 2000?

Do you know what countries have strict regulations governing the registration of country-specific domain names?

For example, names within the .com.au extension, representing one of the world's fastest growing markets, can only be registered by parties with a verifiable presence in Australia. A similar story follows the newer .ASIA extension that opens the door to the vastly expanding markets throughout all of the Asian countries.

As a leading ICANN-accredited registrar, we provide a global suite of domain name registration services. Take a look at some of the country code specifisence.

You can build your brand world-wide while protecting your d Asia-Pacific region. As corporations and entities look beyond their local markets, an online identity is key and a regional domain is a logical next step in realizing that growth. Registering a domain with the .ASIA TLD you will satisfy demand for a "virtual central market" with a neutral regional identity. There are currently almost 400 million internet users in Asia and this number is rapidly increasing.

Critics suggest that the political and cultural reality is that thereis no coherent Asian identity, and thus no real community is being served. Interestingly, the .ASIA community consists of 73 jurisdictions, including a number of countries most would not expect, such as Israel, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand. The large number and disparate nature of the members of the .Asia community as it is defined seems to weigh against the possibility of any real common identity.

However, companies with trademarks that are registered, used, or are likely to be used anywhere in the 73 country Asian Pacific community members, should consider registering those trademarks as .ASIA domain names, if only for defensive purposes.

Putting stock into a dot ASIA domain is exactly what it seems. It is an investment that may pay off when taking into account the growing Asian economic markets as well as the growing internet presence with the populations within the Asia region.

.mobi

.mobi is a top-level domain (TLD) approved by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. .mobi is a unique extension as it is the first top level domain dedicated to delivering the internet to the mobile phone. .mobi is sponsored by a consortium of companies which includes the most prominent mobile and Internet players in the world. dotmobi's presence grows as more and more internet users resort to their internet capable phones to browse the web and do business online. .mobi is formatted to fit cellular phone screens that most likely will not grow past a certain point. See All about dotMobi for more information.