Why You Should Register a .com Domain First
When you register your domain name, always register a .com name before a .net, .org, .biz, .pro, .tv, .mobi, or other “top-level” domains as they are called. If you use a .net, .biz, or .org domain name, you will only be losing customers. People will remember a .com name before they remember any other one. In fact, most Internet browsers will default to .com if the extension isn’t entered.
The .com name you want might not be available though. There are currently more than 72 million .com names registered, as opposed to only 10.7 million .net addresses. You can still use a .net address effectively with proper branding strategies, or if you rely mostly on search engine traffic. However, .com should always be your first choice.
With that being said, though, it’s always a good strategy to register the less popular top-level domains as well. For example, if you’ve registered www.yoursite.com, you should also try to register www.yoursite.net and www.yoursite.org. Even though far fewer people will type in the .org or .net name first, registering them anyway will help prevent other similar businesses to yours from stealing your traffic or damaging your reputation by posting something offensive or low-quality on the .net or .org address.
The non-profit corporation in charge of assuming responsibility for the domain name system is The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). You will find an up-to-date list of available top-level domain names at their website, http://www.icann.org/.
Category: Domain Names
