Monday, January 20, 2014

Domain Names - Your Internet Address to the World

Your domain name is a very important part of your online presence. In fact, one could argue that the domain name is the most important part. Your domain name is what people use to identify your business and website by. Your domain name should reflect your primary target audience. Many regions/countries have TLDs, or top level domains for the specific region. For example; .fr is the primary TLD for France, .de is the primary TLD for Germany, .com is the primary TLD for the United States, and .ca is the primary TLD for Canadian domain names.

It can be beneficial for you to choose a top level domain that is for the region that your website will serve. If your website is for a business that is located in Canada, you would register a domain for Canada. Registering a .ca domain would help Canadians searching for goods or services find your website. There are search engines that serve specific regions. If a person uses a search engine that ranks it's searches, placing the regional TLDs higher than other TLDs, your website has a greater chance of being ranked in the search results. Using the proper TLD can beneficial with helping visitors feel comfortable using your website because it uses a TLD that is recognizable and common to what they are accustom to seeing. Just think, if you live in the United States, you would likely choose a .com website before you would choose a website with a .fr or .de top level domain. Language differences can also come into play when choosing a domain name for your website. If your choose a .de domain name, your website will likely do better if the website's language is German because many of the people that will find your website will speak and read German.

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