Many entrepreneurs (myself included) will choose the name of their business based on the availability of the .com domain name. Lets look at my first successful company, “Web Impakt”. I would have much rather named that company “Web Impact,” but webimpact.com was not available. As a result, I’ve spent the last 10 years telling people “Web Impakt… with a ‘K’.”  Since then, new gTLDs have been added. What are those and how could they have helped the spelling of my company name? Find out in today’s #WhatIsWednesday.
A gTLD is a Generic Top-Level Domain. You may think you don’t know what that is, but if you’ve ever typed in a website address, you do. It’s the .com/edu/gov/net that finishes up the URL. The initial set was defined way back in 1984, and remained largely unchanged until recently. But now, you have over a thousand new generic top-level domains to pick from, including .ninja, .computer, .sucks, and of course .cat.
So, if you are creating a new website, should you chose one of these new gTLDs for your company? Well… these new extensions do not carry the trust and credibility that their 30-year-old counterparts do. For experienced internet users, any site with one of these new vanity domains may seem a bit untrustworthy. But, come on, who wouldn’t want to click on ima.ninja?! With some creativity, these new extensions can be fun and help you stand out! And who knows what the landscape of the web will look like a few years from now? Our kids might be poking fun at the way we coveted the nonsensical .com.
But surely a .com will rank higher then a .sucks, right? Well, Google has come out and said that it has no preference. Content will always remain king.
webimpact.cool is available, but I guess I’ll stick with my “K” for the time being. I’ve actually reprogrammed my brain, along with my employees (and probably several of my customers) where impact looks like it’s spelled wrong with a “C”.
So many new options, what’s a marketer to do? Go have some .fun!