ByThis is a really great question.
In years past, everyone would have said “you can’t get anything other than a .com”. Though obviously this isn’t 1995 and we aren’t carrying pagers and still listening to Walkmans.
Everyone of course wants that shiny .com, but the state of the virtual real estate environment is that many of the “domain squatters” and domain brokers have just about secured all the .com in an attempt to either cash in on those that don’t know any better (but you will after this post) or in the hopes that some next big silicon valley startup VC will come drop the coin that these guys have been waiting for, for over 10+ years that they’ve been sitting on these names for.
So where does that leave you? What about your brand? Is it better to register a .com or a .net and perhaps even a .org?
The answer is simple, …they all have strong value at this point.
Without reason .com is always preferred for an easier time to brand, however now the tables have turned and .org and .net are just as strong contenders as well.
Here’s why.
Many of the .com owners are still sitting on these domain extensions undeveloped. The days of a domain squatter ranking for a parked domain page have been over for a while now, and a developed .net or .org domain can still have potential for both SEO ranking and brand awareness.
There are many popular .org domains at this point. Look at Wikipedia. Most people remember them as a .org since Google has been displaying their results as a .org for quite some time now. Due to the repetition, many people remember it this way now. However you can also get to it by typing in Wikipedia.com as well, however .org is stronger for them at this point.
In fact .org is seen as an authority in comparison with all 3. In tough times like we are in, internet users are more trusted with a .org domain therefore building your brand on it can truly be a good thing.
Now what about that .net?
It’s still better than totally changing your branding approach to using numbers, hyphens or worse…overpaying a broker for your domain.
As a website startup, you can certainly put those extra funds towards development or promotion as opposed to letting the squatters win.
So, don’t fret, if you need a a good domain there’s still hope for your perfect brand. These other domain extensions may need that extra TLC , but nothing comes without hard work. It truly doesn’t matter what the name of your street is, but the quality of the the house you build on it.
