What are new TLDs (top-level domains)?

Since March 2013 it has been possible to register new top-level domains (nTLDs) such as .shop, .business or .guru. on top of the classic TLDs such as .com or .org. Many relating to sports, business, lifestyle and tech­no­logy are also available.

Why introduce new TLDs?

The internet is growing and growing and the in­creas­ing number of websites means that more and more internet addresses with popular domain endings such as .com are being snapped up. Not long ago when short, concise addresses were no longer available among the common TLDs, e.g. shoes.com, you had to look for al­tern­at­ives. Domain names started becoming longer and also more com­plic­ated e.g. buyshoes.com. The al­tern­at­ives began to get more ri­dicu­lous e.g. buysupercheapshoes.com or supercheapshoeshop24.com.

Since virtually all sensibly entitled domains were in use, ICANN (Internet Cor­por­a­tion for Assigned Names and Numbers) decided to introduce new TLDs.

In­tro­du­cing the new TLDs

The aim of in­tro­du­cing new top-level domains was to provide more choice in the form of new domain ex­ten­sions. Many new generic TLDs were launched in 2000 and 2004. In 2008 the general rules were loosened and since then almost every term has the pos­sib­il­ity of becoming a TLD as long as it meets the ICANN re­quire­ments and is not too similar to an existing TLD. Companies now have numerous pos­sib­il­it­ies to choose concise and clear domains for their own websites thanks to these new options. Instead of supercheapshoeshop24.com it is now possible to have www.shoe.shop which is more appealing to the user and the search engine.

The benefits of new TLDs

The biggest advantage of nTLDs (new top-level domains) is the pos­sib­il­it­ies that they create since many names and shortened forms were snapped up years ago among the old TLDs. Instead of unclear ab­bre­vi­ations or a jumble of strung-together words, it is now possible to use short and concise ex­ten­sions.

The ad­vant­ages of nTLDs at a glance:

• location revealed through domain extension (e.g. www.hotel.london)
• reflects the topic of the site (e.g. www.womenshoes.shop)
• enables de­script­ive com­bin­a­tions (e.g. www.edu.london)
• higher re­cog­ni­tion value

Find your own new top-level domain and benefit from the many pos­sib­il­it­ies to design your URLs:

The new top-level domains and SEO

A question that often comes up is whether Google treats the new domains dif­fer­ently to the classic ones likes .org and .com and whether the domain choice has an influence on the ranking in the search results. The consensus is that it makes no dif­fer­ence to Google at the moment. Even if there is a relevant keyword in the ending (e.g. .app or .shop), this has no influence on the ranking of the page, which is the case with all top-level domains. The only exception are country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). In the UK a .co.uk domain will be ranked better than an .es domain. Con­versely, an .es domain would be favoured over a .co.uk domain in Spain.

A list of the new TLDs

The list of new domains is already so long and is growing by the day. Not every domain provider allows just any address to be re­gistered, and the rule to follow here is ‘first come, first served’.

Here are some new domains from the following areas:

Education

• .academy
• .college
• .education
• .school
• .study

Business

• .agency
• .business
• .expert
• .man­age­ment
• .marketing
• .partners

Lifestyle

• .beauty
• .family
• .fashion
• .men
• .singles
• .vision

Health

• .dental
• .doctor
• .health
• .hospital
• .support
• .surgery

Finances

• .cash
• .credit
• .finance
• .gold
• .in­vest­ments
• .money

Sport

• .bike
• .fitness
• .football
• .hockey
• .dance
• .yoga

Regional

• .amsterdam
• .barcelona
• .bayern
• .berlin
• .london
• .paris

Tech­no­logy

• .app
• .computer
• .email
• .network
• .systems
• .tech­no­logy

How can I secure a new TLD?

ICANN publishes new top-level domains on an ongoing basis. So it may be that you come across a new TLD, but it is not yet of­fi­cially available. Depending on the domain’s status, there are different pos­sib­il­it­ies to seize your desired name with one of the numerous ex­ten­sions.

Non-binding pre-order

If there is no in­form­a­tion given about a domain’s release, you can first pre-order your desired name without any ob­lig­a­tion to buy. This is usually free. As soon as dates and con­di­tions for the start of the nTLD are de­term­ined, the provider gets in touch with the customer. The customer can then decide whether they want to reserve the domain (binding agreement) or forego the name.

Binding re­ser­va­tion

If the start date for a new domain has been specified, prices and con­di­tions for re­gis­ter­ing are set. Prices vary depending on the relevance, just as they do with classic TLDs. Customers can then reserve their desired domain which is binding. At this point in time many reserved domains are made available again if there is no longer any interest.

New TLD re­gis­tra­tion

Those shopping for domains can find a readily available selection of nTLDs on their provider’s site. After the extension has been released the new top-level domains can be re­gistered like normal. You can also carry out a domain check and register your desired domain if it is still available on the provider’s website.