Best Domain Extensions for eCommerce Websites

The internet industry is one that cannot be taught or learned in a short amount of time. The fact is that most of the people that set out to make money online will fail, unless they already have a product that is popular in the offline market. Those that do succeed from scratch, usually follow a strict game plan and adhere to guidelines set forth by professionals. However, in the world of eCommerce unpredictability is king, and there are few factors that remain constant throughout the course of an internet business.

Factors such as traffic, search engine ranking, page rank, and even returns on investments can vary. Yet there is one part of an online business that will not change, and must be selected carefully upon registering the domain – the extension of the business site itself.

The Significance of a Commercial Domain

Commercial domains (.com sites) are by far the most common kind of websites online, and nearly everyone strives to obtain a .com site before resorting to other alternatives. When a site has the .com extension it immediately is recognized as a professional web presence based on social stigma alone, so it is not surprising to see that the most successful domain names are those that have the .com extension. However, very few people know that the term – .com actually refers to a commercial website, meaning that the site conducts business on a regular basis and was established and developed for commercial reasons. However a .com domain is no the only ideal option when shopping for eCommerce domain names, as there are two other domain extensions that hold authority on the web as well.

.Net Domains for eCommerce

The .net domain extension saw it’s highest point of popularity in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when Netscape was still a commonly used browser. However as people began referring to the internet as the web, and the .com craze began, the .net domains quickly faded in popularity and are now rarely seen. The .net extension is used to represent a network, and is commonly used in eCommerce sites that are parent companies to several corporations, such as software companies.

.Org

The .org domains have stayed consistent in their popularity levels and are still commonly used around the world today to represent organizations. The .org domain can be used to represent regular organizations and non-profit organizations. When used to represent profitable organizations these domains often perform at a lower standard than .com and .net domains, however they can still be used to open online shops that represent certain organizations.

.Biz?

Although the .biz domain extension was originally created to represent businesses, there are few people that actually use them for this purpose, as most people view such domains as unprofessional. The .biz domains do not rank well in the search engine and therefore are not he best decision for an online business owner. When searching for a domain name for your online business, ironically it may be best to steer clear of the .biz extension.