The World Wide Web is well and truly a global phenomenon, with a host of new sites being created daily in countries and territories all across the world. Many of those locations have their own specific international domain names, like .au for Australia or .de for Germany.
For a long time, these types of domain names were relatively obscure and not that popular, with most site creators favoring more generic and universal domain names, like .com. However, international domain name registration has really taken off in recent years, with a particularly bright future ahead.
Let’s take a peek at that future by exploring some key trends in global domain name registration.
More Relaxed Restrictions
For a long time, one of the issues surrounding many international domain names was the fact that they simply weren’t as accessible as the more generic TLDs (gTLDs). Anyone can make a .com website, but the .co TLD (representing Colombia), for example, was for years only available to local citizens and organizations.
However, that eventually changed. .co, like many other country-code TLDs (ccTLDs), relaxed its restrictions and is now available to all. This is a trend that is predicted to keep growing in the coming years, as more and more countries’ domain name authorities seek to commercialize their ccTLDs.
Some countries are even actively promoting their TLDs for use around the world, encouraging brands and businesses to sign up for one. A good example is .am, which can be used for radio stations and may have potential in emerging tech fields like AI and machine learning.
Increased Focus on GeoTLDs for Local SEO
If you’re not yet familiar with GeoTLDs, it’s likely that you’ll start seeing a lot more of them in the years to come. They work a lot like ccTLDs, but they’re typically tied to smaller areas, like regions, provinces, or even individual cities.
Examples of GeoTLDs include the .paris TLD for the French capital city, .quebec for the Canadian province, and .istanbul for Turkey’s largest city. There are also some GeoTLDs which effectively cover even larger areas than ccTLDs, like .africa and .asia, which could be a good fit for any businesses operating in these continents.
GeoTLDs hold a lot of value, especially in terms of SEO. A business operating in a city like Madrid or Miami, for example, could get a .madrid or .miami web address in order to demonstrate itself as a trusted local name when targeting a local audience in those cities.
Wider Usage of Internationalized Domain Names
It’s not only GeoTLDs set to rise in years to come, but internationalized domain names, too. Internationalized domain names (IDNs) make use of characters and symbols that aren’t part of the traditional Latin alphabet.
With IDNs, Russian site creators could use Cyrillic symbols in their web addresses, for example, and Japanese businesses can use their traditional characters to create domain names. Arabic and Mandarin Chinese are two more examples of languages that can benefit from IDN usage in worldwide domain registration.
Thanks to IDNs, a business in Japan no longer necessarily needs to use a .com address or even the country’s ccTLD, .jp, which would compel users to type Latin characters to access its site. This is seen by many as a big plus, so we can expect IDN registrations to surge in years to come.
More Innovative and Out-of-the-Box Domain Hacks
The idea of “domain hacks” isn’t exactly new. Since the early days of the internet, site owners have been trying to create fun, innovative, and quirky ways to play around with their domain names, using unusual extensions to form words or phrases, like “examp.le” or “who.is”.
Well, as more and more ccTLDs, GeoTLDs, and new generic TLDs become available, there’s more potential for domain hacking than ever before. Plus, since there are so many sites nowadays, new entrants need to differentiate themselves to stand out, giving domain hacks an extra layer of appeal.
The result is a growing number of startups, individuals, and organizations seeking ways to use ccTLDs or other TLDs to form part of their names or grab an audience’s attention. So, expect even more innovative and original domain hack creations hitting the scene in the future.
An Exciting Time for International Domain Names
All in all, there’s a lot happening in the domain name industry right now, especially with regards to ccTLDs, GeoTLDs, and IDNs. .com is still clearly the dominant force in TLDs, accounting for almost half of the world’s websites. But these international domain names are slowly emerging from the shadows and reaching new heights of popularity. The effect is that the internet’s increasing number of websites feel more varied and original, rather than an endless series of .com and .net clones.
