If you think back to the late 1990s, jumping into the internet revolution and securing the perfect .COM name was a big deal. Now it’s just an accepted way of life online, but it seems that two distinct groups have emerged as a result. The first group of internet users already has one or more domains and are familiar with the reasons behind owning a domain name. The second group generally doesn’t even know enough about buying a domain name to know where to start. It’s interesting to see that there’s really no group in between comprised of people familiar with domain names that haven’t purchased one. That should be an indicator right there that if you understand domains, you understand why you should definitely own domains. Part of our goal at Dotster is to bridge that divide by educating everyone about the basics of domain registration.

First, Let’s Play Devil’s Advocate

There are various counter-arguments you can find online that would gladly tell you domains become less important with each passing day.  They cite things such as smarter web browsers unifying search bars with address bars, search engines  paying less attention to domain names, and new TLDs either diluting domain names or simply being worthless, depending on who you ask.  There is some merit to these viewpoints.  Web browsers do continue to improve their navigation methods.  For instance, if I want to visit Amazon.com, I simply type “amazon” into my address bar and the browser figures out that I mean www.amazon.com.  This is where the “domain names are worthless” argument begins to fall apart.  If Amazon didn’t own the amazon.com domain name, I wouldn’t be able to direct navigate there with such ease.

The Domain is Still King

Domains are and will continue to be extremely important in establishing an online presence.  Here are just a few of the reasons why:

• A strong domain name is memorable, and assuming it aligns with your business or personal name, serves to strengthen and reinforce your company’s brand and marketing.  Looking back, internet giants such as Google or  Facebook started with nothing more than a domain name as their brand, and they are now some of the strongest, most recognized brands in the world.  From a marketing perspective, having a good domain name is crucial

• A strong domain creates authority and conveys credibility to internet users.  If you run an online store, credibility will provide your customers with a greater sense of security.  If you’re a big brand or a small brand looking to be the next big brand, having a strong domain is a sign of authority in the marketplace.

• Your domain is your central location on the internet.  With the growth of social media sites and an increased need to have your business or brand present on multiple websites, it’s very important to have your domain to point back to as home base.  You can also use your domain and subdomains to link to your brand across the web.  For instance, if you don’t have your ideal Twitter username (www.twitter.com/yourname),  you can create a subdomain to direct people to such as twitter.yourdomain.com and have that redirect to your Twitter profile.

• Direct Navigation isn’t going away.  In fact, as browsers continue to improve embedded search functions, they also improve direct navigation via the address bar.

• Your domain can improve your search results.  While your domain name isn’t always crucial to search engine optimization, owning a recognizable domain that web users will see when performing searches will help move your website up the search rankings.

All of this combines to make owning a domain essential now and in the future.  Between the branding, marketing, authority, and Search benefits a domain provides, you can’t go wrong when you buy a good domain name.  What makes for a good domain name, you ask?  Look for our next post.

First, Some History

Originally, domain name structure was put in place to aid navigation.  In reality, a domain name is simply a more memorable and attractive address that is associated with an IP address.  For instance, without a domain name, to get to Dotster’s website you’d type in 66.150.120.141 instead of www.dotster.com.  The www stands for world wide web, the “dotster” is the specific domain, and .COM is the TLD originally intended for commercial purposes that has since become the most common.

Then came the search engine.  People began to move away from direct address-bar navigation to searching for websites.  Suddenly, a good domain name was slightly less important, while ranking high at the top of search results was key.  Consequently, some people rationalize that even though many of the good .COM domains are taken, having a good domain isn’t as important as it used to be.  Ironically, this argument often fails because a big part of ranking high in search engines is having a good, relevant domain name that people link to.

Next, cybersquatters enter the equation.  When a company (we’ll call them company.com) registers its domain name, it’s generally also a good practice to register the .NET, .ORG, and other variations of that name so that someone else cannot purchase them.  Then they’d also be wise to snatch up similar domains and misspellings, such as thecompany.com and copmany.com.  And while they’re at it, they had better grab companysucks.com as well to make sure someone else doesn’t put up a website bashing the company.  If a company doesn’t do this, they’re exposed to other people buying those domains, potentially with the goal of making money from ads or even from trying to sell that domain to the company at a marked up cost.  There are processes companies can go through to take over a domain name that includes a trademark or notable name, but that can be costly in its own right from legal fees and company resources.

So What Now?

ICANN has stated that at some point in the near future they will open up a nearly infinite number of new TLDs.  But wait – don’t think that you’ll be able to go and buy .yourname and have an infinite number of personalized domains available.  Currently, people who purchase domain names buy from a domain registrar (such as Dotster).  The registrar in turn secures that domain name with a registry.  For example, Verisign is the registry for .COM and .NET.  Verisign deals directly with ICANN and pays fees to maintain itself as a registry.  Becoming a registry is anything but cheap.  It can cost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in start-up costs to become a registry.  This is something that a large company might not blink an eye at if it means securing their own exclusive TLD, but to the average domain buyer a TLD is completely out of the realm of possibility.

What happens if there are too many TLDs?  This is another question coming up regularly in the discussion around ICANN’s plans.  Does having too many dilute the actual domain name?  The ability to create subdomains (such as blog.company.com or about.company.com) already exists, so is there a point in being able to create www.blog.company or www.about.company?

As you can probably see, this entire situation is complex and has many different aspects to consider.  There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer, so here are the basics of each side of the debate:

The Anti-New TLD Argument

• New TLDs will simply dilute the power of a domain name further.
• ICANN just sees new TLDs as a way to make more money by creating more registries.
• Subdomains already exist, and new TLDs makes them pointless.

The Pro-New TLD Argument

• Companies will be able to truly own their entire brand online by becoming a registry (i.e. Dotster could buy the .dotster TLD and have its exclusive use).
• Companies will be able to better instill trust in their websites and brand by having their own TLD.
• New TLDs will deter cybersquatters.
• Having a variety of TLDs will help organize the web better.

Dotster’s View

We’re fairly neutral in the whole issue.  Just recently we’ve happily embraced new TLDs such as .ME and .TEL.  From our perspective, ICANN allowing scores of new TLDs isn’t an “if” as much as it is a “when”.  We look to meet the needs of our customers, so if there is a demand for a new TLD we’ll be ready to work with a registry to provide it.  If you’re looking to score that great .underwaterbasketweaving domain, you’ll be in luck – assuming someone creates a registry for that TLD and wants to sell domains.  However, when it comes to companies buying their own TLD, we wouldn’t be affected because they most likely wouldn’t be looking to sell domains using their TLD to the public.

This topic will continue to evolve as ICANN moves closer to making new TLDs a reality, so stay tuned!

Read some other opinions on the new TLDs:

ICANN’t Believe It’s .butter – Marketing Pilgrim

Who Needs More TLDs? and follow-up What are TLDs Good For? – CircleID

New Flood of Top-Level Domains Could Spell Chaos – PC World