If you have a website created, the next step is to purchase a domain name. Several low-cost domain registration services are available. It should be relatively easy for you to find a name you like and then use the services to register it. However, you may find that although the concept is simple, the implementation is a bit more strenuous. There is a lot to consider, from finding a domain name to choosing the suitable TLD. To help you understand domain names, look at the statistics and base your decisions accordingly. Here are a few things you should know.
Domain name registration
The amount of domain names that are registered is quite outstanding. There are over 350 million new domain names registered over the TLDs. This is an increase of 1.8% from last year. Given that the number of live sites is over 200 million, that is substantial growth. For this reason, you may find it a bit difficult to find a domain name that is not taken.
Try using a domain name that is more specific to your page than generic titles. This minimizes the odds of the name being taken. For example, use JoesNewyorkpizza over Newyorkpizza. While you do not want to have overly long and complicated domain names, you should understand that the market for domains registered grows every day, so finding that perfect address may become harder to come by in 2022.
What are the best names?
Choosing the best domain name includes knowing which names are being searched for. In 2021 the top .com domain name searches were Christmas, Jumbo, and Diabetes. Braces, Halloween, Volume, Vaping, and Hurricane, followed these top names.
.net had a substantially different type of market, focusing more on the keywords tied to the pandemic. The top .net searches for 2021 were a mask, empowered, secured, claims, funeral, Piedmont, and Friendly.
Which Top Level Domain is best?
Statistics show that the best TLD (Top level domain) remains .com. In 2021 there were 51.6% of all websites registered using .com. When combined with the domain registration, you can see that the number of domains and domain names registered with domain and web hosting services is doing well. In addition to the .com TLD, 3.4% were using .net with 13,224,890 users. From there the TLDs are .0rg with 10,203,585, .info with 4,082,593, and .biz with 1,349,176.
It would be best if you tried to find a TLD in the top-rated margins. There are over 1,547 domain name extensions on the market. However, most people do not know these extensions. So, unless someone happens to stumble over the domain name, your site will not be seen unless you have one of the top TLDs.
ccTLDs
There is a market growth of 1.2% in TLDs and an expectation that the market will grow. One of the reasons the growth continues is that the number of ccTLDs continues to rise. ccTLDs are top-level domains focused on the country from which the website was created. For example, you could have a USA domain name .us if you were in the United States. The United Kingdom has a domain extension of .uk.
The number of ccTLDs makes up 50% of all registered domains. Amongst the top ccTLDs are .tk with 25.1 million, .cn with 23 million, and .de with 16.3 million. This does not mean that other countries are not doing well. .eu, .uk. .ru and .br were in the top 10 ccTLDs for 2021. Overall, approximately 157.4 million domain names were registered under the ccTLD extension before March of this year, with more being added daily.
What was the most expensive registration of 2021
The most expensive domain that has ever been registered as this writing is Business.com, which sold for $354 million. After that, LasVagas.com sold for $90 million. Third on the list of domain names purchased was CarInsurance.com, which sold for $49.7 million.
When you purchase your domain name, ensure that you understand the market and your domain's value. The cost to keep your domain may increase. However, if you have a top-rated domain name, it could be profitable to sell.
Who leads in domain registration services?
Domain name registration services are required to have your site up and going on the web. Most domain and web hosting services bundle the domain registration with the web hosting packages. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that GoDaddy leads the USA domain name registration market with more than 58,600,000 domains registered from the site.
In Canada, the leader is Tucows, with over 9,600,000 domains registered. This is a 5.36% market share of all of the domains registered. HiChina had 7,300,000, and Namecheap had 7,100,000, giving it a market share of 2.98% for 2021.
