The Top Level Domain (TLD) is generally the domain’s last part. For example, on "www.mywebsite.com", the TLD is "com".
The choice of TLD will depend on your particular situation:
If you’ve got a 100% English website whose target is located in the UK, you can choose the one you want. The best TLDs are ".com" and ".co.uk".
If you’ve got an international component on the website, several possibilities are available to you. Refer to this article for more information.
But whatever the choice is, make sure you’ve got more than one!
And yes, even if you choose a primary TLD, you still need to protect yourself and acquire several. Here is how it works:
Check by testing directly in the browser that other TLDs are still available. Look at the other generic and geographic versions: .com, .eu, .info, .org, .fr.
Purchase those versions
Set up 301 redirects from unused TLD versions to the main version. This point is essential, especially if users make a mistake, so that they are redirected to the main version.
The same goes for misspellings and typographical errors. For example, if you’ve got “my-website.com” on the main site, don’t hesitate to also get “mywebsite.com”. It all depends on the name and the different ways to spell it.
So, check that you’ve got these versions and that they still do a 301 redirection to the main version.
How to check for yourself:
Directly on the browser: by typing the given URL, check that you are redirected to the main URL.
Then, use tools or extensions such as "redirect path" to check that it’s indeed a 301 redirection.
Don’t hesitate to also check, the versions in HTTP, HTTPS, with or without WWW, or any additional version available.
Let’s suppose that the main URL of a website is "https://mywebsite.com", we need the following redirects:
From "http://mywebsite.co.uk" to “https://mywebsite.com”
From "https://mywebsite.co.uk" to “https://mywebsite.com”
the more versions we have, the more redirections will need to be implemented
There you go, now you know everything about Top Level Domains which is part of the technical aspect of SEO!
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