Domain Types and Examples: What Are the Different Types of Domains?

Common Domain Types and Their Uses

According to Siteefy, over 252,000 new websites go public every single day. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a good domain name that is still available. If you want to stand out from the (massive) crowd, you need to be creative with your domain name and pick a type that will fit your business the best.

In this article, we’ll show you what domain types are, how many of them exist, and how they can affect your reach.

What Is a Domain Name Type?

Domain names consist of several parts. To best understand it, we’ll break down our domain name: www.businessnamegenerator.com. Its elements are as follows:

• www.: Third-level domain (also known as the host),
• businessnamegenerator: Second-level domain (also known as the name),
• .com: Top-level domain (also known as an extension).

Note that, in some cases, the third-level domain can be replaced with a subdomain that helps visitors know they’re in a specific part of the website. For example, you can have shop.storeName.com or blog.websiteName.com.

MORE: What is a fully qualified domain name?

A domain type is determined by its top-level domain (TLD). TLDs serve to give users an idea of the website before they visit it and can help us determine the following:

• Geographical location,
• Type of content,
• Purpose,
• Industry.

In recent years, people have become creative with their use of TLDs. A domain name with the .es extension doesn’t necessarily mean the business is based in Spain.

Why Are Domain Types Important?

When you’re choosing a domain name, its domain type can be an effective tool for reaching your target audience. If you want to attract customers from a specific country, you should use its TLD. You can get even more specific, with many areas getting TLDs in recent times. For instance, you can use .miami or .africa.

Domain types can help you establish your brand and let people know what your business is all about. Making it clear what you offer from the start will help your business to attract only the right people.

If you have too many users visiting your website only to click away the next second, it’ll harm your website’s performance. Don’t choose a .yoga extension if you’re selling car parts.

What Domain Types Mean

To get a clearer picture of what people usually associate with domain types, here are some examples:

• .biz: Businesses and ecommerce,
• .org: Organizations (usually nonprofit),
• .co: Companies (originally represents the country of Colombia),
• .info: Informational websites (e.g., news agencies),
• .net: Infrastructure and technical websites,
• .gov: Reserved for the U.S. government.

Does a Domain Type Affect SEO?

It’s tricky to say whether or not domain types have an influence on your SEO ranking. Technically, Google doesn’t favor one type over another. However, it can affect users’ perception of your website.

Generally speaking, websites with popular TLDs, such as .com, .net, .org, and .co, are seen as trustworthy. Their click-through rate is higher when compared to other extensions, such as .link or .zip.

With a higher click-through rate and more visitors, your SEO efforts will receive a boost.

Types of Domains

When we discuss domains, we most commonly split them into four different types based on the purpose and the scope of the TLDs. These types are:

Generic TLD (gTLD)

They have broad uses and are most recognizable. Buying a domain name with a gTLD can be difficult because of the huge demand. 

Generic domain type examples include:

• .com,
• .net,
• .org,
• .biz,
• .app.

Country code TLD (ccTLD)

Usually a two-letter domain, ccTLDs are extensions that represent a specific country. Every country has its own ccTLD, and some of them restrict users from other countries using the extension.

Country code domain type examples include:

• .us,
• .uk,
• .ca,
• .cn,
• .au,
• .fr,
• .de.

Internationalized country code TLD (IDN ccTLD)

Businesses that want to use a non-Latin script (e.g., Cyrillic, Arabic, or Chinese) can use an IDN ccTLD to show users what they can expect. You can’t use it and write in Latin script.

Internationalized country code domain type examples include:

• .срб,
• .укр,
• .中国,
• .გე,
• .ελ.

Test TLD (tTLD)

Domain types used for testing and documentation. You cannot use tTLDs to create a publicly-accessible website.

Test domain type examples include:

• .test,
• .example,
• .localhost,
• .invalid.

Sponsored Top-Level Domains

A sponsored TLD (sTLD) is a subtype of gTLDs that comes with a restriction regarding who can own it and what type of industry you need to be in. For example, only government agencies from the United States can get .gov, while you have to have an address in the Asia-Pacific region to get the .asia extension.

Other examples include:

• .arpa (reserved for internet infrastructure companies),
• .mil (agencies and organizations affiliated to the U.S. Department of Defense),
• .int (international treaty-based organizations),
• .aero (aerospace-related entities),
• .edu (educational institutions).

New Domain Types

Since 2013, one of the largest IP address repositories, ICANN, has introduced a list of over 1,000 new gTLDs based on user requests. These new types are more specific than traditional gTLDs and can help you narrow down the goal of your domain name. Some examples include:

• .baby,
• .bible,
• .bank,
• .bike,
• .audio,
• .accountant,
• .attorney,
• .bot,
• .camera,
• .photo,
• .dating.

Popular Domain Types

The most common TLDs include .com, .net., and .org. In recent times, the .io domain extension has become popular in the tech world as people take it to be short for input/output. In truth, it’s a ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory.

When it comes to examples of TLDs, the top 10 most frequent extensions (as of 2024) are:

1. .com,
2. .org,
3. .ru,
4. .de,
5. .net,
6. .br,
7. .uk,
8. .jp,
9. .fr,
10. .it.

These trends always change, and sometimes specific ccTLDs are on the rise. For example, in January 2023, .tk was popular.

The major reason .tk has become so popular is that you can get a domain name for free with that extension.

By far the most popular domain type is .com (short for commercial). In fact, it’s been a decade since all two-, three-, and four-letter dot-com domain names have been taken. If you want a short dot-com domain, you must purchase it from the owner (if it’s up for sale).

Alternatively, you need to opt for at least a five-letter name that’s original but still memorable and easy to spell. You can use our AI-powered domain name generator to get 1,000+ unique domain names, and the tool will automatically check what domain types are still available for each name.

MORE: Domain name trends

Creative Domain Types

Instead of treating extensions as necessary luggage, you can be creative and use them as an important part of your name. Check out the table below to see some of the creative domain types that incorporate extensions:

MORE: Tips for registering a domain name

Key Takeaways

There are many different domain types to choose from, so, it’s important to take time to choose a high-quality name that fits with your business to help you reach the target audience more efficiently. Use our domain name generator to get the best available names in an instant.

MORE: How much will I pay for a domain name?