What Are The Most Popular Domain Name Extensions For 2021

Top-level domains often called TLDs can have a big impact on how popular domain name extensions are. People visit websites and justified or not people will have different opinions on different TLDs.

You might think that a .com TLD is better or worse than Smith who believes that a .net domain is the most popular domain name extension.

Here at the domain monitor, we've scouted the internet to find out what are the most popular domain extensions and have made some predictions for what we think will be the most popular domain extensions for next year!

What is a domain name extension/TLD?

When figuring out the most popular domain name extensions, you'll of course need to know just exactly what a domain name extension is right?

A domain extension is part of the website URL, after the dot.

It's followed by a few letters, but usually nothing more. You can refer to this as the domain TLD or the suffix of a domain, and for illustration purposes, here's a practical example of a domain TLD:

• example**.com**

The TLD must have some meaning to what the website is about right?

So there's no meaningful purpose to have a website that operates solely in the United Kingdom (or UK) to have a .us or .ca domain extension as these are for other countries.

How many domain TLDs are there?

Now that you know a little bit more about what a domain name extension is or TLD, you're wondering how many there are right?

This is something we've covered previously on the domain monitor blog, but have recently found out that there's a whole load more!

How many more domain TLDs?

According to the IANA.org website there are 1,578 TLDs as of January 14th 2020, which is of course quite a few, so you're of course going to want to know what the best ones are right?

What are the most popular domain name extensions/TLDs?

If we take a look at the data, you'll see that there are many different data sources which report the popularity amongst domain TLDs, so here's just the dataset from one reputable provider DomainTools, we're looking at the number of registered domains below:

• .com - 146,089243
• .tk - 29,216,174
• .cn - 14,948,676
• .de - 14,773,154
• .uk - 10,971,078
• .net - 10,105,598
• .org - 10,105,598
• .icu - 6,026,079
• .ga - 5,668,021
• .cf - 5,497,355
• .nl - 5,210,876
• .ru - 4,832,534
• .info - 3,411,210
• .top - 3,411,210
• .xyz - 2,524,192

You probably guessed that the .com domain TLD is the most popular, there are loads of these domains registered on the internet, are you planning on using this TLD for your website? Or do you already have a website with this TLD?

Choosing the perfect domain TLD - what's best for you

When it comes to choosing the perfect domain extension, nobody disputes the .com extension. This is because it's considered one of the most popular TLDs that you can buy.

However, there are some simple points you can consider when choosing the perfect domain extension, and there's a blog article on our domain monitor that will help you choose the perfect one...

But if you're like me and want some tips right here right now, check below:

• If you're creating a digital portfolio, then you might want to choose the .me extension as its meaning is for a personal blog or website.
• Choosing a business in Canada? Why not choose a .ca domain extension

You'll want to pick something short, catchy and if it's your first website, which hasn't been around for very long, consider your brand's identity a few years from now as once it's set, your SEO profile could become affected in the future if you're not happy with the extension you've picked.

How to find the best domain name extension/TLD

When you're searching for a domain name, you'll want to make sure to include key terms related to your business.

You'll buy your domain for your website from a domain registrar, we've covered just exactly how to go about buying a domain for a website, so I suggest having a read of that article as well.

Put simply, when searching for a domain name, use a registrar which has a good amount of reputation, I recommend using:

• namecheap.com

I used this registrar for the domain monitor, and the experience of purchasing a domain right the way through to getting the nameservers configured and setup correctly was a breeze!

There are of course other providers as well, so you're not strictly bound to any one registrar, just so long as they have a decent amount of positive feedback and customer reviews.

The Top 5 Worst TLD Extensions Revealed - AVOID these!

Whilst there are loads of popular domain extensions, there's also a fair share of bad ones, and I'm telling you to avoid them. The data provided here is from a company called Spamhaus.org

This company focuses on fighting spam on the internet, thus part of their domain has the word spam in it...

They use a ranking formula to rank domain names and they provide a "badness" score against each one, the higher the score the worse the domain TLD actually is.

I recommend that you check their website several times in a year as their website is updated regularly and you won't want to miss it.

Why?

Because nobody wants to buy a domain for a website that is considered to have a high spam score right?

Here's just a few of the worst domain extensions that you can buy:

• .live - 5.79
• .buzz - 5.46
• .gq - 4.85
• .tk - 4.75
• .fit - 4.60

Although the .tk domain is one of the more popular domains, it's also one of the worst domains given the "badness" score.

It's no surprise that it made it into the most popular domain name extension then!

What is the most expensive domain in the world?

Looking to find out what the most expensive domain in the world is?

Supposedly according to this data source, the domain...

• cars.com

Was purchased for $872 million US Dollars!

That's a lot of money!

3 TOP Tips for choosing a domain name extension

I couldn't leave you empty handed with just a list of the most popular domain name extensions...

So I'm going to give you, for FREE my 3 top tips for choosing a domain name extension to help you start, and grow your website so that more people can see your online identity.

The Price

The price is likely going to your number one deciding factor when it comes to buying a domain TLD.

You might find a domain TLD that you really love, and it might stretch beyond the budget that you've set yourself.

Speaking of budget, even though you might've found the most popular domain name extension and are keen to go through with it, don't overstretch your budget, you can always get another domain extension which might be even more popular a few months from now!

Your Niche and Purpose

You MUST take into consideration the niche and purpose of the website you're putting up. If you haven't considered this, consider this now as it'll help you be more industry focused with your domain extension.

Don't avoid local TLDs

Wondering what a local TLD is?

If you're buying a popular domain name extension such as .uk, this is your local TLD, the .uk part, and if your website is a local website to your local area then please...

Don't avoid a local TLD from your search.

Conclusion

So now you know what the most popular domain name extensions are right? Don't be fooled, the domain extensions list changes all of the time. Check back soon and we would've probably have updated our post (if things are that much different to what they are now)