The legacy of .com TLD has been foundational to the internet’s commercial namespace. But in recent years, it’s showing some strategic limitations as it runs out of concise and brand-resonant names due to its saturation.
For expert marketers and brand strategists, this scarcity has led to a decision over whether they invest more in buying a strong .com domain name, or go with a more affordable TLD that allows them to achieve their desired, concise branding.
Elon Musk purchased x.com for around $12 million, but the free IONOS domain checker shows that variations with a different extension exist for just a few pounds per year.
The importance of new top-level domains (nTLDs)
The introduction of new Top-Level Domains (nTLDs) has helped alter the landscape a little. Before, .com was the trusted domain, but there have been more and more big companies switching to extensions such as .ai, .io, .tv, .store, and many more. This allows smaller firms with lower budgets to achieve their exact brand name, making them more relevant.
Of course, there is a downside if the customer forgets the extension, they may remember your brand name and head to the .com variant, but this is less likely to happen in today’s world of fragmented extensions. In the past, people would remember the brand from a store’s bag and punch in “.com” after it. For once, .com isn’t assumed, though you should be careful about going with a TLD that’s completely alien to some people.
Creative naming beyond the extension
Beyond the TLD selection, sophisticated naming architecture is all about solid linguistic and cognitive principles. Core keywords should be placed directly into the domain (e.g., SmartGrid.solutions) because it gives it semantic relevance, though the primary value often shifts towards brandable neologisms.
Brevity is everything here, as you must have good user recall to reduce input errors. Advanced AI-driven domain name generators can assist, but use them only as a springboard. One great domain hack is where the TLD forms part of a word or phrase, such as delicio.us or portfol.io. Ideally, you can capitalise on TLDs that aren’t yet popular, but will soon be (and therefore will soon be trusted and familiar).
Addressing SEO concerns with nTLDs
A persistent misconception is that nTLDs perform worse in Google’s rankings than .com. Search engines like Google have explicitly stated that their algorithms treat all TLDs equally regarding SEO; all they care about is content quality, site authority, keyword relevance, and user experience signals. Trust is therefore not cultivated by the TLD itself but by site architecture, including HTTPS implementation and transparent operational information.
Practical steps for your modern domain
Selecting a domain in 2025 has never been so freeing. Not only are you not punished by Google for being experimental, but users are increasingly aware that there are many TLDs and are therefore trusted. This opens the door to being more targeted with your brand and sentiment, and potentially even SEO keyword implementation, into your domain.
But, due diligence is still needed, and this means looking for trademark searches and using domain checkers like IONOS to compare your options.
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