What’s the Difference Between TLDs and How Do They Work?

Ask any Canadian online marketing agency, and they will tell you about the importance of a top level domain. In the world of technology, you’ll find thousands of acronyms that cause confusion. One such acronym recently is TLD – what does it mean, and what do the different types do? You’ll find the answers in this guide!

What’s a TLD?

Though the acronym might sound confusing, most people use TLDs and see them every day. Why? Because it’s the last section of a domain name. For example, one of the most common TLDs is .com. Now that you know what a TLD is, the fact that it’s short for ‘top-level domain’ doesn’t seem so scary. Although you use them every day, you probably haven’t fully appreciated what goes into a web address before. Depending on the website, the domain name has a series of numbers, words, letters, and dots. The dots are perhaps the most valuable part of any domain name because they communicate what the user is trying to locate to web browsers and other devices. If you were to launch a website today, you would need to choose the top-level domain (.com, .net, .org, etc.). However, you’ll also choose your second-level domain. In other words, the bit before the .com section. For example, your new website could be as follows grasscuttingadvice.com. While the ‘.com’ section is the top-level domain, the ‘grass cutting advice’ section is the second-level domain.

Types of TLD

Who keeps track of the internet? It might seem like an impossible task, but it’s the job of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). Essentially, their role is to monitor all domain names, IP addresses, and more on the internet. When it comes to TLDs, they have officially recognized three different types.

Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD)

These contain some of the most common TLDs in the internet world. For example, this includes those mentioned previously – .org, .com, and .net. Originally, the domain would be chosen according to the purpose of a website. For instance, .org was set aside for all organizations that wanted a website. However, anybody can now register with any of the common domains. Around ten years ago, companies could register unique gTLDs, and this is why we have .google and .oracle. Also, the field expanded further to allow for generic niches and locations. You’ll now find websites with .realestate, .paris, and .money. If you’re interested, all 1,200 gTLDs are listed on the IANA website. The best way to explain the growth of gTLDs is to point out that only 22 existed originally.

Sponsored Top-Level Domains (sTLD)

Secondly, these TLDs are sponsored by a government, business, or another large entity. In the United States, the government uses the .gov domain. Meanwhile, all US Department of Education accredited facilities can use the .edu suffix. Other examples include .travel, .museum, and .jobs. Interestingly, only 14 sTLDs exist (which is surprising given the many hundreds of gTLDs.

Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD)

Finally, the IANA recognizes 312 ccTLD, and these are based on location alone. For example, the United States uses .us, the United Kingdom has .uk, the Netherlands has .nl, and Germany uses .de. Depending on the country, some website owners need to prove residency before they can use the ccTLD. On the other hand, some countries allow anybody in the world to use the suffix. ccTLDs are valuable because they tell visitors the country of your website while also communicating with Google for geo targeting purposes. So there we have it, TLDs communicate information about a website, but they don’t typically affect SEO (according to Google!).