.com, .org, .co.uk - what do they mean?

When you buy a domain name you need to choose what extension you want. You will also need to know whether it will have any effect on your visitor numbers, or the kind of visitors arriving at your website.

See our How to Choose page for more information on choice of domains and how to go about buying a domain.

Some terminology.

TLD stands for Top Level Domain. It is the letters (extension) that follow the domain name so for the domain name www.example.com the TLD is .com

Now to the types of domain:

gTLD - Generic Top Level Domain

The most common generic top level domains are:

.com - Typically for companies, but unrestricted and can be used for anything. Probably the most popular extension.

.org - Typically for organisations, but unrestricted and can be used for anything.

.net - Unrestricted and can be used for anything.

In the restricted category are:

.edu - for post-secondary educational establishments e.g.universities

.mil - for the US military

.gov - for US governments and agencies

.int - For international organisations established by treaty

Unsponsored Top Level Domains (uTLD)

These are generally available

.info - For informational sites, but unrestricted

.name - For families and individuals

.biz - For businesses

Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD)

Every country has a country domain, for example .uk for the UK, .fr for France .it for Italy.

If your website or advertising is specifically related at a particular country then I would suggest that you get a country domain. For example - if you have a website reviewing energy companies in the UK, then the most people who will visit your site will be from the UK, your affiliates will be UK based, so get a .uk domain.

There are different extensions available for each country. See Iana.org for all the different country extensions.

UK domains

You can't buy a straight .uk name, you have to buy a Second Level Domain (SLD).

Ones available are:

.co.uk - Typically used for companies but unrestricted

.org.uk - Typically used for organisaions but unrestricted

.me.uk - Personal names

.ltd.uk - Restricted to Private limited companies

.plc.uk - Restricted to Public limited companies

Restricted UK domains:

.ac.uk - Higher and further education and research institution

.gov.uk - UK National, regional, and local government bodies and agencies

.mod.uk and .mil.uk - UK Military and related purposes

.nhs.uk - National Health Service

.police.uk - UK Police forces

Sponsored Top Level Domains (uTLD)

These are reserved for certain areas:

.aero - For the air transport industry

.asia - For the asian community

.coop - For cooperatives

.museum - For museums

.pro - For certain professions

.jobs - For employment related websites

.mobi - For websites catering to mobile devices

.tel - For telephone network services

.travel - For travel agents,airlines, hoteliers and tourism bureaus