Introduction
The success of a web business is highly determined by its website on the Internet. From designing the website to hosting it, you have to consider all the crucial factors that can mess up your site or advance your site. You must opt for the web hosting provider that provides the apt web hosting packages based on your website necessities. One of the essential elements to decide on for your website is the domain extension. You must examine which domain extension can benefit your business website the most. And, for this, you must know about the various extensions. Here we will discuss the two most popular domain extensions – .NET and .COM. You will acquire detailed insights into their differences. The wrong decision in picking the right domain extension for your website can affect the branding and ranking of your website in SERP. Let us get started with comprehending both the domain extensions and the reasons for picking them.
What Does The .COM Extension Mean?
.COM is a short form for commercials. It is one of the top-level domains (TLD) and has been used widely in the web industry. The .com domain extension is mostly utilized by most businesses, blogs, portfolios, and organizations. That is because this extension signifies different services and products.
In the initial stages of the introduction of the .com extension, it was only designed for eCommerce websites and product-related websites. However, if you look out for the .com extension in today’s world, more than half of the websites available on the Internet make use of the .com domain extension. Moreover, the only drawback you can face with the .com domain extension is that it may not be available for you if you are looking to register for a new website with this extension due to a large number of people already utilizing it for their websites. It is quite possible that your ideal .com extension is already being taken by some other website.
Reasons to Choose .COM Extension
The .com domain extension enables you to have credibility and serves the best to advance the business in the future. It is also being observed that people remember the .com extension name very easily as compared to the .net extension. When web users attempt to browse any website, they commonly tend to add the .com extension at the end instead of any other. This extension has the better recall value. Also, the majority of people do not retain extensions in their minds that are non-specific or not of a top-level domain. The .com domain extension is recognized by almost everyone and is highly relatable. The web users who can be your potential clients can consider your brand only by seeing the .com extension attached to your website. That is because the .com serves as a sign of professionalism.
Benefits of .COM domain extension
- This extension is extensively accepted and well-known to the web audience worldwide.
- It enables you to establish a credible business website.
- The .com extension is being admitted as a business symbol and renders your brand a professional stamp.
- It comprises dedicated keyboard support and is quite mobile-friendly.
- It becomes easy to brand your web business because people are well aware of the .com extension.
- It lets you simply market and generate a good online presence for your website.
Drawbacks of .COM domain extension
- You will not acquire it easily as more than half of the websites on the web utilize .com.
- You can use this extension only for commercial sites but not for non-profit sites.
- It costs you more than the other top-level domains.
What Does The .NET Extension Mean?
.NET is the short form for the network. It is one of the top-level domains (TLD) and has been used widely in the web industry after the .COM domain extension. The .net domain extension is mostly utilized by organizations and companies that deal with network technology. Many times the .NET domain extension is being utilized as an alternative to the .COM extension.
In the initial stages of the introduction of the .net extension, it was only designed for network-related products. However, if you look out for the .com extension in today’s world, most companies that incorporate database services, ISPs, and email services also make use of .net extension for their websites. Moreover, whenever .com is taken, the other option preferred by the users is the .net extension. The .net domain extension can add the same value as top-level extensions do. However, .net extensions require some marketing strategies for exposure as compared to .com extensions.
Reasons to Choose .NET Extension
The .NET domain extension is most commonly utilized by websites that provide networking, email services, or similar types of services. Also, this extension helps the speed checking websites. These websites are those that enable web users to check their website’s speed in real time. In general, huge brands and businesses usually register for the .com domain extension as their primary domain. And they make use of the .net domain extension for their other business prospects. Thus, you can infer that this extension can be employed for both the branding and marketing of your web business.
Benefits of .NET domain extension
- It highly supports website that deals with networking or is server-based.
- The .Net extension is easily available with hosting providers.
- Your website will be able to rank in SEO similar to that it can with the .com domain extension.
- You will be able to market the service-based business efficiently.
- Web users can easily locate the website with a .net extension in the URL.
- It is utilized as a very common extension for technology firms.
Drawbacks of .NET domain extension
- You have to market them more intensely than the other top-level extensions.
- Your website will have limited services if it is not tech-related.
- It will not rank better for commercial sites.
Difference Between .NET and .COM
Now that you have got the insights into each of the .com and .net domain extensions let us figure out the differences between them.
| .COM Domain Extension | .NET Domain Extension |
| 1. It is a short code for the commercial domain. | 1. It is a short code for the network domain. |
| 2. It incorporates business websites, personal websites, e-commerce, and websites with general categories. | 2. It incorporates websites that deal with the Internet or host emails. Moreover, it is also the priority of all technology-driven websites. |
| 3. It assists in establishing a web identity on the Internet. | 3. It requires more effort to market it. |
| 4. It cannot be found easily as a huge percentage of the websites utilize the .com domain extension. | 4. It is easily available for usage. |
| 5. It will be very time-consuming for you if you are required to register for a new website with the .com extension. | 5. You can easily register your website with this domain extension as it is available with all the major hosting companies. |
| 6. It is more expensive than the other top-level domain extensions. | 6. It costs much less than the .com domain extension. |
Also Read: 10 Essential Things for Every Small Business Website
Wrapping Up
Search Engine Optimization plays a crucial role in the ranking of your website. You need to optimize your website for SERP. Otherwise, your website will not acquire the web traffic it can. The domain extensions have little impact on how well your website can rank on Google, but it does matter. With both the .com and .net domain extensions, your website will have a similar effect on its ranking. As we have discussed the differences in the previous section about these sections, you can conclude that your choice of opting for any one of them should be based on the type of your website and your web business requirements. However, your website will acquire the same value with both of these domain extensions. Furthermore, if you want to have only the .com but your domain is already registered, you should keep trying different name combinations. You should use a domain name that is short and can be easily pronounced. To pick a domain name, you can use a domain name generator.
