What Is Top Level Domain (TLD) [Must Know]

We all go online, ever wonder What is Top Level Domain (gTLDs, ccTLDs or sTLDs) and their importance with the domain name. If you are not internet savvy you must be wondering what is this silly guy talking about.

I am talking about the last part of your favorite website name (.COM, .NET, .ORG, .IN, .ME, .CLUB) there is a total of 1584 of them and these are just the first level. There is also the second level (.CO.AT, .CO.CA, .AC.IN, .CO.IN) and third levels of them as well. How manipulative domain names can get in their domain hierarchy.

Did you know that .CO actually means the country Colombia and .AC that is very commonly used in India .AC.IN and in the United Kingdom .AC.UK is Ascension Island. If you have noticed my site was on .CH (SWITCH- Switzerland) earlier and just a few days back I shifted it to .ME (Country Montenegro).

Confusing isn’t it, well the internet has gone way beyond imagination. These TLDs also play a role in your website’s search engine optimization. That is one of the main reasons I shifted my domain name.

We do search engine optimization for ranking on Google and this search engine is global so my .CH was locked for geo-targeting to Switzerland. Now you must be wondering what about .ME that is also country code. Yes, it is but over the years Google found out that this ccTLD is being used by webmasters globally so they now consider this as gTLD (Generic). If you are wondering what about your country code then Google considers all of then as generic just like .COM, .NET, .ORG.

What Is Top Level Domain?

Top Level Domain is the strings right after a domain name and the start with a DOT.

1. https:// – (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
2. www – (Subdomain)
3. Shaan – (Domain Name)
4. .ME – (Top Level Domain)

These Top Level Domains are managed by a non-profit organization called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). There are seven key holders to the root for the DNS of all these TLDs, it is not like they control the internet but yes in a way they are powerful enough.

• Moussa Guebre
• Dan Kaminsky
• Paul Kane
• Norm Ritchie
• Ondrej Sury
• Bevil Wooding
• Jiankang Yao

ICANN has classified the TLDs into 6 types and further, the Registry owners have placed certain restrictions on the TLDs. Let me explain you this as per ICANN there are only 6 types:

1. Generic TLD
2. Country-Code TLD
3. Generic-restricted TLD
4. Infrastructure TLD
5. Sponsored TLD
6. Test TLD

Now let me explain to you each of them so that next time you look at a domain name you would know what and which kind of domain is it. A lot of times people also get Scammed thinking that it is a Government site and fall for this trap.

Generic TLD

There are 1240 of them and all the common names that you hear like .COM, .TECH, .CLUB, .STUDIO are Generic Top Level Domains which are open to all anyone can buy and start using them. Even .BANK, .STATEBANK, .GOOGLE, .UNIVERSITY and even .BARCLAYS is a Generic TLD. ICANN doesn’t care who is using them and how they are using them.

You must be thinking how do we get these it will be really cool to have my site on these TLD. Now here is the catch ICANN controls the ROOT but the public registrations are controlled by their Registry Managers. If you know .COM is managed by Verisign, .CLUB is managed by Club Domains, .SHOP is managed by GMO Registry, .BANK is managed by TLD Registry Services, . GOOGLE is managed by Google itself.

If they want, they can open it to the public or they can keep it private. There are a ton of big MNC’s who have their own TLDs. Amazon, Tata, Airtel, Alstom, Airbus, Accenture, Reliance all of them have their own TLDs [List of Generic TLD]

Country-Code TLD

ICANN considers 315 as ccTLD which represents a country. These you can identify easily .IN is India, .US is the United States, .CA is Canada, .CN is China and again they all are managed my Governments or by further Government appointed organizations.

These organizations who are managing the TLD as per the Government rules place certain restrictions on the TLDs like For .US or .CA can only be registered by those who are associated with the country.

Some countries have just one TLD, some countries have many, some have restrictions and some have none. [List of Country-Code TLD]

Generic-restricted TLD

There are these three TLDs (.PRO, .BIZ, .NAME) are restricted by ICANN but they are opened for public. They are restricted in such a way that if someone wants a domain name and someone has already bought it where it is not being used for the purpose as the name suggests. It can be challenged for example .BIZ if the owner is not a bonafide commercial entity then who wants a domain can raise the question to the TLD Managers.

Infrastructure TLD

There is just one single TLD (.ARPA) that falls under the infrastructure type. This TLD is closed for public and it actually means ARPANET which was the Internets precursor. The TLD stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency and now it is considered as Address and Routing Parameter Area.

Well, you probably won’t hear or get a mail or get a domain on this TLD.

Sponsored TLD

These Top Level Domains are sponsored by a narrow community and some are open and some are closed just because of their nature. .GOV, .EDU, .AERO you have to prove with documentation and get approval so that you can use these TLDs.

In the same .ASIA, .MOBI are open to the general public. [List of Sponsored TLD]

Test TLD

These TLDs are for testing purposes and are not open to the public. These are reserved for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). [List of Test TLDs]

Future Upcoming TLDs

Like we are running after good domain names, these TLD managers are running for TLD. These TLDs are in the process and hopefully, we are going to see them soon.

List Of Generic Top Level Domains

List Of Country-Code Top Level Domains

List Of Sponsored Top Level Domains

List Of Test Top Level Domains

I hope will this article you are going to give another look at the domain name and the websites that you visit.