Why Do Most Websites Use “.Com”?

Even those who are hardly well-versed in the workings and culture of the Internet would readily answer ".com" when asked what is attached to the end of a URL. When the Internet was conceived, there was a school of thought that held that ".com" and several other top-level domains would identify the kinds of services a given website would offer. For example, the ubiquitous ".com" was meant to represent a website intended to serve commercial purposes. Other generic TLDs and their original intents include ".net" for websites pertaining to networking technologies and ".org" for websites representing non-profit organizations.

In the present, the broad majority of websites can apply to have one of several stock TLDs appended to the ends of their URLs without having to adhere to specific content guidelines besides avoiding sponsored TLDs like ".gov" and ".edu." Therefore, it is largely a matter of personal preference whether to have ".net," ".org," or ".info" in place of ".com" for a website that is about to be launched, particularly since these TLDs do not seem to affect the website's rankings on Google's SERPs. One might consider using one of these alternative TLDs if they believe that the TLD's presence in the URL may subtly shape the reader's perception of the website's tone.

A website's owner can get a TLD other than ".com" if they are confident that the site will become a widely known fixture on the Internet that audiences will gradually and broadly know the TLD of. Otherwise, doing so is not recommended because the same string ending in either ".com" or ".net" will count as different URLs. If a user enters the main component of the site's identifying string into the address bar of a browser but appends the wrong TLD to it, that will bring the user to either a 404 error page or a completely different website. Since that website is likely to either be unsafe or a direct competitor, it is better to rely on creating a distinct core string for one's URL to distinguish the site's brand instead of forgoing the widely understood ".com" TLD. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/webdesign/comments/qcu2oi/doyouthinkainfodomainnameisacceptableif/.