A Guide to Owning Code Top Level Domains (CcTLD)

Never heard about the Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) before? While you may not know the name, your eyes have witnessed a lot of them, for example, Last.fm, About.me, and even Hongki.at had been adopting country-based domain names to brilliantly express their business purpose or niche, and even improve their branding and reputation!

In this post, we will be discussing the pros and cons of the ccTLD and how to use it in a series of creative and engaging ways.

We also provide you a list of ccTLDs with vital information, such as the official NIC for each domain and their suggested price for comparison. Don’t miss this chance to grab a suitable one for your web business.

Why Should I Use ccTLD?

For a higher SEO value for country-based search results. This is the greatest benefit of adopting ccTLD as the domain name for your website. Google has already stated that their search engine perceives ccTLD as a strong sign that your site is targeted to a certain country; thus it will rank higher in Google’s country-based result, or the country’s local search engine.

Be careful, though, as Google treats certain ccTLD as generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), such as .tv or .me, but they could vary over time.

ccTLD is good for credibility, and it raises the confidence of the users visiting your site, especially when they come from the country of your implemented ccTLD. It might be tricky to understand, but in certain countries like China, the locals there tends to visit a .cn brand site.

This may be because of the preference for the language, the locality ensures that the webmaster is reachable, and issues like expensive import duty or permanent bans do not often exist.

ccTLD also improves branding. With a .com domain name, all you can do for branding is get a decent name, but with smart tricks applied on ccTLD branded sites, you could express your creativity, explain your site’s purpose, and even encourage users to act upon the brand. The URL is also significantly shorter, so it helps users to memorize it quickly.

How to Use ccTLD Creatively?

The trick that most well-branded companies apply on their ccTLD is the Domain Hack, in which the webmaster turns the ccTLD into part of its brand name. Some of the best examples are Hongki.at, Instagr.am, Youtu.be, and Redd.it. You could even think of one before you start establishing a brand, and here’s a list to help you squeeze out a creative domain hack!

Promoting user actions is part of a site owner’s role, and when used correctly, this is where ccTLD can really shine: Hire.me, Check.in, Help.us, Buy.tv, Sync.me and so on, you are only limited by your imagination.

Besides, you don’t have to limit yourself with domain extensions, names like BuyiPhoneCa.se or RateGa.me could work well as long as they signal user action.

With ccTLD, you could inject more brand information inside the web address to educate visitors more about your brand. Take Last.fm and Blip.tv as an example, the .fm and .tv domain name already informed users the niche of the site even before they visit the place.

How You Could Prevent the Cons of ccTLD

It’s always better to buy a .com domain before you register a ccTLD domain name for your website. This is the golden rule for every webmaster, and below are a few critical reasons explaining why failing to follow this rule will possibly cause you great harm or failure.

First of all, it’s about user-friendliness. Internet users are subconsciously trained to retrieve the .com domain name every time they recall a site name, so it’s more likely that they will tie in your site name with the .com extension first. If they do this and cannot find your site and then leave, this amounts to a great loss of page views, conversion rates, and analytics data.

And now, the dark side of the Internet, a rival could just as easily take your name and build it on the .com domain to take advantage of the customers who come in looking for you. They could brand their site with their own logos and products, which could mislead visitors to believe that you’re part of them. Also, they could just throw in lots of virus-infected web pages, fraud, or scams to take advantage of your visitors, leading to a bruised reputation. You don’t really want to spend time meddling with this, even if you could seek law protection.

Once you have gotten the .com domain name for your website, the next checkup you should perform is if the ccTLD has a bad performance record, for instance, the .cc domain name is famous for spam use. You should also be aware that certain ccTLDs are banned by certain countries. However, these cases are minor, and things could change, so it shouldn’t really stop you from acquiring the ccTLD for all the benefits mentioned above.

ccTLDs Comparison Chart

Finally, we have prepared a chart for you to recognize currently available ccTLDs, understand their represented country, and know their official Domain Network Information Center (NIC). You can also compare their prices to find one that will fit your proposed budget.

And yes, ccTLD is always more expensive than the Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD), with some even costing up to $109.99.

In this case, don’t rush to purchase the ccTLD directly, and try to compare the price with other online domain registrars such as NameCheap, or consult your local registrar for a possibly cheaper deal, especially when you want to purchase the domain name that represents your country.

Domain	Represented Country	Domain NIC / Registrar	Suggested Price (GoDaddy)
.ca	Canada	Canadian IRA	12.99
.es	Spain	Dominios	14.99
.eu	European Union	EURid	14.99
.it	Italy	Registro.it	14.99
.nl	Netherlands	SIDN	14.99
.in	India	NIC India	16.98
.be	Belgium	Dns.be	17.49
.de	Germany	DENIC.de	17.99
.ru	Russia	RU-CENTER	19.10 (RU-CENTER)
.me	Montenegro	.ME Domain Names	19.98
.us	United States of America	Neustar	19.98
.cc	Cocos Islands	Verisign	19.99
.fr	France	AFNIC	19.99
.tk	Tokelau	Dot TK	19.99
.bz	Belize	Nic.bz	24.99
.co	Colombia	.CO Internet S.A.S	29.99
.se	Sweden	IIS.se	29.99
.gs	South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands	iwantmyname	34.99
.nu	Niue	nunames	34.99
.my	Malaysia	MYNIC	39.50 (Exabytes)
.tv	Tuvalu	Watch.tv	39.99
.tw	Taiwan	TWNIC	39.99
.ms	Montserrat	.MS NIC	44.99
.vg	British Virgin Islands	AdamsNames	44.99
.mx	Mexico	Akky	49.99
.at	Austria	Nic.at	59.99
.fm	Federated States of Micronesia	NIC.FM	79.99
.am	Armenia	Armenia NIC	89.99
.jp	Japan	JPNIC	99.99
.ag	Antigua & Barbuda	Nic AG	109.99