.Com vs .Net: Which domain extension should you choose?
A domain name is the address of your website on the internet. After choosing a good domain name, your next step is to choose a domain extension.
A domain extension represents the purpose of your website, so it’s essential to get it correct.
When it comes to domain extensions, both .com and .net are popular top-level domains. But, if you’re a beginner, you’ll have a tough time choosing between .com vs .net domain extension as you won’t know their purpose.
In this blog, I have compared .com vs .net and given a verdict on the domain extension that you should choose.
Are you interested? Let’s get started!
Topics to be covered in this blog:
What is a .com domain extension?
.Com stands for “commercial“. It’s the most popular domain extension, and it’s the easiest for people to remember.
If you say to people a domain name without the domain extension, there’s a high chance for them to take it as .com. Moreover, a few years ago, many smartphones keywords had a “.com” button by default.
Thus, in terms of popularity and reputation, no TLDs can come close to .com.
.Com was created to host commercial websites. However, in recent years, several types of websites started to utilize the .com domain extension.
This increasing popularity of .com means that it’s difficult to find domain names with the .com domain extension.
As you can see, the .com domain extension has several advantages. But, there are situations in which other popular domain extensions such as .net are worth considering.
What is a .net domain extension?
.Net stands for “network“. This domain extension is suitable for websites providing network, database, or email-related services.
If your website doesn’t fall under the mentioned categories, I strongly prefer you to opt for .com.
However, if you desire to have a particular domain name but the .com domain extension isn’t available, you can consider .net. The domain name registrars often display .net as the top alternative to .com.
Though the popularity of .net is lesser than .com, you should note that 3.3% (approx. 11.9 million) of domain names have registered with the .net domain extension.
Besides .com and .net, other popular types of domain extensions include the following.
- .org – This domain extension is used for nonprofit websites.
- .co – This domain extension represents “company” or “corporation”.
- .biz – This domain extension is used for businesses, for example, e-commerce websites.
- .edu – This domain extension represents “education” and it can be used for school or university websites.
- .uk, .in, .au, and other country code TLDs.
Difference between .com vs .net domain extension
.Com is the domain extension that people are familiar with the most. The introduction of .com was back in 1985, making it one of the oldest TLDs. Since then, the use of .com has been increasing drastically.
Though .com was created to host commercial websites, its usage has nowadays extended to several types of websites, thanks to its reputation.
Thus, if you plan to create a website for blogs, portfolios, showing yourself, and many more, .com is the suitable domain extension.
Now, let’s see about the .net domain extension.
Similar to .com, the launch of .net was back in 1985. However, this domain extension isn’t as popular as .com.
As mentioned earlier, if your website falls under the network or other closely related categories, you can opt for .net. However, for everything else, .com is a better option.
.Com vs .net: Which is better for SEO?
From an SEO perspective, all domain extensions perform the same. The search engines will treat both .com and .net domain extensions similarly when ranking.
If you want your website to rank higher on the search results, you should focus on improving the SEO factors such as:
- High-quality content
- Making the content keyword rich (beware of keyword stuffing — black-hat SEO strategy)
- Backlinks
- Page loading speed
- Schema markup, etc.
How to purchase a domain name?
There are several ways to purchase a domain name. You can buy it through domain name registrars, or it comes included with your hosting package.
In my opinion, if your website isn’t hosted on a server, I prefer purchasing the domain name along with the hosting package. The top web hosting service providers like HostGator offer you a free domain name for a year (if you opt for a yearly plan or higher). Usually, the annual hosting subscription costs less than $80 for the first year.
If you’re a beginner, you’ll probably wonder what web hosting is. Good question!
In short, web hosting is the server where your web hosting service providers will host your website on the internet. If you want people to access your website, it’s essential to host it on the server.
Some of you might have already subscribed to a hosting provider that doesn’t provide a free provide name. In this case, you can purchase the domain name through domain name registrars like Namecheap.
Here’s the pricing of a domain name if you purchase it separately through domain name registrars.
A domain name with a .com domain extension will cost about $12/year (renewal prices may be higher). Similarly, the pricing of a domain name with a .net domain extension may be slightly higher at around $14/year (renewal prices may be higher).
Conclusion
I hope this blog gave you a clear idea of the domain extension you should choose between .com vs .net.
As you all know, nowadays, a website is essential for all businesses. Some business owners realize this point later, and when they try to purchase a domain name similar to their business name, the .com extension may not be available. In this case, they can opt for the .net domain extension.
If you want to avoid such a situation, you should research the domain availability before registering a business name.
In my personal opinion, I prefer opting for the .com domain extension — regardless of the website type. The reason is that .com is a much popular domain name that is the easiest for people to remember.
Ok!
If you have any doubts regarding domain names or domain extensions, let’s discuss them in the comment section below.
