.CO is another option for a TLD (top-level domain). It’s called .co, Meaning instead of your website ending in
.com, .org, .net, or .biz, you can now have a website that ends in .co. That’s what this post is all about—why you should not get a .co domain.

Why You Should Not Use A .CO Domain

A .co domain is confusing.

Why do i say this?, the web culture for so long has focused solely on the .com, almost to the very exclusion of every other TLD (top level domain). So most people who are going to visit your website will expecting to type in “.com” at the end of it. It’s just habit. Actually, it’s an old, longstanding tradition—the .com has been the primary TLD since the very first domain, www.symbolics.com, was registered in 1985. Don’t think that you can change 35 years of history, You can’t. Maybe Amazon, Google and Facebook can eventually, but you can’t. And you shouldn’t try.

If you tell people to visit your “dot co” website, they’ll either assume you meant “dot com,” or that they misheard you. And if people read “.co” on a printed page, business card or brochure, they’ll assume it’s a mistake and will just change it to .com, in either ways, you’ve lost that web traffic and a potential sale.

Having a .co domain when a .com domain is already taken is even more confusing.

Domain name registrars such as Godaddy sell domains, because that’s their job. So they often like to say that if www.yourcompany.com has already been registered by someone else, registering www.yourcompany.co is the next best choice for you. But seriously disagree with them because they’re wrong. That’s a terrible idea. If the url for your online fashion store is www.example.co when www.example.com is the URL for an agricultural website, you are going to send MASSIVE amounts of traffic to the wrong website. And a ton of your potential customers are going to wonder why on earth they’re seeing crops and chemicals specials on your website instead of an order form for buying fashion wears online. Guess what? They won’t end up being your customers. And you will be losing customers, all because of a missing letter “m.”

Today .co domains aren’t being used as a primary domain by any major websites.

Right now, the .co domain is only used by cyber-geeky people who use url shorteners like twitter’s http://t.co and godaddy’s http://x.co, etc.

For now, just embrace the fact that the world is behind the times and it still stuck on the .com domain. If your business is called “klen ventures,” do everything you can to get a domain name that’s close to www.klenventures.com. Don’t try to be clever with www.k-ventures.to or www.klenventures.co. That’s not clever— it’s obscure and confusing. All that really matters in the end is what’s best for your customers. If people can’t find your website = you lose.

A better way to use a .co domain, if you absolutely must have one, is to register your regular .com domain, such as www.example.com, then ALSO get www.example.org, www.example.net and www.example.biz, and now, also get www.example.co. But have them all redirect to your main website. That takes advantage of the new “domain name real estate” that’s available, and avoids confusion.

Although the web has grown up a bit, and it’s not nearly as gangly and awkward as it was in the 1990s, it still has some major growing pains it’s working through. Don’t let your business become a casualty of those growing pains, make your business shine by looking as professional and easy to find as possible.

Hope this little advice will help in a long way.

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CREDITS: Ron Stauffer