Gone are the days of generic www.insert-business-name-here.com domain names. New domains are gradually being created to allow more creativity and branding in website addresses. We’ve recently been intrigued by the new and shiny, hospitality-specific .bar and .rest.
Securing a domain name is one of the first steps in setting up any business in our internet-dependent world. Everything on your website falls under it and as your main online identifier, it plays a huge part in your search engine rankings. It’s important that it is short, snappy, easy to remember and reflects your business, but needs to fit a certain form.
Until now, Australian sites had four main choices: the classic .com, the local .com.au, .org.au if you’re a not-for-profit, and the who-even-knows-what-that-means .net. There are also more obscure options such as .biz or .xxx (if you have an inclination to start a “gentlemen’s” site). And there’s always international domains if you’re feeling exotic and don’t much care for SEO – Venezuela anyone?
Mexico-based domain company Punto2012 is dedicated to launching and maintaining three new ‘gTLDs’ (generic Top-Level Domains): .rest, .bar and .cafe. These new domain endings will (hopefully) inspire more creativity in website names, help with defining your businesses’ presence online (no more getting confused with that florist in Perth) and improve your SEO rankings.
.rest and .bar are currently in the land-rush phase – it’s every man for himself as hospitality moguls and small businesses alike dash to reserve the perfect domain. It’s not entirely a matter of first-in-dressed-best, however; domain names with several claims will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
.cafe is still in preregistration stage.
The new gTLDs are already causing some interesting trends; although designed for restaurants, .rest has been extremely popular with the spa and relaxation industry, an American law tutoring company has reserved passthe.bar, and there’s expected to be a fierce battle for the winner of “internet.cafe.”
Personally, we’re waiting for amanwalkedintoa.bar Click here for more information from Punto2012