TLD, ccTLD…If you are new to the World Wide Web, get ready to learn a whole new language. You’ll have to in order to understand even simple concepts like domain names. But don’t worry – all that alphabet soup is relatively easy to figure out and use. It is also very important to understand these terms if you are going into domain investing.
For example, if you’ve been on the Internet at all, you’ve been using TLDs and ccTLDs and have not even realized it. TLD refers to top-level domains. It is the last part (or more correctly, the root) of a domain name. For example, in www.abc.com, the TLD is the “com” part. What about ccTLDs? Basically, they are TLDs that refer to countries, such as “.UK” or “.US”. As a Freelance SEO, I know the importance of using ccTLDs to rank in the country where your audience is. It would be difficult for example to rank a .co.uk domain in google.fr. ccTLDs allow you to geo target.
You may or may not know that internet domain names and other operations are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), under the U.S. Department of Commerce. IANA has designated regional internet registries (RIRs) for each area of the world to control and standardize internet functions.
In order to simplify internet operations, each country and dependent territory (such as states or provinces) has been designated a ccTLD, a two-letter code. These codes actually form the root of all domain names. However, in most cases, you do not need to use the ccTLD unless you are accessing that website from outside that particular nation.
Below the ccTLD in the internet domain name hierarchy are TLDs, top-level domains. These are the common roots .com (originally meant for commercial use), .edu (education), .gov (government), .mil (military), .net (general public use), and .org (non-profit, non-government organizations).
These TLDs have expanded somewhat as internet use exploded around the world. There are some new TLDs (now widely known as extensions). For example, .biz is intended for business use. There are some TLDs that are strictly reserved for specific industries and for testing and managing internet standards and procedures.
It is possible to register your own website as www.abc.com.us or to use some other country’s ccTLD, even if you are not in that country. However, ICANN does not set the registration policies for ccTLDs. To register your website domain under a specific ccTLD, you need to consult the country code manager for your nation. (For the most part, a domain registrar or web host company in your nation would assure that your domain name is registered correctly.)
While there has been some grumbling about the fact that the U.S. is the de factor steward of the internet and thus sets and regulates its practices and procedures, there apparently has been no serious attempt for independent control of those procedures. According to the Weekly Standard, there have been few complaints about IANA’s or ICANN’s management and attempts to wrest control from those agencies and the U.S. could lead to other nations and cultures attempting to control Internet content, for example shutting down websites that espouse political or religious beliefs that don’t agree with official state beliefs.
TLDs and ccTLDs provide an interesting look at the Internet’s structure. While the World Wide Web is free wheeling on the surface, there is a definite structure in place to ensure everyone can gain easy access to the online resources they want and need.