What is TLD? Learn about Top Level Domains

If you are a website owner, you certainly know the importance of an online brand’s domain name. Domain names are different types? In this article, we will mention one of the most common terms – TLD. Let’s find out what is TLD and the important information about it!

What is TLD?

TLD stands for Top level domain (Top-level domain name) is the last extension of the domain name, after the period at the end. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, part com is the TLD.
Before going any further, you should know the domain name is divided into three levels – subdomain located on the leftmost part, second-level domain is the part immediately to the left of the dot before TLD and top level domain (top domain) is on the far right of the domain.
The domain name has all components second-level domain and tld will be called Fully Qualified Domain Name (a fully qualified domain name). Let’s take a look at an example of a complete domain name as follows: sub.example.com.

sub – is the subdomain
example – is the second level domain
.com – is the top level domain

All levels of the domain name are separated by dots.
As you can see, the top-level domain name is .com – the most popular TLD in the world, it is used a lot because it stands for commercial (commercial).
Domain components, especially TLD, coordinated by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (abbreviated as ICANN), roughly translated as Internet organization of number and domain name.
ICANN monitors all types of top level domains. Since the top-level domain name of a website complies with the ICANN directive, we can find out what the site is for by looking at that TLD description.
Now you know what tld is and what it means. Let’s look at TLD domain name types.

The top level domain types

ICANN classifies TLD into 4 main categories based on the purpose, owner and geographic location of the website, namely:

Generic top-level domain name: gTLD

gTLD is the most popular domain name that supports all user registrations. Common top-level domain names are:

.com – for commercial site
.org – for the organization
.net – for the network
.xyz – For normal use
.name – for individuals
.biz – for Business
.info – for information base

However, there are gTLDs that are restricted to certain users: it’s called the top-level domain name that is sponsored.

Sponsored top-level domain name: sTLD

sTLD is a generic top-level domain name for private organizations. Users wishing to register websites under this domain should abide by certain rules. Some examples of sTLD are:

.gov – for US government sites
.edu – for educational institutions
.int – for international organizations with a treaty-related purpose
.mil – for the US military
.mobi – for websites about mobile products or services
.jobs – for companies or legal entities
.tel – for websites about internet communication services
.post – for pages about courier service
.asia – for pages in the Asia-Pacific region

Top-level domain name by Country Code: ccTLD

TLD country code notes the ISO location or territory code. An ISO code is a two-letter code representing the names of certain areas. Common examples of this type of TLD are:

.VN – Vietnam
.es – Spain
.ru – Russia
.us – USA
.shift – Canada
.nl – Netherlands
.de – Germany
.fr – France
.print – India
.ch – Switzerland
.jp – Japan
.CN – China
.br – Brazil
.id – Indonesia

Top-level domain name for infrastructure

The top-level domain name for available infrastructure is ARPA, which stands for Address and Area of Routing Parameters and is managed by IANA for IETF (Specialized Network Technical Task Force). Therefore, this domain name is only used to solve technical infrastructure problems.
In addition to the examples of the top-level domain names mentioned above, a full list of TLDs is available on the website of IANA, (Internet Identification Number).

What is the purpose of the top level domain name?

Because top-level domain names are classified according to the relevance of the website, it can be used to determine the site’s purpose, owner or geographic location without viewing the site content.
For example, top-level domain .edu indicates that the site is used for educational purposes or is owned by educational institutions.
One thing to keep in mind is that some websites may have the same name but different top-level domains. It mean “example.com " Unlike “example.edu".
Now you need to pay attention “WordPress.org“Is clearly different from”WordPress.com"Despite having a second-level domain.
check domain name

When buying a domain name, you must double check the second level domain name to ensure its availability and make sure you have selected the top level domain that is suitable for the site.

Epilogue

As you can see, the top-level domain name, or TLD, is the suffix of the domain name. TLD can help determine the purpose of the site and even its geographic location.
There are four main types of TLD that are categorized by ICANN and each of them is set by website relevance. That is:

Generic top-level domain (gTLD)
Top-level domain name for sponsorship (sTLD)
CcTLD code for country code
Top-level domain name for facilities (ARPA)

It is very important that you know and understand what TLD is so you can choose the most suitable TLD for the site.
Hopefully, you have a complete understanding of website domain names – especially TLD with this article! If you have questions or need advice, please leave your comment.