The Truth About Top-Level Domains (TLDs) and SEO

March 26, 2025

When building a website, choosing your domain name is a big decision—but there’s often confusion about whether the domain ending (also called the top-level domain, or TLD) affects SEO.

You’ve probably seen websites ending in .com, .org, .co, or even .agency. So does one rank better than the other?

According to Google’s SEO Starter Guide, the TLD has no impact on your rankings—unless you're trying to target users in a specific country.

Let’s unpack what that really means and what to consider when picking your domain.

What Is a TLD?

A TLD is the last part of a domain name—like .com, .org, or .co.uk. There are two main types:

Generic TLDs (gTLDs): These include .com, .org, .net, .info, .agency, etc.
Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs): These include .uk (United Kingdom), .de (Germany), .ca (Canada), .ch (Switzerland), and many more.

While it’s good to understand the difference, most websites use generic TLDs like .com or .org—and Google treats them all the same from an SEO perspective.

Google’s Take on TLDs and SEO

Straight from the SEO Starter Guide:

"The TLD (the domain name ending like '.com' or '.guru') only matters if you're targeting a specific country's users, and even then it's usually a low impact signal."

So if you’re trying to reach people in Switzerland, using a .ch domain might help a little. But if you're targeting a broader or global audience, your TLD doesn't influence your rankings.

It’s another outdated SEO myth—like thinking that putting keywords in your domain name will boost your ranking. Spoiler: That doesn’t work anymore either.

Branding Matters More Than the TLD

When choosing a domain, focus on brand and clarity, not search engine signals. Your audience should be able to remember your URL, trust it, and type it easily.

A few tips:

Stick with a simple, professional-looking domain
Avoid anything that sounds spammy or gimmicky
If you can’t get the .com, other gTLDs like .co, .io, or .agency are still perfectly fine

And remember: what you put on the site matters more than what comes after the dot.

We talked more about this in our SEO 101 beginner’s guide, where we covered the bigger picture of SEO ranking factors.

When a Country Code TLD Makes Sense

There are situations when using a country-specific domain is helpful—especially if:

Your business only serves one country
You want to show up in that country’s version of Google (like google.co.uk or google.ca)
You want to build local trust

For example, if you're selling cheese to customers in Switzerland, having a .ch domain might give you a small edge in local results.

But again, this is a minor signal, and there are other ways to target a location—like setting geographic targets in Google Search Console or including local keywords on your site.

What to Avoid When Choosing a Domain

Here are a few things you don’t need to stress about:

Picking a TLD just for SEO reasons
Using exact-match domain names (like best-cheap-seo-tools-online.com)
Thinking .com always ranks better than other extensions

Your domain name is part of your brand, not a silver bullet for SEO.

Final Thoughts: Choose What’s Best for Your Brand

Google’s algorithm doesn’t give special treatment to one TLD over another—unless you’re going hyper-local. So instead of overthinking your domain extension, focus on creating a clear, trustworthy, and easy-to-remember domain that fits your brand.

For global SEO, it won’t matter if you're using .com, .agency, or .solutions. What matters is the quality of your content, your site’s experience, and your ability to answer what people are searching for.

Want to know more about which parts of the URL still matter? Check out our breakdown on keywords in URLs and how to build user-first structure that supports real SEO results.