What Is a TLD? A Top Level Domain

If you are a website owner, you surely know how important a domain name is for your overall online brand.  Did you know that a domain name has a structure of different elements?

What is TLD?

A top-level domain is the last segment of your domain name, the element located after the last dot. As it is located in the ending, it is also known as a domain suffix.

Before going further, you should know that a domain name is divided into three levels –  the subdomain located in the front part or the left side, the second-level domain or label located in the middle, and the top-level domain located at the back, or the right side of the domain name.

A domain name which has a second and top-level domain constitutes a Fully Qualified Domain Name.

To make it clearer, let’s break down an example domain name  – sub.example.com.

• sub – is the subdomain
• example – is the mid-level domain
• .com – is the top-level domain

All of these domain levels are separated with a “dot”.

As you can see, the top-level domain is .com – it shows that the site is a commercial site.

How come?

Domain name aspects, especially TLDs, are coordinated by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN.

ICANN oversees all types of top-level domains according to what the website is associated with. As the top-level domain of a website must adhere to it, we can see what a website is about through its TLD.

The Different Types of Top-level Domains

1. Generic Top-level Domains: gTLD

The gTLD is the most common domain that allows all range of users to register. The most familiar examples of this type of top-level domain are:

• .com  – for commercial sites
• .org  – for organizations
• .net  – for networks
• .xyz  – for general use
• .name  –  for individuals
• .biz  – for businesses
• .info  – for information platforms

However, there are gTLDs that are restricted to certain users: they’re called sponsored top-level domains.

2. Sponsored Top-level Domains: sTLD

The sTLD is a type of generic top-level domain that is handled by private organizations. Users who want to register their site under this domain should comply with certain rules. Some of the sTLD examples are:

• .gov  – for U.S governmental sites
• .edu  – for educational institutions
• .int  – for treaty-related purpose international organizations
• .mil  – for the U.S. military
• .mobi  – for mobile product and service websites
• .jobs  – for legal companies or organizations
• .tel  – for internet communication service websites
• .post  – for postal service sites
• .asia  – for the Asia-Pacific region based websites

3. Country Code Top-level Domains: ccTLD

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

• .es  –  Spain
• .ru  –  Russia
• .us  – United States
• .ca  –  Canada
• .nl  – Netherlands
• .de  –  Germany
• .fr  – France
• .in  – India
• .ch  – Switzerland
• .jp  – Japan
• .cn  – China
• .br  – Brazil
• .id  – Indonesia

What Is the Purpose of Top-level Domains?

Since top-level domains are categorized based on what the website is associated with, it can be used to identify the website’s purpose, owner, or geographical location  – without even seeing the website’s content.

For example,  the top-level domain .edu indicates that the website is used for educational purposes or owned by educational institutions.

One thing that should be noted is that several websites could share the same name but different top-level domains. So, it can be said that “example.com” is not the same with “example.edu”.