: What are these domain names called? Till today, I thought I knew the definition of TLD, SLD, apex domains and so on. But speaking with some people it seems that I'm making confusion. Here's

@Ogunnowo487

You seem to confuse the technical definition with registration policies.

.co.uk is not a TLD. .uk is a TLD. As w3d notes, "just count the dots".

But .co.uk is "special" in the way that you may register your domain name under this second-level domain. It’s an effective top-level domain (eTLD).

Mozilla hosts a list of these eTLDs, which they call Public Suffix List. They define a public suffix like this:


A "public suffix" is one under which Internet users can (or historically could) directly register names. Some examples of public suffixes are .com, .co.uk and pvt.k12.ma.us. The Public Suffix List is a list of all known public suffixes.

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@Lee4591628

According to publicsuffix.org/list/public_suffix_list.dat .name has second level domains that are considered top level domains, but there's no list of them. You'll have to research each name individually to determine if it's a valid, owned domain name, or a top level domain name with owned domains below it.

See Get the subdomain from a URL for more information on what TLDs are, and how to find subdomains.

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@Karen161

Top-Level Domain (TLD)

Every domain name is composed of two parts: a TLD (top-level domain) and a second-level domain. In the domain name example.com, the .com part is the top-level domain, and the word example is the second-level domain. While there are an almost infinite number of second-level domains, there are a limited number of generic TLDs, see examples below.

Examples:

.com Not restricted. This is the original TLD for businesses, but it has been used by many non-business groups.

.biz Restricted for use by businesses; .biz was added because .com is being used by some groups and individuals that are not businesses.

.name Restricted to use by individuals who want to register their own name as a domain name; this allows people to have their own personal Web sites without using .com or other TLDs.

.org Not restricted. Intended for use by organizations such as non-profits.

.net Not restricted. Intended for use by organizations who contribute to the construction or maintenance of the Internet.

In addition to generic TLDs, there are a growing number of country code (cc) TLDs which associate Web sites with a particular country. For instance, .us can be used by companies in the United States . If you are an international company or do extensive business with another country, consider registering a domain name with the appropriate country code.

Examples:

.co.uk The United Kingdom

.co.za South Africa

Side Note ( Just a FYI )

There is not much of a difference SEO wise when it comes to .com vs .net vs .org domains because all of them are commonly used general TLDs.

The only effect of TLD on SEO is, if your TLD is for particular region, you may not show up as a search results in other geo region.

Google expands its general TLDs and it is being updated regularly. Read Here Geotargetable domains

As an example if you have a .in domain, your ranking in Google India may be quite high when compared to Google Japan.

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@Ogunnowo487

Just count the dots...


.co.uk is a top level domain aka first level domain;


uk is a TLD. co is a SLD.
(Reference: www.nominet.uk/uk-domain-names/about-domain-names/uk-domain-family)
Although it's common to see .co.uk described as a ccTLD, it's really only the uk part that is the TLD.


google.co.uk is a second level domain and an apex domain;


google is a third level domain.


And now the hard part: .name domains


...Just count the dots.

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