.co Domain Extension

What is the .co domain extension

The .co extension is one of the few country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for the country of Columbia. However, the extension been repurposed to stand for company or community and is classified as a generic extension. The other extensions for the country are listed below.

com.co – commercial entities

org.co – organizations/Non-profits

edu.co – For schools and educational institutions

gov.co – government

net.co – networks

mil.co – military

nom.co – private/personal use

The .co extension was first introduced around December of 1991, assigned to the country of Columbia and was overseen by Universidad de los Andes (University Of The Andes) until about 2009.

Juan Diego Calle talks about how he was sitting in his office one day and received a call from a guy he knows. This individual goes on to ask him if he knows about .co, Juan replies and says it is the country code for Columbia. The guy then says, no, .co (or co) is an abbreviation for company all over the world. Juan stated, from that point the lightbulb went off and the drive to make .co a global extension was born. Juan stated that it was a little bit of a struggle by having to go through the regulatory process in Columbia to allow a private entity to take control of the extension. This all started around 2006-2007 through 2009, which is the year they won the bid and then officially launched the company (.co registry) in 2010.

The .co registry then begins to market the .co extension and do so by setting up billboards in highly trafficked areas and cities such Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Juan himself would go on interviews promoting the extension. He and the .co team also attended many startup events/conventions. The .co team also provided a support system for startups/entrepreneurs providing certain benefits for those that launched a company using the extension. Forming partnerships with those in the startup community, accelerators and companies alike, furthering the .co initiative. However, with all the above mentioned actions executed, the two biggest reasons for the .co extension catapulting and becoming what it is today, is due to GoDaddy and other major companies.

GoDaddy, which is a tech company that specializes in providing domain names, web hosting and other online services, took notice of the .co company and all the innovative things they were doing. GoDaddy ran three successive Super Bowl ads from 2011-2013 featuring the .co domain extension. Those campaigns gave the extensions a ton of exposure on a national level and to some extent, an international level as well.

The other big move by the .co team...

As previously mentioned, the .co registry was launched around 2010 and they partnered with Neustar to run the backend for the registry. The .co extension really took off from Juan Diego Calle and his team, which did an exceptional job marketing the extension. However, Juan states, aside from the marketing that was done, what helped the .co extension take off was giving the ccTLD some credibility. Juan and his team did this by approaching well known and up and coming companies at that time to use the extension. Companies such as Twitter (t.co), AngelList (angel.co), 500 startups (500.co) and Google (g.co). But the list of companies that hopped on the .co train did not end there.

Overstock: Overstock is an internet retail store that primarily sells furniture, they are headquartered in Midvale, Utah. The company bought the domain o.co back in 2010 and attempted a rebrand with the domain but ultimately switched back to overstock.com because of confusion by their customer base. Most of the confusion was due to the .co extension still being new to the scene despite its early success and adoption among the tech and startup crowd. Overstock now uses the o.co domain name as a redirect to the overstock.com domain.

Starbucks: Starbucks is a chain of coffeehouses and roasteries based out of Seattle, Washington. It is considered the largest coffeehouse chain in the world. Starbucks got the domain name sbux.co and use it as redirect to their main site as well as for URL shortening on their social profiles.

Cisco: Is a technology company that provides software networking, cloud and cyber security solutions. Cisco got the domain cs.co, the domain mimics its stock exchange symbol (csco). Cisco also uses the domain for URL shortening on social sites.

American Express: The payment card, rewards and banking company got amex.co and the domain currently redirects to the primary site/domain AmericanExpress.com. They also use the domain for URL shortening.

Aspen: Aspen is an insurance company that got the domain aspen.co and use it as their primary brand and domain name. It seems they used the domain Aspen-Insurance.com prior to obtaining the .co version of their name.

Virgin Atlantic: British airline company got virg.co and use it for URL shortening. Interestingly enough, they also have the domain name virg.in, which is a cool domain hack. The domain hack is used for URL shortening as well.

Other early adopters of the .co extension were

Amazon with a.co, Bestseller.com got b.co and they also own h.co, Volvo got m.co, I believe the m is for mobility, Snapchat has s.co, GoDaddy got x.co and The Yacht Company got y.co

Most of the above mentioned companies use these domain as redirects or for URL shortening, however, there were quite a few companies that used their .co domain as the primary brand for their site/business

As of late, the .co company was acquired by Neustar in April of 2014 and then the registry arm of Neustar was purchased by GoDaddy in 2020 (which also manages .us, .biz, .nyc and .in). Juan Diego Calle, moved on to other ventures and is heavily involved with the .health TLD.

Is The .co Domain Good Or Safe To Use

The .co domain extension is a good option for many individuals and businesses. As previously mentioned the .co extension gained a lot of steam and saw widespread adoption, especially by the tech/startup community. Currently, the .co domain has taken a step back in tech circles due to the rise of the .io extension. However, it is still a favorite for some in the startup scene. Some other things to consider with .co.

• It is short and easy to remember.
  
  

• It is less commonly used than some other popular domain extensions such as .com, so it may be easier to find a unique and available domain name with .co.

• It is well established and has a good reputation. It is often perceived as being more professional and credible than other domain extensions. This also can lead to a higher CTR (Click Through Rate).

• The extension is supported by many web hosting and domain registrar services, which should make it easier to set up and manage.

The .co domain extension is also considered safe to use, To reiterate, one of the reasons Juan Diego Calle and the .co team placed a higher annual fee for .co domains was to help ward off bad actors. A huge contributing factor to why certain extensions attract bad actors and develop a bad reputation is due to cheap annual pricing. Spammers and those with other mal intent will buy a bulk of domain names in extensions with very low pricing. Making .co domains more expensive was a preventative measure that helped keep those with bad intentions away from the TLD. Consequently, the .co extension became known as a good extension that is safe to use and build your brand and business on.

A couple of other points on the safety of the .co ccTLD.

• Spamhaus, has the .co extension showing a badness score of 0.8 and, which is considered very good. Especially compared to .surf which has an index of 5.49 with 634 sites/domains seen out of 745. Spamhaus is one of the foremost authorities in providing real time highly accurate threat intelligence to the Internet's major networks.
  
  

• Growthbadger ran a trust and memorability experiment with a number of different domain extensions and the .co came in at number two, right behind .com. It was a very good and interesting article, Domain Extensions: .com vs .org, .net, .io & 4 Other TLDs (Study).

Is a .co domain good for SEO

In general, the .co domain extension or any other extension (even the almighty .com) does not have a significant impact on SEO. Rather, the content that is on your website and how well it is optimized for the keywords in which you wish to rank for matter most. Google has already come out and stated many times that you will not get an additional boost nor will you get penalized for using certain extensions. That said, human behavior and/or psychology has to be accounted for.

As mentioned prior, when talking about safe and credible domain extensions we said how it can lead to a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) or how likely someone is to click on the link that leads to your site in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This kind of behavior can help you rank higher and does contribute to better your SEO. It is not so much the TLD itself, Google or any other search engine ranking you higher purely based on the extension you use, it is the trust, credibility and familiarity of the extension. Considering how well the .co extension is received by most and the excellent reputation it has, the extension absolutely will not hurt you in regard to SEO.

Why use a .co domain

A .co domain can be a good option if the domain you want is already taken with a .com extension. The .co extension has much more availability vs the .com in regard to domain names. However, the .co space like many other viable TLD alternatives is increasingly becoming more limited as these alternatives become more viable. Also, you can build a really powerful brand due the fact that the extension has widespread adoption. It also lends itself to be very appealing to many different industries due to, CO, representing or being short for the word company around the world. So you can register whatever brand name you like and it would likely fit with the .co extension, unlike more specific/descriptive extensions that might limit your name branding, such as .science, .photos, .homes, etc.

Who uses .co

Aside from the companies that were mentioned earlier, below is a handful of pretty successful companies that currently operate on the .co domain extension.

The sites/companies listed above is just a very small sample of the thousands of companies that utilize the .co domain extension, for more you can visit the official site for .co at go.co. or AlternativeClub.co

How to get a .co domain

If you are looking to get a .co domain name You can register one through a variety of domain registrars. Some of the more popular and secure options are GoDaddy, Namecheap, Porkbun and Dynadot. Keep in mind that some domain names may already be taken, so you may need to try a few different variations before finding one that is available.

Another option to consider is to purchase a name that someone already owns or is trying to resell. You will notice when trying to find a name at certain registrars, some names will have a much higher price tag than the ones that are available for registration. If it is a name that you covet and have the means to purchase, then do not pass up the opportunity to get the domain name to match your brand name. Go.co also has a number of premium .co domains to build your company atop of and doubling as a great brand name.