ccTLD: A Guide to Country Code Top-Level Domains

Key takeaways:

ccTLDs are strong online geo-signals that boost websites in country-specific search results.
ccTLDs connect and project credibility to local users, giving a sense of familiarity.
To choose the right ccTLD, consider your target audience, language relevance, and other key factors.

If you want your business to appear more online, especially locally, you need a website. But more than just a website, you also need a catchy, solid domain name. This is where country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) come into play, connecting you to your target local audience.

More than just a two-letter extension, a ccTLD is a part of your website that impacts your online local visibility and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. We’ll break down how they work in this blog, including their benefits and how to pick the right one for your business.

What is a ccTLD?

A ccTLD, or country code top-level domain, is a two-letter domain extension assigned to a particular country (e.g., .uk for the United Kingdom). They help indicate a website’s country of origin; a generic top-level domain (gTLD) like .com doesn’t do that. For instance, while a .com domain might suggest a commercial and global brand, a .ca domain tells visitors that the website is intended for a Canadian audience.

However, there’s an exception to the two-letter rule: internationalized domain ccTLDs (IDN ccTLDs) that allow non-Latin characters in the ccTLD itself. For example, Sri Lanka offers both .lk and scripts in Sinhalese/Tamil (e.g., .ලංකා, .இலங்கை).

History and governance of ccTLDs

ccTLDs trace their origins back to the ISO 3166-1 country code list, which assigns unique two-letter codes to every recognized country or territory. In the mid-1980s, these codes were adapted for the Internet’s naming system, and some of the earliest ccTLDs were delegated. More than 300 ccTLDs have been created since then, including some regions and overseas territories.

ccTLDs are managed and coordinated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), under the oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). While IANA delegates each ccTLD, designated national registries or authorities (Network Information Centers or NICs) are responsible for the day-to-day operation and policymaking of the domain extensions.

For example, Nominet acts as the registry for .uk, while DENIC serves Germany’s .de; many countries even use the NIC naming convention for their registry websites (e.g., nic.fr) for easier identification. Their rules can vary widely: some allow worldwide adoption (e.g., .io or .me), while others require a local presence or citizenship.

Why do websites use ccTLDs?

Websites use ccTLDs for several important reasons, such as the following:

To target local users. A ccTLD communicates relevance to specific regions and facilitates specific content, mostly by language, to countries.
To build regional trust and credibility. Using a ccTLD helps you connect and establish trust with local users. It shows a commitment to the local market and a better understanding of the local nuances.
To comply with country-specific regulations. ccTLDs can help comply with specific online regulations (e.g., data privacy or language requirements) in certain regions.

They’re powerful tools for building trust and local relevance; choosing the right ccTLD can strengthen your digital presence towards your target audience.

Advantages of ccTLDs

ccTLDs mainly help with localization, but they also have more benefits for your online branding goals, including the following:

Builds trust and relevance
Complies with legal and regulatory requirements
Offers branding opportunities
Enhances local SEO and visibility

Let’s look at each of these advantages in more detail:

Builds trust and relevance

A ccTLD shows your site’s focus on a specific region, helping you connect more with your local audience. For example, a .ca extension is more relatable to Canadian users than a gTLD.

Complies with legal and regulatory requirements

In certain situations, you might need a ccTLD for a region’s specific regulations. For instance, the European Union has data protection laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which require websites to use a .eu TLD when collecting personal data from EU users.

Similarly, some countries may require businesses to use certain ccTLDs within their region, particularly in finance or healthcare. For instance, UK banks might mandate .uk TLDs for customer interactions.

Offers branding opportunities

You can also creatively use ccTLDs for branding purposes, such as in the .tv domain case. It’s originally assigned to the island nation of Tuvalu, but it has become popular for media-related websites. Similarly, the .me domain, assigned to Montenegro, is often used for personal websites and blogs.

Enhances local SEO and visibility

Google and other search engines prioritize relevance to the user’s search intent. A ccTLD doesn’t automatically prioritize your website and boost it to the top of the local search rankings since domains aren’t a direct ranking factor. However, it does help Google recognize that your content is relevant to a specific location and audience.

An online clothing store with a .nz domain is more likely to appear in New Zealand than in the US since users and Google can see the website is catered to Kiwis. But that doesn’t stop a big shopping site with a .com domain from appearing as well if it has great content quality, authoritative backlinks, and good site performance.

You need to combine your ccTLD with strong SEO practices to compete with global websites. If both you and your competition managed to do equal optimization, having a ccTLD primarily puts you on an advantage in the local market.

List of available ccTLDs

Below is a comprehensive list of currently delegated ccTLDs. Use it as a reference to explore each domain extension; note that registration rules and availability can vary for every registry.

ccTLD	Country or Territory	Delegation status	Notes
.ad	Andorra	Active
.ae	United Arab Emirates	Active
.af	Afghanistan	Active
.ag	Antigua and Barbuda	Active
.ai	Anguilla	Active
.al	Albania	Active
.am	Armenia	Active
.ao	Angola	Active
.aq	Antarctica	Active	Restricted; limited eligibility
.ar	Argentina	Active
.as	American Samoa	Active
.at	Austria	Active
.au	Australia	Active
.aw	Aruba	Active
.ax	Ã…land Islands	Active
.az	Azerbaijan	Active
.ba	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Active
.bb	Barbados	Active
.bd	Bangladesh	Active
.be	Belgium	Active
.bf	Burkina Faso	Active
.bg	Bulgaria	Active
.bh	Bahrain	Active
.bi	Burundi	Active
.bj	Benin	Active
.bm	Bermuda	Active
.bn	Brunei Darussalam	Active
.bo	Bolivia	Active
.br	Brazil	Active
.bs	Bahamas	Active
.bt	Bhutan	Active
.bv	Bouvet Island	Inactive/Reserved	Not in active use
.bw	Botswana	Active
.by	Belarus	Active
.bz	Belize	Active
.ca	Canada	Active
.cc	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Active
.cd	Congo, Democratic Republic of the	Active
.cf	Central African Republic	Active
.cg	Congo	Active
.ch	Switzerland	Active
.ci	CÃ´te dâ€™Ivoire	Active
.ck	Cook Islands	Active
.cl	Chile	Active
.cm	Cameroon	Active
.cn	China	Active
.co	Colombia	Active
.cr	Costa Rica	Active
.cu	Cuba	Active
.cv	Cabo Verde	Active
.cw	CuraÃ§ao	Active
.cx	Christmas Island	Active
.cy	Cyprus	Active
.cz	Czechia	Active
.de	Germany	Active
.dj	Djibouti	Active
.dk	Denmark	Active
.dm	Dominica	Active
.do	Dominican Republic	Active
.dz	Algeria	Active
.ec	Ecuador	Active
.ee	Estonia	Active
.eg	Egypt	Active
.eh	Western Sahara	Inactive/Not Delegated	No operational registry
.er	Eritrea	Active
.es	Spain	Active
.et	Ethiopia	Active
.eu	European Union	Active	Special regional ccTLD
.fi	Finland	Active
.fj	Fiji	Active
.fk	Falkland Islands	Active
.fm	Micronesia, Federated States of	Active
.fo	Faroe Islands	Active
.fr	France	Active
.ga	Gabon	Active
.gb	United Kingdom (GB)	Inactive/Reserved	Superseded by .uk; not used
.gd	Grenada	Active
.ge	Georgia	Active
.gf	French Guiana	Active
.gg	Guernsey	Active
.gh	Ghana	Active
.gi	Gibraltar	Active
.gl	Greenland	Active
.gm	Gambia	Active
.gn	Guinea	Active
.gp	Guadeloupe	Active	Includes Saint- Barthélemy and Saint-Martin historically
.gq	Equatorial Guinea	Active
.gr	Greece	Active
.gs	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	Active
.gt	Guatemala	Active
.gu	Guam	Active
.gw	Guinea-Bissau	Active
.gy	Guyana	Active
.hk	Hong Kong	Active
.hm	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Active	Uninhabited; registry open to public
.hn	Honduras	Active
.hr	Croatia	Active
.ht	Haiti	Active
.hu	Hungary	Active
.id	Indonesia	Active
.ie	Ireland	Active
.il	Israel	Active
.im	Isle of Man	Active
.in	India	Active
.io	British Indian Ocean Territory	Active
.iq	Iraq	Active
.ir	Iran, Islamic Republic of	Active
.is	Iceland	Active
.it	Italy	Active
.je	Jersey	Active
.jm	Jamaica	Active
.jo	Jordan	Active
.jp	Japan	Active
.ke	Kenya	Active
.kg	Kyrgyzstan	Active
.kh	Cambodia	Active
.ki	Kiribati	Active
.km	Comoros	Active
.kn	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Active
.kp	Korea, Democratic Peopleâ€™s Republic of (North Korea)	Active
.kr	Korea, Republic of (South Korea)	Active
.kw	Kuwait	Active
.ky	Cayman Islands	Active
.kz	Kazakhstan	Active
.la	Lao Peopleâ€™s Democratic Republic	Active
.lb	Lebanon	Active
.lc	Saint Lucia	Active
.li	Liechtenstein	Active
.lk	Sri Lanka	Active
.lr	Liberia	Active
.ls	Lesotho	Active
.lt	Lithuania	Active
.lu	Luxembourg	Active
.lv	Latvia	Active
.ly	Libya	Active
.ma	Morocco	Active
.mc	Monaco	Active
.md	Moldova, Republic of	Active
.me	Montenegro	Active
.mf	Saint Martin (French part)	Inactive/Reserved	Not operational in root
.mg	Madagascar	Active
.mh	Marshall Islands	Active
.mk	North Macedonia	Active
.ml	Mali	Active
.mm	Myanmar	Active
.mn	Mongolia	Active
.mo	Macao	Active
.mp	Northern Mariana Islands	Active
.mq	Martinique	Active
.mr	Mauritania	Active
.ms	Montserrat	Active
.mt	Malta	Active
.mu	Mauritius	Active
.mv	Maldives	Active
.mw	Malawi	Active
.mx	Mexico	Active
.my	Malaysia	Active
.mz	Mozambique	Active
.na	Namibia	Active
.nc	New Caledonia	Active
.ne	Niger	Active
.nf	Norfolk Island	Active
.ng	Nigeria	Active
.ni	Nicaragua	Active
.nl	Netherlands	Active
.no	Norway	Active
.np	Nepal	Active
.nr	Nauru	Active
.nu	Niue	Active
.nz	New Zealand	Active
.om	Oman	Active
.pa	Panama	Active
.pe	Peru	Active
.pf	French Polynesia	Active
.pg	Papua New Guinea	Active
.ph	Philippines	Active
.pk	Pakistan	Active
.pl	Poland	Active
.pm	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Active
.pn	Pitcairn	Active
.pr	Puerto Rico	Active
.ps	Palestine, State of	Active
.pt	Portugal	Active
.pw	Palau	Active
.py	Paraguay	Active
.qa	Qatar	Active
.re	RÃ©union	Active
.ro	Romania	Active
.rs	Serbia	Active
.ru	Russian Federation	Active
.rw	Rwanda	Active
.sa	Saudi Arabia	Active
.sb	Solomon Islands	Active
.sc	Seychelles	Active
.sd	Sudan	Active
.se	Sweden	Active
.sg	Singapore	Active
.sh	Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha	Active
.si	Slovenia	Active
.sj	Svalbard and Jan Mayen	Inactive/Reserved	Not in active use
.sk	Slovakia	Active
.sl	Sierra Leone	Active
.sm	San Marino	Active
.sn	Senegal	Active
.so	Somalia	Active
.sr	Suriname	Active
.ss	South Sudan	Active
.st	Sao Tome and Principe	Active
.su	Soviet Union	Active/Legacy	Legacy code still in use
.sv	El Salvador	Active
.sx	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	Active
.sy	Syrian Arab Republic	Active
.sz	Eswatini (Swaziland)	Active
.tc	Turks and Caicos Islands	Active
.td	Chad	Active
.tf	French Southern Territories	Active
.tg	Togo	Active
.th	Thailand	Active
.tj	Tajikistan	Active
.tk	Tokelau	Active
.tl	Timor-Leste	Active
.tm	Turkmenistan	Active
.tn	Tunisia	Active
.to	Tonga	Active
.tr	TÃ¼rkiye	Active
.tt	Trinidad and Tobago	Active
.tv	Tuvalu	Active
.tw	Taiwan, Province of China	Active
.tz	Tanzania, United Republic of	Active
.ua	Ukraine	Active
.ug	Uganda	Active
.uk	United Kingdom	Active
.us	United States of America	Active
.uy	Uruguay	Active
.uz	Uzbekistan	Active
.va	Holy See (Vatican City State)	Active
.vc	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Active
.ve	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	Active
.vg	Virgin Islands (British)	Active
.vi	Virgin Islands (U.S.)	Active
.vn	Viet Nam	Active
.vu	Vanuatu	Active
.wf	Wallis and Futuna	Active
.ws	Samoa	Active
.ye	Yemen	Active
.yt	Mayotte	Active
.za	South Africa	Active
.zm	Zambia	Active
.zw	Zimbabwe	Active

How do you register a ccTLD?

If you already complied with your ccTLD’s requirements, it’s now easier to register one for your business. Follow these steps, so you can use local domain extensions afterwards.

Check availability. Visit your domain registrar’s website and use their domain search tool. Enter your desired domain name followed by the specific ccTLD extension you want.

Select your domain and add it to your cart. Once you’ve found an available ccTLD to your liking, select it and add it to your cart. You’ll have options for registration periods (e.g., 1 year, 2 years, up to 10 years).

Complete your registration details. Proceed to checkout; you’ll be prompted to provide your contact and billing information.

Finalize your purchase. Review your order and complete the payment. Network Solutions will then process your registration, and your new ccTLD will be fully active within a few hours.

How do you choose the right ccTLD?

Selecting the appropriate ccTLD calls for careful, deliberate consideration. Consider the following key factors when choosing ccTLDs:

Target audience alignment. Determine whether the country domain matches your primary market. If your business focuses on Canadian customers, a .ca domain is a logical choice.
Language relevance. While some ccTLDs are used globally (.io, .ai), ensure the language aligns for country-specific targeting.
Registration requirements and restrictions. Some ccTLDs require local presence or specific legal entities to register.
Availability of the desired domain name. Just like gTLDs, check if your desired domain name is up grabs under the chosen ccTLD. If not, consider variations if your first choice is taken.
Cost and renewal fees. While some ccTLDs are inexpensive, others can be significantly more costly.
Long-term business strategy. If you anticipate expanding into other countries, secure their respective ccTLDs early on for brand protection and future growth.

Always go over these factors when choosing ccTLDs; the right one will balance market reach and long-term growth for your brand.

Technical considerations for choosing a ccTLD

Before registering a ccTLD, check the following technical details, which may vary by country:

Eligibility requirements. Some ccTLDs have strict requirements, such as local presence or citizenship. For example, registering a .us domain requires a physical presence in the United States.
Registration costs and renewal. ccTLD registration and renewal costs can vary significantly depending on the extension, ranging from free to over $200 yearly.
Hosting and infrastructure. Some ccTLDs may require your website to be hosted on servers in the corresponding country; this can affect hosting provider choices and website maintenance costs.
Privacy restrictions. Many ccTLDs restrict Domain Privacy, which exposes your registrant data in public WHOIS databases. Always review the registry’s privacy practices to see if domain privacy is allowed.

Always consider these details so that your ccTLD aligns with your brand strategy and works seamlessly from a technical standpoint.

Real-world examples of successful ccTLD usage

Numerous businesses effectively use ccTLDs to achieve their local and international targeting goals. Here are some examples of successful ccTLD usage by businesses:

Amazon. Amazon uses a vast network of ccTLDs to serve customers worldwide. For example, Amazon.co.uk is for the United Kingdom, Amazon.de is for Germany, Amazon.fr is for France, and Amazon.co.jp is for Japan.
BBC. The British Broadcasting Corporation utilizes bbc.co.uk as its primary domain for its UK audience, showing its national origin and targeting. This allows them to deliver news and content specifically relevant to the UK, while still having international reach.
Many national banks or government websites. These entities use their respective ccTLDs almost universally (e.g., Bank of America uses .us for the US bank and local extensions for specific international branches).

Frequently asked questions

Can I register a ccTLD from a different country?

It depends on the specific ccTLD. Some ccTLDs have restrictions, while others do not.

Are ccTLDs more trustworthy?

ccTLDs can enhance trust by showing focus on a specific region. However, trust also has a lot to do with the website’s content and reputation, among many other factors.

What if my business expands globally later?

If you plan to expand globally, consider using a gTLD like .com and your ccTLD. Using both domains helps you reach a broader audience while maintaining your local presence.

Are there any disadvantages to using a ccTLD?

The main possible “disadvantage” can be registration restrictions for certain ccTLDs, which might require a local presence or specific legal entities.

What country is the .to domain?

The .to domain is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Tonga, a nation in the South Pacific. It’s also popular worldwide because it works well in short links and domain hacks (like “go.to”).

What is a top-level domain country code?

A top-level domain country code, or ccTLD, is a two-letter domain extension assigned to a country or territory. For example, .de represents Germany, .ca represents Canada, and .uk represents the United Kingdom.

Is .io a country code?

.io is officially the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory. However, it’s widely adopted by startups and tech companies because “IO” is commonly associated with computing terms like “input/output.”

Grow your local reach with ccTLDs from Network Solutions

By choosing the right domain name, you can significantly boost your online presence. Whether targeting a local or global audience, Network Solutions offers various domain options to meet your needs. Our Domain Name Search tool helps you find and register the perfect ccTLD.

Explore your options and find the ideal ccTLD for your website with Network Solutions!

What Is a ccTLD? Benefits, Examples, and Uses