A country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a two-letter extension tied to a country or territory, generally based on ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. Examples include .us, .uk, .de, .jp and .au.
Each ccTLD is run by a manager designated for that territory, and policies differ greatly. Some require local presence (for example, certain registrations under .ca or .fr need a connection to Canada or the EU/EEA), while others are open to anyone worldwide.
Several ccTLDs are popular for reasons beyond geography: .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) with tech startups, .co (Colombia) as a .com alternative, .tv (Tuvalu) for video, and .ai (Anguilla) for artificial intelligence companies. Search engines may treat ccTLDs as geo-targeted signals unless they are widely used generically.
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Related terms
- gTLD (Generic Top-Level Domain)
- A gTLD is a generic top-level domain not tied to a country, such as .com, .net, .org, .info, or newer extensions like .app and .store.
- New gTLD
- New gTLDs are the hundreds of extensions introduced by ICANN since 2013, such as .app, .shop, .xyz, .online and .dev, expanding naming options.
- Second-level domain (SLD)
- The second-level domain is the part directly left of the TLD, such as "example" in example.com, and is usually the name you register.
- Subdomain
- A subdomain is a label added before your domain, like blog.example.com or shop.example.com, that you create free in your own DNS settings.