A URL extension such as .com, .org or .ca is also called a “top level domain” or TLD for short. A TLD tells people where you are located or if your
business is for profit or charity. People can tell a lot about you by your TLD and in 1987 Canada got its own TLD, .ca. By 2010 over 1.5 million .ca domain names were registered.
.ca identifies you or your business as Canadian. The CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) verifies every .ca TLD name so people know with certainty that a .ca website is owned by a Canadian business or citizen. And it has been proven that 60% of Canadians prefer to shop at .ca websites because some degree of protection is implied and they won’t lose money on exchange rates. They also feel secure that they’ll have legal recourse if they have a dispute, options that they rarely have when dealing with a foreign business.
There are some very well known companies that prefer to use a .CA TLD name. Among them is Canoe.ca, a leading interactive media provider of news and entertainment known throughout Canada. This organization helps inform and connect Canadians to local, national and international news and human interest stories. Canadians will access this news site before they begin to search for other sources not based in Canada. Because Canoe is a certified Canadian website as proven by the .ca TLD name, they know that they can get everything they need to stay in touch with the world—news, sports, entertainment news and the latest in health discoveries. They’ll find news about health, travel, lifestyles and even see videos of television shows. They chose Canoe because they know from the TLD name that they can trust it for all their media needs.
Google has also obtained a .ca TLD to use for their Canadian headquarters. Although Google is worldwide, Canadians can access Google’s Canadian search engine so that they don’t have to deal with search results from outside the country if they prefer not to. Google is the world’s leading search engine and internet media outlet and now Canadians can use it for all their needs and filter their results to those with a .ca TLD.
Media outlets aren’t the only ones to take advantage of the .ca extension. Baytides Management, the leading Canadian web designer, has a .ca website. Canadians know that they can trust a .ca website to know their unique needs and circumstances, their culture and how to best appeal to the audience they want their website to reach. The .ca extension lets people know that Baytides might be the web designer that can meet their needs.
Even real estate firms like Royallepage.ca use the Canadian TLD. Again, Canadians will know by the TLD that they are dealing with someone that has an interest in their culture and their country.
