“Where in the world are you?”

How would you answer that question? “Europe”? “Cape Town”? “Silver Lake Road”? “Down the street”?

According to research, 43% of all Google searches are local or location-based. And prior to 2014, if a person, company, or organization wanted to differentiate their website for local results, they had to add their city or region to the left of the dot in their domain name.

That’s now changing.

In 2014, the expansion of Internet names beyond the familiar .com, .org and .co.uk extensions has allowed residents of London, Vienna, Berlin, Las Vegas and many other cities, regions and countries throughout the world the opportunity to convey, more precisely than ever, were they are, where they do business, and where they call home.

Take, for example, a business called Flowers by Michelle. located in New York City. Ten years ago, when Michelle launched her shop, she registered FlowersByMichelleNewYorkCity.com. Descriptive? Yes? Easy to remember? Maybe. Short? Not exactly.

But now, thanks to the introduction of new domain extensions, Michelle will be able to promote her business using FlowersByMichelle.nyc, FreshFlowersIn.nyc, and countless other geographically relevant names!

In fact, by the end of the year more than a dozen geographically focused extensions will be made available to the public in General Availability (meaning domain names are “open to all”), including New York City, Paris, Okinawa, Quebec, Moscow, and Durban, as well as the Basque, Saarland and Brittany regions of Europe.

What does this mean for you?

Improved SEO – Research suggests that publishing a website using a city- or region-based domain name extension may improve SEO and help your marketing investments go further where they’ll have the most impact.

A better name – The introduction of city- and region-based extensions means you compete with fewer people for descriptive domain names.

Built-in community – Publishing your website using a city- or region-based domain name, your on-line identity automatically becomes part of your community in a way that so-called “generic” can’t match.

At Lexsynergy, we understand complex global markets. Visit www.lexsynergy.com or email domains@lexsynergy.com to put your business at the forefront of your local community today.

Lexsynergy - Our Domain is Domains™