“Your domain is your first impression,” said Rachel Sterling, marketing director at Identity Digital, the domain registry operator that owns the name.com registrar. “People judge your entire business as soon as they hear your domain name. Fortunately, with the massive increase in domain extensions available, it’s now simple to find an address that perfectly reflects your brand and stands out.”

New domain extensions featuring descriptive keywords, like .studio, were used more than a decade ago, allowing businesses to further differentiate themselves. They can convey a brand’s personality or mission and even improve its visibility in AI-generated search results.

“The domain strategy leverages real estate on both the right and left side of the dot,” Sterling said. “This right-hand extension is no longer just a suffix. It’s prime digital real estate that can actively tell the story of a brand or business, conveying expertise, artistic endeavor or advice up front.”

New domain extensions are the key to effective brand marketing

Domain extensions are powerful marketing tools that can signal industry relevance and innovation to the public up front. Because these TLDs look and sound different from traditional options, they are particularly useful for creating a lasting impact with consumers.

While TLDs like .studio are often aimed at creatives such as artists, marketing agencies and wellness professionals, many businesses choose descriptive TLDs so they can promote individually branded campaigns, products or services with personalized web addresses.

Businesses can take advantage of the memorable nature of new domains to create short, meaningful web addresses for promotional campaigns. For example, Buzzfeed.bio serves as a platform for different social media publishing entities. Likewise, Amazon.jobs and Amazon.science are two sites that are clear, focused subsets of the main Amazon brand. Tech startups, in particular, are turning to new TLDs like .ai, .pro, and .world to ensure memorable and relevant digital identities. Startups using a new TLD are able to secure their exact brand name 88% of the time.

Custom domains help brands stand out in AI-generated search

With the rise of AI-powered search summarization tools, like Google’s AI Previews, which provide summarized answers instead of traditional links, and with younger consumers using social media as their primary search channels, traditional SEO tactics are proving insufficient.

“The old way of being discovered is gone,” Sterling said. “Breaking your way to the top of Google through AdWords is no longer the answer; these ads are now being pushed away by AI search results. At the same time, younger generations are searching on TikTok and Instagram, where these platforms actively avoid pushing users to a website. This shift requires an entirely new discovery mechanism for brands.”

One of the easiest ways for brands to stand out in this new era of AI-powered search is to leverage a strategic domain name. A new TLD allows search engines and the public to quickly understand the purpose of a website, improving both AI-based search results and consumer click-through rates.

New TLDs also signal credibility, specialization and relevance to both algorithms and potential customers. Domain relevance is essential to SEO results. Keyword-based TLDs like .studio are especially useful for brands, marketers, and creators who want to present themselves with professional authority and clarity.

“If a consumer is looking for a design company and uses the word ‘studio’ in their search, and ‘.studio’ is in a company’s domain, that company’s information will be very relevant in the search results,” Sterling explained. “For example, neighborhood.studio is an agency based in Singapore. A search for “marketing studio in Singapore”, using the .studio TLD, means that Vicinity will appear as a very relevant choice and specific answer to that query.”

The Future of New TLDs as a Core Element of Brand Identity

The success of new TLDs like neighborhood.studio clearly demonstrates the benefit of making domain strategy an essential element of brand identity. The brands that thrive in the era of AI-powered search will be those that clearly express their digital identity using descriptive TLDs.

“We’re seeing innovative, tech-savvy people pivot to new extensions because they accurately describe the value of the business they’re bringing to market,” Sterling said. “We see this trend continue year over year, especially as new extensions join the market and cultural elements change.”

Identity Digital’s analysis of more than 4,000 startups from Y Combinator and Techstars found that technology startups’ use of new TLDs has increased by 50% over the past five years.

As more businesses realize the value of descriptive domains in communicating a brand’s unique identity and value proposition, this adoption will only increase.

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