How .Realtor quickly became one of the most used fresh TLDs

Easy-to-create starter sites fuel early usage of domain names for Realtors.

Regarding four weeks ago, the National Association of Realtors released the .realtor domain name. Ahead of the launch, I called it one of the most notable launches in the nascent fresh top level domain name program.

.Realtor has quickly shot up to the #4 spot of fresh top level domain names with regarding 85,000 domain names in the zone file.

Much like #1 (.xyz) and #2 (.berlin), its success has a lot to do with giving domain names away for free. National Association of Realtors (NAR) is giving up to 500,000 addresses away for free for the first year; others cost $40.

But there are some key differences with .realtor, and why I think it has done a lot to move fresh TLDs forward as a whole.

First, although most of the registrations were free, Realtors had to actually register them and were limited to just one for free. This means that 80,000 people are now more aware of what’s right of the dot. In other words, they understand a bit more regarding what a fresh TLD is.

Second, .realtor has quickly become one of the most “used” top level domain names.

I spot checked a random group of 50 .realtor domain names in the zone file. 46% of them resolved to a website, counting forwards. The rest were parked. That’s a pretty good number.

.Realtor achieved this by making it really simple to set up a starter site. Through a partnership with Realtor.com, agents could click a few buttons to set up a basic page with their contact info, bio, and listings. Here’s an example.

True websites? Maybe not. But it’s a step toward getting indexed. It’s also a web address that a Realtor could give to a client or put on their business card.

That moves fresh top level domain names forward…one impression at a time.