Cloud specialist IONOS has revealed the Top Level Domains (TLDs), new Top Level Domains (nTLDs) and keywords most popular among domain registrations in 2022.

A new study shows the most significant change in rankings saw .xyz climb 20 spaces from 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 213.8%.

But names like .co.uk and .com remain the most popular in the UK.

The .xyz TLD has become synonymous with Web3 projects and was the first registry to enable the integration of regular domains with Ethereum wallets.

Domain names and extensions are crucial for the success of a website. They are often the first thing that people see and therefore their first impression of a company. They must provide relevance and information to be perceived as trustworthy and ‘clickable’.

IONOS says the top five most popular TLDs across the UK in 2022 were ‘.co.uk’, ‘.com’, ‘.uk’, ‘.org’ and ‘.online’ with ‘.online’, ‘.club’, ‘.shop’, ‘.store’ and ‘.scot’ making up the top five most popular nTLDs.
Whilst .online suffered an almost 20% decline, it is still the number one most popular nTLD.

Neal McPherson, Head of Product Management Domains & SSL at IONOS said: “Evergreens such as .co.uk, .com and .uk consistently occupy the top spots in domain registrations but it’s interesting that we are now seeing versatile alternatives such as .online or .site becoming more and more established here in the UK.

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“Our report also shows the huge growth of specialised TLDs such as .xyz, a popular domain for Web3 projects that is becoming synonymous with the metaverse.

“An increase of over 210% for .xyz is staggering and it’s clear from our data that it is becoming the go-to TLD for Web3 projects. I look forward to seeing how the growth of Web3 TLDs successfully positioning themselves in that space continues.”

The new data also shows the most popular keywords attributed to these newly registered domains, highlighting the topics which trended the most in 2022.

‘Meta’ experienced the biggest growth of searches when combined with nTLDs such as .online or .xyz. ‘Ukraine’, ‘Solar’ and ‘Energy’ also grew in popularity.