.com or .com.tr? How to choose a domain extension for Türkiye
By GNR Tech Yazılım ve Dijital Hizmetleri 5 min read
When you pick a domain for a new brand, company or project, the first decision is the extension. For Türkiye, people mostly compare .com, .com.tr and a direct .tr. The right answer depends on your audience, growth plans and which names are free. Here is how they compare.
The short answer
- If you only serve Türkiye, .com.tr is a strong choice: it signals local trust and no longer requires documents.
- If you plan to expand abroad, .com is more flexible.
- If you can, get both and redirect one to the other. That protects your brand and catches visitors who type the wrong extension.
Trust and perception
Users in Türkiye see .com.tr as a local, established signal. Because .com.tr once required a trademark or trade name document, for years it meant "a real company." The document requirement was dropped in 2022, but the perception has largely stuck.
.com is the most recognized extension in the world, and almost everyone adds .com out of habit when typing an address. For customers, partners and investors abroad, .com feels more familiar.
Search engines
Google treats country-code extensions like .com.tr as a signal that the site targets that country. That helps locally in Türkiye, but doesn't decide rankings on its own; content, links and site quality matter far more.
Generic extensions like .com aren't tied to any country. If your site offers Turkish content for users in Türkiye, Google picks that up from language and other signals, so a .com can rank well in Türkiye.
More important than the extension is not changing domains often. Moving from one domain to another can cause temporary swings in search visibility, even with proper redirects.
Finding an available name
Most short, meaningful .com names were taken years ago. The same name is often still free as a .com.tr or a direct .tr. A direct .tr gives you a shorter address, like example.tr instead of example.com.tr; however, in the initial allocation, .tr names for well-known brands went to their existing holders first, so many familiar names are already registered.
You can check availability one extension at a time on the domain lookup by extension pages.
Brand protection
Leaving the other extension free lets competitors or bad actors grab an address that looks like yours. In particular:
- If customers mix up the extension when typing your email address, their emails can end up at someone else's domain.
- Scammers can register a look-alike domain and send fake invoices to your customers.
So it's good practice to register the extensions that matter to your brand together and point the ones you don't use to your main address with a permanent (301) redirect.
Renewal rules and periods
The two extensions follow different expiry rules:
- .com: After expiry comes a grace period that varies by registrar, then a 30-day period in which the domain can be recovered for an extra fee, then a 5-day deletion queue. Details: when do expired domains drop.
- .com.tr: Renewable at the normal price for the first 60 days, not renewable for the next 30, deleted at the end of day 90. Details: what happens when a .com.tr domain expires.
.com domains can be renewed for up to ten years, .tr domains for up to five.
Comparison table
| .com | .com.tr | .tr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Verisign (under ICANN rules) | TRABİS (BTK) | TRABİS (BTK) |
| Documents | Not required | Not required | Not required |
| Perception | Global, familiar | Local, established | Local, short |
| Search engines | Not tied to a country | Türkiye signal | Türkiye signal |
| Finding a free name | Hard | Relatively easy | Varies |
| Longest registration | 10 years | 5 years | 5 years |
TRABİS is the .tr registry run by BTK, Türkiye's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA).
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a company to register a .com.tr? No. Under TRABİS, .com.tr is one of the extensions allocated without documents, and individuals can apply too. Still, using details that fit the domain's purpose, and company details if it's for a company, prevents ownership problems later.
If I register both, which should I use? Pick one as your main address and use it everywhere. Point the other to it with a permanent (301) redirect. That way search engines index a single address, and users reach the right site whichever extension they type.
Should I register a domain with Turkish characters? They are technically possible, but most users type addresses without them, and some email systems have trouble with them. If you register one, using the version without special characters as your main address is usually more practical.
Are new extensions (.shop, .app, .online) trustworthy? They follow ICANN rules and are technically as reliable as .com. Perception varies by extension and industry; some are common on spam sites, so email filters may scrutinize them more.
Is a direct .tr or a .com.tr better? A direct .tr is shorter and more modern; .com.tr is more familiar to users. If your name is free in both, registering both and choosing one as the main address gets you brevity and recognition together.
Can I change the extension later? Yes, but plan carefully. After moving your site to the new domain, redirect every old page to its counterpart with a permanent (301) redirect, and update your email addresses and outside service accounts. Keep renewing the old domain for at least a few years; if it expires, the redirects vanish and someone else can take the address.
After you decide
Whichever extension you choose, tracking the expiry date and turning on auto-renewal is the easiest way to protect your brand. If you hold your name under several extensions, add them all to NicFollow to see them in one list with separate reminders for each. Create a free account.