Domain Names: The Complete Guide to Choosing, Buying and Protecting Yours in 2026

In 2025, France registered 853,000 new .fr domain names, an all-time record according to Afnic, the French domain registry, pushing the total past 4.3 million active .fr domains by the end of the year and to 4.45 million by May 2026. Over the same period, unaided awareness of the .fr extension jumped ten points in a single year, to 85.2 percent. These figures tell a simple story: a domain name is no longer a technical detail chosen in five minutes before launching a website, it is a brand asset that French business owners are finally taking seriously.

On the ground, however, many small and medium business owners still pick their domain name in a rush, without checking whether it is available as a registered trademark, without anticipating the misspelled variants that bad actors could exploit, and without understanding its real weight in search rankings. This guide walks through verified data to help you choose, buy and protect your company's domain name in 2026.

Why a domain name is a strategic choice, not a technical detail

A domain name is often the very first point of contact between a prospect and your company, before they even see your website. According to a perception study conducted by MV2 Group for Afnic in late 2025 among 2,000 French consumers, 67 percent of internet users consider a company website the most trustworthy channel for buying online, far ahead of marketplaces (17 percent) and social media (6 percent). And 73 percent believe a website allows them to research a brand seriously, compared with only 48 percent for review platforms.

In other words, before judging your offer, visitors judge your web address. A poorly chosen name, hard to remember or perceived as unreliable, can create friction from the very first impression, regardless of how good your website actually is.

.fr, .com or a newer extension: how to decide

The global domain name market counted 395 million registrations by the end of 2025, up 6.2 percent year over year according to Afnic's Domain Name Observatory, a sharp acceleration compared with just 1.5 percent growth in 2024. Three broad families share this market, each with very different momentum.

.com: the international reference

With 165 million registrations, .com still holds 42 percent of the global market and a high renewal rate of 78 percent. It remains the default choice if your business targets customers outside France, or if you want to secure your brand internationally alongside your .fr.

.fr: the safe choice for anchoring a business in France

Country-code extensions (ccTLDs), which include .fr, account for 142 million domain names worldwide, or 36 percent of the market. In France specifically, Afnic's 2025 "Réussir avec le web" study found that 90 percent of companies with a website own their domain name, split roughly 56-57 percent .fr versus 37-38 percent .com. An earlier Afnic study among small and medium businesses offers even more telling benchmarks: 70.9 percent of business owners name .fr unprompted, 61 percent hold a "very good image" of it, 11 points ahead of .com, and 88 percent believe .fr effectively conveys French expertise, including internationally.

New generation extensions (.paris, .shop, .store, .app…): the fastest-growing segment

This is the most surprising statistic in the market: new extensions (nTLDs) account for only 14 percent of the global market (54 million names), yet they are growing 28.9 percent year over year and alone drive 56 percent of the market's net growth in 2025. For a local or niche business, an extension like .paris, .bzh or .shop can reinforce a precise geographic or sector positioning, alongside a primary .fr or .com, rather than replacing it.

7 concrete criteria for choosing a good domain name

Beyond the extension itself, the structure of the name shapes how memorable and commercially effective it is:

• Short and easy to pronounce: a name that rolls off the tongue spreads better than one that needs spelling out.
• No hyphens or ambiguous numbers: a forgotten hyphen or a digit confused with its spelled-out version quietly loses direct traffic.
• Consistent with your brand: the domain name should remain legible even without your logo or visual identity around it.
• Checked against trademark registers before registering: a name available as a .fr is not automatically free of trademark rights, so the reverse check matters too.
• Available across social platforms: consistency between your URL and your social handles makes your brand easier to recognize.
• Built to last: avoid a name too tightly tied to a temporary offer or a single location if your company is meant to grow beyond it.
• Planned ahead, not rushed: Afnic's 2025 study notes that naming strategy remains "basic" for most small and medium businesses, for lack of upfront thinking about branding and search visibility.

Protecting your domain name: the step too often skipped

Buying a domain name is not enough to secure it. In July 2022, Afnic had to freeze 967 .fr domain names registered in bulk by a single holder based in Indonesia, through a German registrar, to imitate well-known brands and public organizations (close variants of major retailers and public agencies). The same holder had registered more than 13,000 domain names using the same pattern since 2016, according to Le Monde Informatique. Afnic's procedure calls for a freeze within 7 days and a block within 30 days at most if no justification is provided.

This kind of typosquatting remains a real threat, while Afnic's 2025 "Réussir avec le web" study reveals that only 5 percent of small and medium businesses secure the misspelled variants of their own domain name. A few simple habits reduce the risk: registering close variants and the main extensions around your primary name, monitoring for similar domain registrations, and knowing your recourse in case of a dispute. In France, Afnic runs two procedures that let you act without going to court: SYRELI and PARL Expert. Unlike the international UDRP procedure, reserved for registered trademarks, these French procedures also cover company names, trade names, personal names or an earlier domain name, which makes them particularly well suited to small and medium businesses that have not always filed a trademark.

Domain names and SEO: what is true, and what is overstated

Contrary to a still widespread belief, a domain name is not a search ranking lever on its own. A geographic extension like .fr is one signal among many for Google, alongside content language, server location or IP geolocation, never an isolated, decisive factor. A .fr will not lift a poorly structured website, just as a .com does not penalize a well-built site targeting the French market.

What really matters is the overall consistency between the domain name, the website's content and its technical architecture. An effective search strategy relies on far more than an extension: page structure, loading speed, editorial quality and internal linking all weigh considerably more in search results. Our article on page loading speed as a ranking factor details the technical levers that actually make a difference.

Budget and best practices after purchase

Expect to pay around 15 euros per year for a .fr domain, within a typical range of 10 to 20 euros depending on the registrar, since the extension is generally sold 30 to 40 percent cheaper than .com at the wholesale level. A modest budget, worth weighing against a more concerning figure from Afnic's 2025 study: 66 percent of French small and medium businesses now spend less than 300 euros a year on their entire digital presence, a sign of budget tightening that makes it all the more important not to sacrifice fundamentals like protecting your domain name.

Once you own the domain name, a few good practices avoid unpleasant surprises:

• Turn on automatic renewal so you never lose your name to a missed deadline.
• Use your own domain for professional email addresses: Afnic's 2025 study shows that only 56 percent of small and medium businesses still use their domain name for this purpose, even though an address at @yourcompany.fr strengthens credibility in every business exchange.
• Choose reliable hosting, since a well-chosen domain cannot compensate for a slow server: see our article on how budget hosting hurts your business.
• Check your ownership records (Whois) regularly to stay reachable and prove ownership if a dispute arises.

If your current domain name no longer matches your positioning, changing it is possible, provided you prepare carefully so you do not lose the search rankings you have already built: our article on how to prepare a website redesign without losing your organic rankings walks through the process, as does our guide on auditing a website before a redesign. And before even choosing a name, understanding how your competitors are positioned can guide your decision: see our article on competitive analysis of a website.

For full support, from naming strategy through to launch, the Majoli team offers website creation support across France, or you can simply reach out through our contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Should I buy several extensions for the same name?

It is not mandatory, but it is a recommended practice for companies that want to limit the risk of typosquatting. Securing at least the .fr and .com of your primary name, plus the most obvious misspelled variants, remains the most accessible protection, even though only 5 percent of French small and medium businesses do so today, according to Afnic.

How long does it take to register a domain name?

Registering an available name is nearly instant through an accredited registrar, typically effective within minutes. Checking beforehand whether the name is available as a trademark, however, deserves more time and should come before any domain registration.

Does the domain name have to match the company's registered legal name?

No, and it is not always desirable either. A domain name can correspond to a commercial brand distinct from the legal company name, as long as this consistency is clear to your customers and documented legally. What matters most is coherence between the domain name, the registered trademark and the visual identity.

Can I change domain names after launching my website without losing my rankings?

Yes, provided you set up permanent (301) redirects from every old URL to the new one, and notify search engines of the change. It is a delicate operation that needs to be prepared in advance, as detailed in our article on redesigning a website without losing search rankings.

What should I do in case of a domain name dispute (copied brand, typosquatting)?

In France, Afnic runs two procedures that let you act without going to court: SYRELI and PARL Expert. They cover trademarks, but also company names, trade names or personal names, and can result in the disputed domain name being deleted or transferred.