The Trinidad and Tobago Network Information Centre (TTNIC) manages the registration of domain names within the TT (Trinidad and Tobago) Top Level Domain.

I’ve observed that few clients ever entertain the notion of website with a .tt extension, so much so it’s almost like it doesn’t even exist. The only time they’ll use the ‘tt’ is to slap it on a .com domain when the name they want is already taken and voilà they have a localized domain!

There are many advantages of using our local extension, but it all boils down to your website objectives and your preferences.

Personally, I’ve never entertained the notion myself for Forward Multimedia as I don’t see it giving me any competitive advantage at this time, which is the only reason why I’ll recommend it to my clients.

The only time Trinis use the ‘tt’ is to slap it on a .com domain when their name is already taken and voilà they have a localized domain!

It’s a fact that search engines differentiate between country code top level domains (ccTLDs) and generic top level domain names (gTLDs). Generally, I recommend a .tt domain to client when I see their site giving out a ‘national’ vibe, i.e. when I think it would helpful to its branding.

I think our local extension would be very helpful for websites that need to project a distinct Trinidad & Tobago persona, for example tourism sites or sites that have a national appeal like organizations, associations, schools and non-profits. People would normally expect that these sites would be .tt, and perhaps have more confidence in them because of the impression that the site is really speaking to them.

Examples of sites I did like these are:

• DARTT.ORG.TT– Dementia Awareness & Research of Trinidad & Tobago. Visit site

It’s probably the first time you’re seeing the term ‘domain hack’, I’m sure. It’s where you use the extension as the ending part of your domain name. And you probably don’t know this but the founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg has done such a hack for his personal website some time ago in 2008 www.ma.tt. YES OUR .TT EXTENSION!

Of course you’ll have to get creative as not many words end in TT.

Search engines call it ‘geotargeting’ and Google says “Use of a ccTLD is generally a strong signal for users since it explicitly specifies a single country in an unmistakable way.”. This also means that it will rank higher in Google’s country-based result, namely Google.tt— in theory, because the .tt extension is but one factor considered when calculating your site’s final ranking.

This means a high rank is not a foregone conclusion nor automatic by simply having .tt, i.e., you still have to do the work… BUT any edge is still helpful, especially in competitive industries.

Fortunately, there isn’t much competition in the short term, but in the long term there’ll definitely be. And if you’re thinking long term, there’s no time like the present.