.me Domain (Meaning, Price, Popularity, Use Cases)

When you try to register a .com domain you quickly understand that is hard to find a good and available one. Is a .me domain a good alternative?

I hope that by the end of the post I will help you to make a decision. So, I will provide you information about everything you should know about the .me domain.

What Does .me Domain Mean ( + Brief History)?

Typically .me is a country code top-level domain but this is not its main use case. It is the first option for companies/individuals based on Montenegro but from the first moment, there were no major geographical restrictions. Only geographical limitations are for these third-level domains: .edu.me (only for education entities in Montenegro), .ac.me  (only for universities and other academic organizations), and .gov.me (for government entities in Montenegro).

.me has a meaning in so many different languages, that’s why it has a global appeal. Some examples of “me” meaning (except English) are in the Spanish language – I, Dutch – the same as English, Czech – the same as English, Italian – the same as English. Some people associate this domain extension to the middle east too! You can create some catchy combinations so it works for branding reasons too. Some good combinations are join.me , trust.me, love.me and so many others.

In September of 2007, the Government of Montenegro assigned the registry (administration) of .me to doMEn d.o.o. Just to remind that a registry acts as a wholesaler and takes a fee for every domain registration. In the meantime, it provides the necessary technical and administrative services needed in return for that fee.

The first .me domains were registered in Montenegrian language in March 2008. They are those 3: predsjednik.me (president) , skupstina.me (parliament) and vlada.me (government) .

In May 2008 doMEn started a “sunrise period” where all possible trademark holders could claim their .me domain. For example, google could claim google.me before this domain becomes available to the general public.

In 2 months (July – August 2008) the sunrise period took place. doMEn auctioned the most brandable and catchy .me domains such as insure.me and sync.me. The total revenue for those auctions was more than 2 million dollars.

After that period the domains were available on a first-come, first-served basis. Right now there are around 1 million .me domains registered. We read that in google domains :

.me has a personal meaning in multiple languages, gathering a community of almost a million people and businesses who are building their brands online.

https://domains.google/tld/me/

How Do I Get A .me Domain?

Most of the well-known registrars offer the .me domain for their users. I am presenting you a table with the exact prices:

*Please check also the links for any updates in prices: Godaddy Pricing, Namecheap Pricing, Dynadot Pricing, Namesilo Pricing

Are .me Domains Good?

I already explained some good characteristics of .me but i will recap here too. Here are some advantages and disadvantages for .me domain:

Advantages

1.) Shorter extension than .com which leads to shorter URLs as a result. join.me vs joinme.com.

2.) The possibility to create clever and playful domain hacks such as feel.me and join.me. These options can help on branding and overall memorability of the domain name.

3.) Better prices and more available domain names compared with the equivalent .com versions.

Disadvantages

1.) People will add .com in many cases if they don’t remember the domain ending.

2.) Not as trusty as .com in the eyes of the online average users.

3.) If there is already a big company with the .com version within the same industry probably you will lose traffic to them.

I have created a table that will help you to understand in which case .me domain is a good alternative and when it is not.

*I choose yes to .com for each different case since I believe rarely a .com is a bad option. On the other hand, I choose yes to .me too when I see it as a viable option.

Is .me Domain Good For SEO?

Google has stated many times in the past that it doesn’t give a competitive advantage to any domain extension. Although country code top-level domains have a slight benefit for local online users. For example .fr domains (for France) have a slight advantage compared to .com for France-based users.

Especially for .me, Google has stated that treats .me as a Generic Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD). The meaning of this category is that Google knows most of the sites use .me to target global audiences rather than the Montenegrian audience. *Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192#generic-domains

Google uses more than 200+ factors to rank a website and having a .com vs .me doesn’t give you an advantage for international audiences. Some of the factors that Google uses are quality content (mainly) and external links from reputable websites.

Here are some more links if you want to find out how Google ranks websites: https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/

*All the factors that google considers for search rankings: https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors

Are .me Domains Safe?

A site is not safe based on the domain extension. A hacker can use any top-level domain such as .com, . net , .org etc . So .me domain can be used either for good reason or for a bad reason. Don’t forget to check any website for online reputation such as comments on forums, social media, and especially if you can find reputation signs on site itself. For example, if you can find a legal company name, the owner’s bio, phone, or email is always a good sign.

Successful .me Domains

A lot of big companies have registered a .me for their services. The most obvious example that is currently in use is paypal.me .

Here are some other examples too, from bigger and smaller companies:

Site: join.me, Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/join-me/

Site: about.me, Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/aboutdotme

Site: id.me, Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/id.me/

Site: see.me, Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/SeeMe

Name: Wellpoint Group Limited, Site: well.me, Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellpoint-group-limited/

Why (Some) .me Domains Are So Expensive?

Typically for a new .me registration, you will pay something between $3 – 20$. This would be the price if the domain name is available. If someone else has registered the domain name the prices can vary a lot.

These are the premium domain names that are already owned by other users and have a price or “make an offer” tag. For each domain name extension, you will find this kind of premium domains. Short and common keywords tend to be more expensive especially the ones with commercial intent.

Here is a table that I found from https://namebio.com/ with the most expensive .me domains of all time.

Final Words

I hope that the post helped you in your decision or at least you educated yourself about .me top-level domain. I have created some other posts for alternative domain extensions so take a look: .co Domain (Registration, Price, Popularity, Use Cases), .io Domain (Registration, Price, Popularity, Use Cases).

Don’t forget to share on social media, it would be a huge help for me!