The .GR ccTLD is open for registration to Greek and foreign entities, which makes it an excellent instrument for promoting your services on this conservative market.
Learn more about the benefits of offering .GR domain names on your store from our post.
.GR – some history
The .GR domain extension was launched back in 1989. It is administered by GR-Hostmaster – a department of the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology.
The .GR domain registration process is supervised by the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT).
For registrars’ sake, the GR-Hostmaster registry employed the EPP protocol, which is approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
GR-Hostmaster paid special attention to the ability to register domain names containing Greek letters such as όνομα.gr. And indeed, such an option has been supported since July 4, 2005.
Greece even applied for the internationalized version of .GR – .ελ, but it was not until 2014 that it was approved of by ICANN. The latter had concerns that the visual similarity with .EA might confuse users.
The extension, however, is not open to the public as yet.
Why offer/register .GR domains?
Since ancient times, Greece has been a nation of great minds and independent thinkers.
Those vibes, along with the Greeks’ strong sense of identity and self respect, have been safely preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day.
The collective spirit of Greece and the Greeks’ respect for history and culture have cultivated a conservative society where ‘everything Greek’ matters most.
That could explain why Greek individuals prefer visiting websites ending in .GR instead of .COM and reading web content written in Greek rather than in English, for example.
By offering .GR domains on your store, you’ll show respect for this specific culture and commitment to providing the best online experience for your Greek customers.
Local search engines also give ranking priority to sites that use .GR domains, which makes them even more attractive to sell.
Apart from being an immediate icebreaker for your potential Greek audience, the .GR extension is also short and easy to remember, which can easily help your customers’ sites stand out in the crowd.
Greece’s ccTLD will help you target Greek locals, small businesses and hotel operators, fans of the Hellenic history and culture, etc.
The contribution of tourism to Greece’s GDP is enormous. That said, .GR represents a great instrument for marketing the country’s history and mesmerizing beauty.
.GR – registration requirements
.GR domains are wide open for registration for individuals and organizations from around the world.
The minimum registration period is 2 years.
Here is a list of the .GR domain requirements to take into account when registering a .GR domain:
- should contain from 3 to 60 characters;
- should begin and end with a letter/number;
- should use the English character set and may contain letters (i.e., a-z, A-Z), numbers (i.e. 0-9) and dashes (-) or a combination of these;
- should not contain a dash in the third and fourth positions (e.g. www.ab- -cd.gr);
- should not include a space (e.g. www.ab cd.gr).
Currently, the .GR domain zone does not allow for the information of the domain owner to be hidden from the public eye. All information (name, address, email, etc.) will be displayed in the public WHOIS database.
How to enable the .GR extension on your store?
.GR has been enabled on behalf of all partners of ours who have not made changes to their TLD listings.
All you will need to do is simply move it to the desired position in the domain search form.
If you’ve made any updates to your domain portfolio so far, you will need to enable the .GR extension on your store from the Domain Offers section of your Reseller Control Panel: