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The Role of Special Characters in .ee Domains: Benefits, Challenges, and Best Practices

The registration of .ee domains with full Estonian letters became possible in 2011. Today, more than 4,500 domain names—around 2.6% of all registered .ee domains—contain the letters ä, õ, ö, or ü. Using special characters in domain names has several advantages:

• Linguistic Accuracy: Replacing letters with similar-looking alternatives can change the meaning of a word or name. For example, parimköök.ee (best kitchen) differs significantly from parimkook.ee (best cake), and söö.ee (eat) is not the same as soo.ee (bog).

• Building Credibility: Customers recognize familiar domain names at a glance. Using a variation of the intended name can raise doubts and potentially result in lost customers. However, since many users are accustomed to replacing "ö" with "o" in domain names, it is safest for a company to register both versions.

• Search Engine Visibility: Search engines consider punctuation and exact word matches when displaying results. This means that domains using special characters can achieve better visibility for relevant searches.

Despite these advantages, the use of special characters in domain names comes with technical limitations. Domains containing diacritical marks use Punycode encoding, meaning they are converted into a format such as "xn--domeen-n4a.ee". For example, our own website päev.internet.ee is converted into xn--pev-qla.internet.ee.

While modern web browsers and major email services like Gmail and Outlook support Punycode, some older systems and software may not display these domains correctly.

As a domain registry, our role is to manage the domain name registration process through accredited registrars and maintain the necessary DNS infrastructure. However, ensuring compatibility with dot-letter domains falls on app developers and service providers. Before deploying a domain with special characters, we strongly recommend testing its compatibility with your systems.

Dot-letter domains provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen brand identity, but they may also introduce technical and usability challenges. The best approach is to register your domain with and without special characters. This prevents others from registering a similar domain, ensuring better brand protection and user accessibility.

Register a .ee domain with one of our accredited service providers today: https://www.internet.ee/registrar-portal/accredited-registrars.