Useful Information

.za Domain Zone: Data-Driven Analysis for Investors & SEOs

The .za country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) represents South Africa's digital identity. With over 720.3K+ registered domains, it offers a mature yet evolving market for domain investors, SEO specialists, and developers. Understanding its composition—from average length (10.75 characters) to character frequency (top letter 'e' appears 797 822 times)—is critical for strategic decisions. This data-driven analysis covers historical context, current metrics, and 2026 trends to help you navigate the .za landscape effectively.

Historical Context of .za

Launched in the early 1990s, .za is managed by the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA). Its growth mirrors South Africa's internet adoption, now hosting 720.3K+ domains.

Infographics for .za

720,277
Total Domains
+0
New Today
−0
Dropped Today

Domain length distribution by number of characters

Domain Length Distribution: Key Metrics

The average domain length is 10.75 characters, with the most common length being 9 characters (65 737 domains). Maximum length is 63. A representative domain like 000.za (3 chars) illustrates typical patterns.


Average domain name length

10.75 characters
Representative domain: 000.za
Representative name length: 3

Character Composition: Letters, Digits, and Hyphens

Letters dominate: 92.10% of domains are purely alphabetic (663 389). Digits appear in 0.49% of all characters, and only 0.08% of domains are numeric-only. Hyphens are present in 4.84% of domains (34 829).

Popular Domain Zones

.tech .inc .realty .fun .co .services .dev .il .news .community .life .cafe .me .tr .no .cn .chat .ch .de .live

Character frequency in domain names

# Symbol Occurrences
1 e 797822
2 a 682550
3 i 561854
4 s 561455
5 r 539777
6 o 536931
7 t 531881
8 n 505278
9 l 393476
10 c 348451
11 u 244802
12 d 243253
13 m 242319
14 p 228635
15 g 208189
16 h 206627
17 b 165418
18 f 126041
19 y 124083
20 k 115115
21 v 97167
22 w 96846
23 j 33401
24 z 32976
25 x 31800
26 q 14440
27 2 7715
28 4 7046
29 1 5765
30 3 4116
31 0 3980
32 6 2080
33 5 2010
34 8 1862
35 7 1851
36 9 1394

Top Symbols and Words in .za Domains

The most frequent character is 'e' (797 822 occurrences), while the most common starting letter is 's' (71 980 domains). The top embedded word is 'pro', appearing in 2.90% of all domains (20 853).


Most common first character in domain names

# First char Domains count
1 - 0
2 0 205
3 1 1383
4 2 1104
5 3 1312
6 4 1034
7 5 339
8 6 167
9 7 279
10 8 204
11 9 209
12 a 47208
13 b 45143
14 c 52222
15 d 34052
16 e 29007
17 f 25350
18 g 27142
19 h 23660
20 i 24269
21 j 14386
22 k 20445
23 l 29254
24 m 54968
25 n 21316
26 o 15139
27 p 40756
28 q 3532
29 r 28621
30 s 71980
31 t 47867
32 u 8999
33 v 15788
34 w 21474
35 x 2195
36 y 3902
37 z 5366

Numeric Trends: Digits and Numeric Tokens

Digits account for 0.49% of total characters (37 819). The most common numeric token is '4', found in 4 149 domains. Domains mixing letters and digits represent 2.98% of the zone.


Character distribution in domain names

Vowels (2948042 · 38.06%)
Consonants (4722545 · 60.96%)
Digits (37819 · 0.49%)
Hyphen (38163 · 0.49%)
Other (0 · 0%)

Vowel vs. Consonant Balance

Vowels make up 38.06% of all characters (2 948 042), while consonants account for 60.96% (4 722 545). This balance affects memorability and brandability.


Domain names with numbers and letters

Only numbers (585 · 0.08%)
Only letters (663389 · 92.1%)
Numbers and letters (21474 · 2.98%)
Other (34829 · 4.84%)

Why Statistics Matter for .za Investors

Data on domain length, character frequency, and word usage helps identify premium short domains, avoid hyphens (only 4.84% of domains), and target high-value keywords like 'pro'.


Most frequent word fragments inside domain names

# Word Domains count %
1 pro 20853 2.90
2 go 11730 1.63
3 car 9820 1.36
4 tech 9503 1.32
5 one 8459 1.17
6 my 8043 1.12
7 net 6200 0.86
8 online 4825 0.67
9 web 4307 0.60
10 life 3906 0.54
11 media 3847 0.53
12 shop 3739 0.52
13 lab 3492 0.48
14 app 3337 0.46
15 home 3051 0.42
16 new 2986 0.41
17 dev 2825 0.39
18 market 2536 0.35
19 top 2514 0.35
20 star 2504 0.35

Trends & Insights 2026

Short domains (under 10 chars) will remain premium: only 65 737 domains at the most common length of 9 characters.
The dominance of letter-only domains (92.10%) suggests brandable names are key; numeric domains (0.08%) are niche.
Hyphenated domains (4.84%) are rare and may lose appeal as users prefer clean strings.
The top word 'pro' indicates industry-specific clusters; similar niches may emerge in professional services.
With 7.7M+ total characters, the zone is data-rich for AI and SEO tools analyzing naming patterns.
As South Africa's digital economy grows, .za will see increased demand for localized, short, and memorable domains.

Hyphen usage in domain names

With hyphen (34829 · 4.84%)
Without hyphen (685448 · 95.16%)

Popular numeric tokens in domain names

# Token Domains count
1 4 4149
2 2 3758
3 1 2076
4 3 1889
5 24 1095
6 8 841
7 5 737
8 7 604
9 360 527
10 247 373
11 9 357
12 6 292
13 365 270
14 10 261
15 21 183
16 101 182
17 123 152
18 100 122
19 12 122
20 20 118