Domain names; .com .co.uk .uk etc

[JJWinst]

Hi all,

Interested to hear your opinions on domains - there's so many extensions now as mentioned in the title amongst others and I'd like to hear opinions on whether a long domain using .com is 'preferred' or 'better' to a shorter domain with a .uk or .site extension.

E.G

www.brand.site

or

www.brandcompany.com

What's the benefits of both?

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Go with 2nd option. First option is great if you want to spend all day long explaining people that new domain extension exist and cause confusion

 

[jacobc]

I would agree, start with the classics i.e. .com / .co.uk and then register any others you fancy just to hold onto them.

 

[gpietersz]

I used to own a .info because it sounded good (it made sense with the word before it) and several people said things like "so its sitemand.info.com"

I do not think a .com is better than a .co.uk.

You can now register plain .uk domains, but I think those confuse people too.

 

[JJWinst]

Thanks guys. What if the .com isn’t available? (I know it’s ideal for everything to be available but it never is. My brand name isn’t trade marked and the .com is used for an entirely different purpose)

secondly is there any organic ranking benefit of .com?

 

[fisicx]

If you can’t get the com get the .co.uk

there is no ranking advantage in having the .com

 

[Bob Morgan]

BE AWARE that some of our 'Colonial Cousins' have an aversion to using the 'U' and the 'K' keys! -Isn't it strange that there are so few '.co.us' Website Addresses?

 

[gpietersz]

Isn't it strange that there are so few '.co.us' Website Addresses?

The reason for that is the history of the .us domain rules. For a long time you could only register domains for a locality (example.locality.state.us) so any business operating nationally had to use a .com, and even local businesses did not really want such long full domain names.

It was one of the very few things (only serious one?) Jon Postel messed up when he was running the system. He certainly did a much better job than ICANN with the shenanigans around .org etc.

 

[Karimbo]

I like to get a .com and .co.uk matching pair.

You dont want to lose business from type in traffic.

 

[crackerjackcommerce]

I can tell you what we were told many years ago: have a short memorable name in both .com and .co.uk.

However much has changed since our webmaster told us that! Hence I would bear it in mind but take advice from current knowledge. Depending on your business much web traffic these days will come from a google search or inbound link i.e. social media, google my business, PPC ad etc in which case having something memorable is less important IMHO.

 

[zomex]

I personally feel that .com is king and will be for the forceable future but it will also depend on your business type and target market.

As time goes on users will be more used to using the newer extensions such as .site. But for now .com and local TLDs such as .co.uk should take priority.

 

[Karimbo]

I can tell you what we were told many years ago: have a short memorable name in both .com and .co.uk.

However much has changed since our webmaster told us that! Hence I would bear it in mind but take advice from current knowledge. Depending on your business much web traffic these days will come from a google search or inbound link i.e. social media, google my business, PPC ad etc in which case having something memorable is less important IMHO.

Unfortunately, unless you have deep pockets, you an get short or memorable, not both.

So you can get either bottlr.com or bigbottlecompany.com

 

[Solly]

From experience, unless there is a specific reason to use one of the esoteric TLDs the .com or co.uk work best.

If you are in a specific area, such as cloud software another TLD like .cloud would work

 

[Awinner2]

COM is still the universal TLD. If your business is purely UK focussed then CO.UK is fine. The domain TLD has no relevance for ranking it is only for searchers' perception.

 

[anon327046]

Hi all,

Interested to hear your opinions on domains - there's so many extensions now as mentioned in the title amongst others and I'd like to hear opinions on whether a long domain using .com is 'preferred' or 'better' to a shorter domain with a .uk or .site extension.


What's the benefits of both?

COM is still the universal TLD. If your business is purely UK focussed then CO.UK is fine. The domain TLD has no relevance for ranking it is only for searchers' perception.

What you need to bear in mind is how the likes of Google will see and rank your domain name. Using dot com will IMO rank better than all others but of course most names have already been used. You also need your domain name to be memorable or your repeat clients won't remember.

 

[Awinner2]

What you need to bear in mind is how the likes of Google will see and rank your domain name. Using dot com will IMO rank better than all others but of course most names have already been used. You also need your domain name to be memorable or your repeat clients won't remember.

The TLD has no relevance in Google or any other search engine's ranking factor. What is on the website pages plus backlinks and many other ranking factors will determine where the site ranks, Although many memorable dot-coms have been registered, there are currently around 75,000 deleted .com domains ready to buy each day. assuming that one suits your needs.

 

[gpietersz]

Using dot com will IMO rank better than all others

Evidence? Citation.

 

[bijutoha]

To really understand what domain extensions mean and where they came?
.uk sounds perfect for local businesses! On the other side, a ".com" domain is an international domain, It is targeting an international customer base. Such as .org domain makes sense, It should only be used for non-profit organizations.

I recommend .com domain name extension for most websites, although it is somewhat a bit longer!

 

[JJWinst]

Hi all,

Thank you for participating in this thread. Just to update you; the .com I really want is owned by a restaurant in the US who are looking to sell this domain but they want a price outside of my budget.

The domain is 1 word which is used in the english language daily so you can understand the potential here.

However.. the .uk domain has become available (I'm sure I checked a while ago and it I believe it would have been offered to the .com holder but hasn't been taken)

My questions is; If I register the .uk domain will I be able to use it freely? It's quite expensive (in the thousands) so I wouldn't want to invest in it to find that the .com holder could take it from me?

Thanks in advance.

 

[fisicx]

It’s quite expensive (in the thousands) so I wouldn't want to invest in it to find that the .com holder could take it from me?

They can’t take it from you. Nor is it likely they will complain about you using it. But they might.

Even if the one word is commonly used that still doesn’t make worth the asking price. Unless you plan to market this word and not the business.

 

[JJWinst]

Ok thanks. It's just the subtle difference of having www.brand.uk as opposed to www.brandword.co.uk or www.brand-word.com for example. I don't intend to pay the asking price right now but I'll keep my eye on it.

 

[Ecommerce&MailOrderGuy]

Always worth chasing the .com.
In the current climate the restaurant owner may be looking to cash in?
We pursued the owner of our .com owner in the states - they retired and had actually changed the name of their trading business away. Think we paid about $1000 for the domain. We've never done anything with the domain - must have had it 10 years now - but it felt the right move. It prevents competitors buying it I suppose. Who knows? Might be nice to try running a US sideline (not for the faint hearted I'd guess)