Hi. Am setting up a new website and the domain name I am after is not available in .com .co.uk etc but there is availability for .uk.com and .net which would be the best extension to choose? I am running my business in the UK by the way.
Thanks
Sorry have just noticed that .co is also available. Its ok am just querying this has have been researching some of the keywords that are of interest to me in google and most of the sites that appear on the first pages for my keywords are all .com and .co.uk?
[font=verdana]I would steer clear of uk.com, because it’s too easy for people to confuse it with .com or .co.uk and end up at your competitor’s site – so on that basis, .net is a better choice. Likewise .co is in danger of being misread or seen as a typo, so wise to avoid it. The other danger of TLDs like .co is that one day Colombia might decide it doesn’t want the entire world to be using its domains, and start charging lots of money for you to renew – we’ve recently heard of one country that similarly gave out its domains freely and has now been charging thousands of pounds for people outside the country to renew. That’s a scam you don’t want to get caught out by.
In terms of SEO, Google couldn’t care less. As long as it can identify what country your site belongs to (which it can do even if you don’t choose the right country-specific TLD, if you set a location in GWT and everything else sings the same tune), the TLD is irrelevant.
Note that above I said that “.net is a better choice”, but I didn’t say it was a good choice. Unless the other sites that have registered the .com and .co.uk domains of the same name are in a completely unrelated sector, I would always try to avoid going head-to-head with companies that have an existing online presence at a more memorable/recognisable form of the URL. There’s too much of a risk that people will type the wrong one in. Far better to change the domain name slightly so that what you have is unique, and that way you’re less likely to lose customers to your competitors.[/font]
Thanks for that Stevie. Never thought of that regarding .uk.com and .co good point. Think I will go for the .net domain based on what you mentioned.