Should I get a .co.uk or a .com domain?

by | Feb 18, 2015 | 0 comments

We are regularly asked if you should register a .co.uk or a .com domain so here’s an FAQ just for you!

  • If you are predominantly selling to customers in the UK then you might want to use a .co.uk domain because customers do consider this when considering how relevant your business is. For example someone looking for UK-only based business might automatically think if you have a .co.uk then your site is more relevant than a someone with a .com website address.
  • If you are attempting to sell world-wide then a .com domain is definitely the right option. Someone in Australia or USA might not think your business is as relevant to them if they see your website has a .co.uk address.

Should I BUY Both Domains?

Let’s assume both the .co.uk and the .com domains for your business are available. Now you’re wondering if you should buy both, so here are some things to consider:

Brand Protection

Let’s say you set up your lovely new shop on mynewshop.com and then along comes someone else and sets up a similar business on mynewshop.co.uk. Unfortunately this happens a lot and you might want to consider investing the tiny annual fee in registering the other domain, just for peace of mind and your business brand protection. Let’s face it, large solicitor fees are not something any of us ever want to have to deal with but if someone else is trying to leech off the success of your business brand then this might be unavoidable. You do offer yourself some degree of protection if you simply snap the domain up and register it yourself before anything ever becomes an issue.

We took this decision at Elan Creative and registered the .com as well as the .co.uk domain. It’s easy to forward the domain not in use, so that it automatically routes to your website.

Language / Geographical Region Targeting

Bigger companies might want to expand into different geographical regions and employ TARGETED marketing to those countries, including serving their website in different languages. You might want to be considered even more relevant to your customers by creating websites JUST for them, e.g. mynewshop.fr and mynewshop.de might cater to customers in France and Germany with each website being displayed in French and German respectively.

Of course there’s no language difference in .co.uk and .com but you might well want to target your marketing efforts in different ways than just switching language.

Retain FULL Control of Your Business Domains

We advise you to retain FULL control of your business domain names as they are one of the most valuable assets for any online business. We offer domain registration service which allows you to retain full control because we register your domain with YOUR details and not ours. This means you have full, sole access to your domains which  you can even transfer away from us at any point should you wish to do so.

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