Do you think there is there much difference between having a .com, .co.uk, .org after your domain name>

I've been looking at registering a name and sadly the .com version is gone but could go with .co.uk or .org.

I could change the name slightly to get the .com but feel this is a bit of a comprimise.

Thoughts?

Many thanks

Paul

 

Hi Paul, it depends on the aim of the website. I have a lot of sites and always buy both. The problem you have is, if its a commercial site, most people type .com naturally but those who type .co.uk will go to what may be a competitors site.

IMO its best to alter the name slightly and buy both .co.uk and .com to ensure all customers find you with no problems, then issue a 301 redirect to one of them so all traffic is served by the .co.uk or .com instead of both.

 

Thanks Stu, can you recomend anyone for registering and hosting? I've done the usual searches but I've never really looked into it before and it appears to be a bit of a mindfield.

Thanks

 

Yes. 1and1.co.uk are excellent. I have over 30 sites hosted with them across 3 different accounts with no problems at all.

 

Many thanks Stu

 

Actually triple thanks with a cherry on top as I just got 2 domains for a tenner

 

although you've done it now, always go for a .com!

 

I have - got both the .com and .co.uk

 

 

123reg.co.uk

 

I search the web for products and solutions a lot as part of my job and I tend to automatically assume co.uk for sites of companies in britain. I don't know if that's much of help but I tend to find what I need.

 

That can count against you on UK biased search engines such as www.google.co.uk if you intend to market mainly in the uk.

 

Your more than welcome Paul, if you need any more advice feel free to drop me a mail or continue on here as i owe you one from years ago pal.

 

top advice from stu

 

Thanks Stu - doesn't seem years ago

 

Judging by my waistline again, it had better be mate.

 

I always buy the .com, .co.uk & net, checkout the amount of complains on http://www.webhostingtalk.com about 1and1 before you sign up with them.

 

I did, and over the years i have used a few. 1and1 have been excellent and i have quite a lot of sites and forums with them. Their backoffice stuff is very comprehensive too.

 

Never go for cheap web hosting!!

You may aswell buy 2 blocks of Lard to use as Brake Pads! Your just asking for trouble.

I've been with transnexis.com in the past but left after they insisted I owed them a considerable amount of money the proceeded to take it without my consent. Currently with Pipeten, based in Sunny Sheffield, they are good but don't have telephone support. To be honest I don't feel it is of any detriment to their service as only big hosts have phone lines and they are always very busy.

Tim

 

Haven't looked at hosting yet, just wanted to secure the names for now. Thats the next step.

 

True mate, but then again the average joe uses google.com anyway! Pro's and con's to every angle I suppose.

 

Not True - It only accounts against you if you are not hosted on a UK based web server.

For example, If you buy a .co.uk, you can host it anywhere in the world and there are no problems receiving Google UK results, However with a .com, which is a non-geotargetted TLD (Top Lebel Domain) your location results are based on the server which hosts your websites IP Address.

Ill use our website as an example:

We have both the .co.uk and the .com of the AccomplishedSEO brand, Now as we are hosted on a server based in the UK, we find we could use either of the domain names, However as I am targetting predominantly UK Based Companies, I choose to use the .co.uk domain name.

As regarding the redirects, A 301 is a HTTP status code for a redirect, there are many of these, all starting with 3 as well as others redirect forms but im not going to bore you with those details. a 301 is a permanent redirect from one domain to another, again looking at an example,

If you was to type in Accomplishedseo.com, you would still find my website, but look at the address bar (where you typed the .com address in, it is now a .co.uk address) This is now redirected properly.

 

The Google .com results you see in the UK are completely different to the google.com you would see in say, america. Even for the same keywords. Whilst seeing a more worldwide resultset, you will still find it is tinged towards UK based sites over the worldwide general resultset

 

You can switch google to look for what you want, for example I use it often as if I were in the UK, and my employee who is tasked with reviewing competiton companies in neighborigng countries may use it as google.sk giving mostly results from Slovakia.

 

Fair enough Must admit I don't know much about search engine optimisation

 

Does that not mean that it "can" count against you then as I said?

 

apologies for the late reply

it is very much dependent on the domain - i agree it is possible it can count against you if you have registered a .co.uk. I was just trying to clarify all the options for Paul so he could make a well educated decision

 

So my actual reply was 100% correct then?

 

i use the cheap dreamhost for hosting and have NEVER had any issues. But im launching a site soon and im not to sure if they are competent enough for business hosting ?

 

I've found dreamhost to be shit, slow and unreliable and so have a few friends.

I've personally hosted sites that do in excess of 2 million page views/day so give me a shout if you need anything

 

If you wish to trade mainly in the UK then I would use the co.uk if you are planning on trading internationally use the .com

I went for the .com with 105speed and although it gives a nice short address it does attract interest from all over the world, which would be fine if the people expressing the interest actually spent a second or two to read the first line of our home page to say we are UK based and then took a second to think what that means for shipping of goods and exchange rates etc.

Lots of people assume a company using a .com is in America or somehow not really tied to any particular country at all, its just out there.