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Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 1:08 pm Post subject: .com or ...

Working on an idea for a new site and fortunately the domain name is still free in various formats. Looking for advice on if I should purchase .com, .net, .info, .eu, or .co.uk?

The site will be lifestyle based for a specific target group and in the first instance will be monetised with some advertising and maybe a few small items for sale.

Might want to introduce affiliate marketing at a later stage but early days yet.

All comments on which.... .com etc would be appropriate leaving room for growth if necessary.

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 1:16 pm Post subject:
As a consumer I always prefer .co.uk businesses over .coms of any size. A.

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 1:29 pm Post subject:
Is that a personal thing BA or is there any technical thinking behind it? Also, I understand that hyphens are a bit of a no no even though this would be grammatically correct... any thoughts?

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 1:40 pm Post subject:
It's a personal thing. As for hyphens I have them in my domains, but I also have the unhyphenated versions - and they point to the same Thangs. A.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 6467
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 1:41 pm Post subject:
.com are more expensive and for me make me think of and international company. .co.uk keeps it local, if you will. No difference between .co.uk and .com from a technical point of view.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21298
Location: Ynys Môn

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 1:58 pm Post subject:
It's a matter of preference. Some domains have more restrictions on who can register than others. A .co.uk tends to be the least costly we charge £2.98+VAT per year for 2-10 years compared to £9.99+VAT for a .com.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 13 3:08 pm Post subject:
I've got a mix, the main site is .com, but the PlagueRats one is .co.uk I don't suppose most search engines mind either way as long as the rest of the site is easy for them to search when someone is looking for you

Shane

Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3122
Location: Doha. Is hot.

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 13 4:46 am Post subject:
Only word of warning is that if you're working on something that could be potentially quite lucrative and you don't buy the .com, somebody else will do if you start to find success and will piggyback your efforts (or make a parady website - remember Introducing Monday?). If that's a possibility, it's worth the modest additional expenditure of buying a few variants on the domain name.

earthyvirgo

Joined: 24 Aug 2007
Posts: 7972
Location: creating prints in the loft, Gerlan

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 13 10:42 am Post subject:

Shane wrote:

Only word of warning is that if you're working on something that could be potentially quite lucrative and you don't buy the .com, somebody else will do if you start to find success and will piggyback your efforts (or make a parady website - remember Introducing Monday?). If that's a possibility, it's worth the modest additional expenditure of buying a few variants on the domain name.

I'd agree with that, if both .co.uk and .com are available, grab them both, use one as your primary domain and point the other to the website as well.

EV

Nicky Colour it green

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 8697
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 13 10:54 am Post subject:

yes, I agree - I had the .uk address and then some time after that someone started a charity using colouritgreen.com that was nothing to do with me - but I did get emails intended for them etc and it stressed me out as I felt they could one day attempt to squeeze me out

anyhow, the charity folded, the .com address came free and I took it up. it now points to my .uk address. I wish I had got it in the first place though.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23924
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 13 12:25 pm Post subject:

earthyvirgo wrote:

I'd agree with that, if both .co.uk and .com are available, grab them both, use one as your primary domain and point the other to the website as well.

EV

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21298
Location: Ynys Môn

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 13 2:27 pm Post subject:

As a matter of interest (this gets quite dull) if you have more than one domain pointing to the same web site then do make sure you have the secondary domains doing permanent redirection to the default domain rather than having one web site with multiple domains.

This will prevent search engines from indexing your site multiple times under different domains.

If you're unable to do permanent redirections or your Domain/DNS provider is not willing to do so you can add a canonical directive in your HTML head section for example..

Code:

Code:

as given in the Google guidance notes http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html and also at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_meta_tag

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