question .com or .uk Which is best for UK market?

[Cdomains]

I was wondering if someone from the UK could answer whether businesses in the UK would be interested in a domain with a .com extension or is the country extension .uk or .co.uk the more favored choice.

For example, would the domain name londonflowers.com be just as good, better than or less desired than londonflowers.uk?

 

[Cdomains]

Any Englishman want to chime in?

 

[joro001]

From my experience i've found many business owners are probably more comfortable with .co.uk as a rule.
Having said that, it depends if they are just looking to target the UK market or also go global. If the latter is true then .com is preferable.

Bottom line is, I think both are generally fine and respected with Uk businesses, but it depends on their end goal, target audience and personal preference.

 

[HUKU]

The answer, as with many countries, is dot com first and .uk second.

The .uk domain market is somewhat frozen right now as most of the .uk domain names are locked in place with the rights to register going to the owners of the equivalent .co.uk domain name. It's good in one sense ie that it creates a double opportunity for holders of the .co.uk domain names. It is also a good long term decision by Nominet because in europe the shorter version is prevalent and the UK was an outsider with .co.uk

However, the downside is short term confusion and the market may not resume properly until 2019 when a lot of unclaimed .uk will be freely available to register. Eventually, the .uk will be preferred to the .co.uk

That's roughly how it played out when India switched from .co.in to simply .in

 

[Cdomains]

Thanks, that makes sense. I was wondering what the perspective was from an English business owners point of view. I have searched the UK version of Google and the first page seems to be a lot of .co.uk.

 

[joro001]

I hear what Huku is saying, but from my experience it really depends as I say above.

I have found from working with many clients outside of domaining that they prefer to build on the .co.uk (especially if it's a local plumber, UK based furniture business etc.) and possibly hold the .com for brand protection purposes etc.

Again, it all depends on what we are talking about and which business etc. but this is what i've found.

 

[Cdomains]

The answer, as with many countries, is dot com first and .uk second.

The .uk domain market is somewhat frozen right now as most of the .uk domain names are locked in place with the rights to register going to the owners of the equivalent .co.uk domain name. It's good in one sense ie that it creates a double opportunity for holders of the .co.uk domain names. It is also a good long term decision by Nominet because in europe the shorter version is prevalent and the UK was an outsider with .co.uk

However, the downside is short term confusion and the market may not resume properly until 2019 when a lot of unclaimed .uk will be freely available to register.

Thanks, but where does that leave the .com? Could this be good for the .com versions if they are available?

 

[Cdomains]

I hear what Huku is saying, but from my experience it really depends as I say above.

I have found from working with many clients outside of domaining that they prefer to build on the .co.uk (especially if it's a local plumber, UK based furniture business etc.) and possibly hold the .com for brand protection purposes etc.

Again, it all depends on what we are talking about and which business etc. but this is what i've found.

That makes sense.

 

[crazydomain]

It seems that only UK residents could reg .co.uk?

 

[disaac81]

If you are a restaurant you will do better with a co.uk or.uk since your customer is likely to be in the UK (ie google treats .co.uk as a geo targeted domain name).

If you are a business where your customers are likely from all over the world (say web design or hosting for example) then a .com probably makes more sense.

Note that there is no harm getting both versions if you can.

 

[Cdomains]

So if I get what most of you are saying - local UK businesses would use .co.uk or .uk, but global businesses would do better with .com.

So Birminghamflorist.uk would be better than Birminghamflorist.com. Would an English business buy the .com if the .uk or .co.uk was not available, or would they prefer to go for a different uk name instead?

Does it pay to invest in keywordUK.com domains or is it a waste of time because they would rather have the country code name?

 

[The_General]

I agree with what has been said so far. In my opinion, the average U.K. audience is comfortable with .com or .co.uk fairly equally although the .uk registry claimed 77% of UK residents preferred .co.uk over .com, but of course they'd say that. As for your example, I think a small business that looks up the .co.uk and .com and only one is registered, would go ahead and take whichever is available. A big business would take more consideration of various factors including those mentioned by others here.

The problem with selling .coms in the UK is that the sometimes preferred co.uk is usually much cheaper and far more likely to be available. Even with UKcityKeyword.com domains you are buying in a bigger, more competitive market than you are selling in because lots of UK cities are also city names in the US, Canada, and Austrailia etc. Birminghamflowers.com for example has been continuously registered since 2000 whilst the .co.uk since 2007. I guess you could turn that around and say you'd have multiple markets to sell in but I think its a tough business to sell localised .coms to small and medium sized businesses in any country with a well established ccTLD.

Your suspicion about keywordUK.com is spot on, I've seen maybe a couple of small businesses use it but investing in them would be like buying a lotto ticket where the odds are the same but the jackpot is only about $50. There is no aftermarket for them either, Namebio lists 24 .coms sold in the last year with UK at the end, with less than 10 being obviously for the UK.

 

[wot]

Watch for .uk to dominate in the not too distant future.

I see the same scenario as with India with the once dominant .co.in capitulating to .in in a relatively short time in terms of usage and from a domainers point of view.

It will be .uk first with .co.uk being an also ran.

From a UK business point of view I would want the .com,.uk,and probably but not necessarily the .co.uk in the future.

But, simply my opinion and bias having recently registered a lot of NNNN.UK purely for investment purposes, did not consider the .co.uk.

 

[webhostuk]

If target end user traffic expected is UK then definitely go for .uk and co.uk domain.

 

[bytedo]

It depends on a lot of things. But the general trend here in the UK especially for SMBs is to use the co.uk extension. So obviously size and target market play a role in this. Again the co.uk may have SEO advantages for local search. Ideally, I would use the co.uk if I were you but buy the .com if available and budget permitting and then just redirect it.

 

[Recons.Com]

If

- You are targeting UK only, you need co.uk/uk only
- You are targeting world from UK, you need both co.uk/uk + .com
- You are targeting UK and have global aspirations currently or some day, you need both co.uk/uk + .com

No scenario for uk business, when just .com is optimal, as your traffic will leak to .uk, as that is the default destination in their mind.

 

[platey]

From my experience i've found many business owners are probably more comfortable with .co.uk as a rule.
Having said that, it depends if they are just looking to target the UK market or also go global. If the latter is true then .com is preferable.

Bottom line is, I think both are generally fine and respected with Uk businesses, but it depends on their end goal, target audience and personal preference.

you are right

if a business is only wants customers in its own county etc i doubt it would want a .com

even if if such a business wanted to sell purely within the uk .co.uk is recognised as being the most preferred

but the big national store chains etc and huge uk businesses that operate globally usually want the .com

small businesses are starting to opt for the name of their county and their trade etc which offer fantastic free organic seo using the .co.uk

 

[platey]

Thanks, that makes sense. I was wondering what the perspective was from an English business owners point of view. I have searched the UK version of Google and the first page seems to be a lot of .co.uk.

many uk businesses prefer the .co.uk to the uk possibly because the .co.uk was there first and effectively became the country standard etc and because so many have the .co.uk they would have to swap from a .co.uk to a .uk and i douby many would bother when the original .co.uk works perfectly well eg if it aint broke dont fix it

 

[platey]

if a socialmedia enterprice eg the next facebook or amazaon was founded in the uk tho they wuld only want the .com but probably buy the other two .co.uk and .uk just so that no one else could etc