What's better for UK market: .com or .co.uk?

[bobbie]

What are your opinions on domains for the uk market ... is it better to reg a name like uk[niche].com or to register [niche].co.uk?

Which do UK companies/end users actually prefer to own?

 

[Corey]

bobbie if it's possible why not use both extensions

Cheers
Corey

 

[dottvfan]

.co.uk without a doubt.

 

[bobbie]

Thanks for the response. That's exactly what I just did. Seems that I read in one thread here that uk businesses actually prefer the .co.uk names but I've seen uk companies registering ukbusiness.com too.

.co.uk without a doubt.

Thanks. I thought that I had read that before. I just grabbed both versions of a domain to be sure ...

 

[gpmgroup]

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/releases/?contentId=5558

72% of users are more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information online.

 

[bobbie]

Thanks for the article. Why does Estibot seem to hate .co.uk domains?
When I use it for a dot com and it comes up with a nice high estimate and
then I change the extension to .co.uk and it says reg fee ...
Anyone know why that would happen?

 

[Albert]

because if you consider the market of uk and market of .com which is larger? What percentage of people online in UK compare to the world? 1%? 5%? 10%?

You can get .com and redirect .co.uk to your .com at least when you go to global market you don't need to do seo for your .com. For now you can set audience of your site in google webmasters to UK. For offline advertising use .co.uk and for online advertising use .com if it is a global site or use .co.uk if it is a site in UK.

 

[bobbie]

because if you consider the market of uk and market of .com which is larger? What percentage of people online in UK compare to the world? 1%? 5%? 10%?

Thanks ... that puts it into perspective. Appreciate the answer

 

[soggyindo]

albert is spot on. if you "leave" a .com and a .co.uk raw, the .co.uk will rank much better in the uk. then - on top of this - is the fact that people will click on the .co.uk results more.

also you should try to get some hosting in the uk, rather than the us

 

[weblord]

i have to get both extensions if i were you.

 

[Easydoms]

.co.uk here, but if you do have the option to reg both for a company then do it.

 

[hullswingerscom]

co.uk

 

[soggyindo]

ok, reverse question. i know .com is king. but if you're in the US, how often would you click on a domain, if you saw it come up in a search and it was from .co.uk, or .com.au?

or is that way to localized and you don't go near it?

just wondering if my uk and au focused names will have any US residual effect.

 

[bgray]

Of course both would be preferred but I would think the .co.uk would probably be the best to develop on if the UK company were local and not global.

It brings more immediate relevenace by sight and in the regional SEs.

 

[hey.co.uk]

Thanks for the article. Why does Estibot seem to hate .co.uk domains?
When I use it for a dot com and it comes up with a nice high estimate and
then I change the extension to .co.uk and it says reg fee ...

Estibot and other automated services are worth the price you pay for them

As for UK - .co.uk all the way.

 

[netfleet]

because if you consider the market of uk and market of .com which is larger? What percentage of people online in UK compare to the world? 1%? 5%? 10%?

That comparison is not altogether fair. It uses the incorrect assumption that the rest of the world are all 100% into .com which they aren't.

No question though the .com market is many times larger....

 

[Ross860]

.co.uk imo

 

[SEOFocused]

because if you consider the market of uk and market of .com which is larger? What percentage of people online in UK compare to the world? 1%? 5%? 10%?

You can get .com and redirect .co.uk to your .com at least when you go to global market you don't need to do seo for your .com. For now you can set audience of your site in google webmasters to UK. For offline advertising use .co.uk and for online advertising use .com if it is a global site or use .co.uk if it is a site in UK.

that actually depends on what you are trying to market. i'm in the process of developing a site and will register co.uk domain and dont care about .com. product i'm going to market is only available in UK and only UK visitors can sign up for the offers. therefore global traffic is no good to me

 

[Traveler]

I would register both, build the site on the .co.uk and redirect the .com to the UK site. That would be the best option imho. Of course if the .com is already taken, go foward with the .co.uk if that is your target market. You might lose some traffic to the the .com version but the advantages in the SERPs of have a local extension should overcome that.