When selecting a domain for a UK business, should you choose a .co.uk or a .com domain?
If you are trading internationally – with offices around the globe, for example – a .com domain name is the way forward.
That’s because .com has global appeal.
That global appeal comes at a price however because the competition to buy the best .com domains is also global. Added to this is the fact that American businesses tend to use .com (the .us domain extension has never gained any real traction in the US).
If you trade mostly or exclusively within the UK, a .co.uk domain is favourable for two big reasons: awareness and price. In the UK, we know that a website using a .co.uk domain means a British business whereas a .com can mean a business anywhere else in the world. The big players on the internet know this and use it to their advantage: that’s why British buyers go to ebay.co.uk and not ebay.com, amazon.co.uk and not amazon.com, and so on. It’s not as if the big players don’t own both and could use the .com if they wanted to: they simply know that British customers are more at home visiting .co.uk websites.
Also, a premium UK domain name is typically a lot cheaper than the .com equivalent. That represents a saving, particularly when you consider you are getting a domain name that will appeal more to your British customers than a .com will.
