Which is better .com or .co.uk? Or .pizza?

When you launch a website, you need a few basic things to get started.

1. Hosting
2. A registered domain name
3. Some content

Hosting can be a bit of a minefield, but our hosting packages are great value and give you everything you need to own a fantastic website for one low price – https://www.bemoreonline.co.uk/#cstm_height.

Your next consideration is finding a domain.  Having a domain name is the main way in which search engines or potential visitors will find your website and content.  Your domain name is the website address that either a customer types in to the address bar on their browser or is listed in a search engine result eg www.bemoreonline.co.uk is our domain name.

However finding the perfect or even a great domain name that is not already registered can be tricky.  Most of the time you will want use a tool to help you search, like our super simple domain search tool…https://www.bemoreonline.co.uk/domain-search/ and this will tell you if your searched for term is available as a domain, and which domain extensions are available to you (a domain extension is the bit after the “dot” ie .co.uk or .com as examples.

But what then?  You have done your searching and found some possible options.  Some are available as .co.uk, some as .com, some as .biz and some as all of the above.

If, for example, you are based in the UK, should you looking at only .co.uk or should you be buying the .com version or perhaps both?  Or perhaps something more obscure like .biz, because it is available and/or a cheaper option.

Ultimately it is your choice, however here are some points to consider;

• Trust
  • Different domain extensions inherently have different levels of trust from consumers who perhaps don’t know a brand.  The .com extensions and the country specific extensions like .co.uk are more trusted than some of the less common extensions like .biz for example.
• Confusion
  • If a consumer can’t remember your domain they will often assume it is .com.  At the very least your visitors could be confused or worse still they could end up at a competitors site.
• Blocked / lost emails
  • Some emails from unusual extensions might end up getting blocked by the email filters of your potential customers.
  • And incoming emails will not be received if the wrong extension is used, my emails will not get to me if you use stevehowlett@bemoreonline.net
• Less likely to be linked to
  • Other sites might be less willing to link to your site if you are using an unusual domain extension.  These extensions can create the perception of a gimmick or less professional organisation.
• Industry
  • Some extensions are better suited to specific industries and might be more acceptable.  For example, tech customers might be more accepting of industry associated extensions like .io

Ultimately it is up to you, and there are a number of brands out there successfully using all different types of extensions.  However our advice would be to do your research and to buy all variations of your domain that you think might be useful.  This keeps your options open and stops competitors registering your domain, but with a different extension.  Most domain extensions are relatively cheap and holding on to both the country specific code, like .co.uk and .com variations is probably prudent.

So that is your hosting and domain sorted out, you just need to work out what you want to say on your site and our 1-click CMS installations help you do that in, well, 1-click.

If you need any help or advice, please contact us info@bemoreonline.co.uk (not .pizza!!)