SpiderServe Web Design

A lot of people seem to get confused about what domain extension they should have for their website. Let’s face it, most non-webbie people seem to refer to all websites as .com – “try domain.com” someone will tell you. “Maybe it’s .uk – I can’t remember”.

When I buy a domain and I am serious about the longenvity of it, I will buy both the .com and .co.uk domains, and will redirect one to the other. This means that even if someone typed in mydomain.com, it would automatically forward to mydomain.co.uk. Those of us who work withing the internet industry, will generally know that if a .com doesn’t work, replace it with .co.uk or even .net and you will probably find the site you are looking for. Most people using the internet do not have the knowledge that we do, so the domain issue can be a problem.

So which extension should you redirect all other extentions to? Should you have a .com or a .co.uk extension?

Although the .com extension was originally created for the USA, it is now seen as a global domain. If you are targeting the UK as your main customer base, then use the .co.uk domain. It will reinforce to the search engines, the fact that you are targeting the UK market. If you are going to be a global company, then use the .com.

There is one final thing to consider. The combination of your web host location and your domain can have an impact on your search engine optimisation. If you use a non-UK web host and you use a .com domain, you may experience trouble in ranking for Google.co.uk as there is no immediate signal to the search engines that you are targeting the UK market.

In Summary, you should use your country specific extension when targeting your local market, and also when you are using non-uk hosting.