Australia is a proud nation, happy to wave the southern cross over the harbour bridge, stretch the flag over our suntanned bodies as bikinis and host a whole holiday in honor of the fair nation. But when it comes to your startup’s domain name, does it hinder or help you to have the mark of Australia attached at the end?
Before we dig in, here’s a bit of history on the .au. The national domain is controlled by the Australian Domain Name Administrator, formed in 1999, and is recognized by the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as the operator of the .au domain.
• SEO: Because the .au is regional, it makes you less likely to show up in search results in foreign countries, but in domestic search terms it doesn’t give you any more or less chance of turning up.
• Price: A .com.au is generally slightly cheaper than a .com
• Availability and registration: .com.au domain name registrations are only given out if you have a business on Australian soil or if you intend to have one. So, this domain name communicates the credibility of your business. Not everyone knows this fact, but those who do will have more faith in your brand. This also prevents spammers from getting ahold of these domain names, so people feel that .com.au is a bit more reliable.
Verdict?
If you are a business that plans to target Australians only, both now and in the future, then go ahead and register the .au only as it saves you money and communicates the business authenticity. However, most web startups are designed to scale and if you are ready to go global and have wrapped your brand around a name with a .com.au at the end and can’t get the .com…you have a problem. The most feasible solution? Buy both. When you register your business, lock down the name everywhere from the .com to Twitter to Facebook vanity name to Youtube vanity name. A domain name is cheap enough, go ahead and spring for it and it will leave the opportunity open for you to expand later. on.
At Business Switch, we would argue that securing both .com and .com.au domain names is a sound idea. For the extra few dollars, you are not only securing for growth … you are covering your base if someone types in the ‘other’ address. That someone could be a key potential client.
You are also protecting yourself against rogue competitors who take out the ‘alternative’ name and re-direct it to their web site. Protecting your intellectual property is mission critical for a start up.
We would argue that starts ups should budget for up to $500 to secure domain names related to their business, You could easily double this for start ups whose online presence is their principal place of business.
This budget will cover both the name of your business and some decent keyword related names.
So build a bit of extra budget for domain names. It’s worth it.
Got price data for the “.com.au is generally slighty cheaper” assertion?
As far I’ve seen, .com.au is actually more expensive, probably due to less competition.
From my own experience, .com.au is about $60/year, whereas a .com is <USD 15/year.
That said, a company focusing (in whole or part) on AU should own their .com.au