Domains, Business

Undecided between .COM and a ccTLD?

by Priyanka Damwani

If you are planning to register a domain name, chances are you are debating between everyone’s favourite .COM or your local domain like .COM.AU, .NZ, .AE, .IN depending on where you are based.


If you are having a tough time deciding, here are the factors to consider before you hit that register button. 

What Will Your Site Focus On?

What do you want your website to convey – are you a local business that focuses on the community or a global brand?  A .COM positions your website as a global, geo agnostic brand. Using the local ccTLD shows that your content and services are built especially for users from that country.

We’d recommend a .COM if your website content, services are relevant to users from around the world. If you are a local business that focuses on website visitors from your city, country best to show your local pride with a ccTLD.

Domains in Action: welovelocal.NZ focuses on products sourced from New Zealand and on buyers in New Zealand vs. 99designs.COM, a global, geo agnostic design service.

The TLD chosen may influence the audience’s perception of a brand, therefore affecting the brand’s click-through rate.
(when shown in Google search results)

– SEM Rush


SEO Impact

According to SEO Experts at Moz ‘The Top-Level Domain (TLD), generally isn’t considered a Google ranking factor, except in the area of International SEO. In this case, having a specific country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) can indicate to search engines which country your content is targeted at. 

ccTLDs are the single strongest way to show search engines and users that site content is specifically targeted to a certain country or region. When a site uses a ccTLD, Google assumes that site (and all the content on it) is specifically relevant to the geographic area targeted by the ccTLD and should appear on search results in that area’.

If your site uses a .NZ (New Zealand), .AE (UAE), .COM.AU (Australia) or a .AI domain (Anguilla but more of a domain hack), it’s likely to support your local SEO efforts vs. a website that uses .COM.

There’s another interesting aspect tied to how users do a Google search.  Eg: ‘NZ’ is embedded in a ‘.CO.NZ’ domain, it is more likely to appear in searches like ‘interior designer NZ’, ‘Gucci bags NZ’, and so on.

Based on a survey conducted by the .NZ Registry, 76% users actually add the term NZ as a part of their Google/Bing search, with the intention of finding products and services locally. eg: ‘Silver Jewellery NZ’ or ‘Interior Designers NZ’

Google-search-with-cctld


TL;DR: A ccTLD will support your local SEO efforts and help you if you are looking for customers, site visitors from a certain country.

Pricing

A .COM domain costs USD $15.99/yr but the price of ccTLDs varies widely. A lot of them cost less than a .COM like .COM.AU, .NZ, .IN while some are significantly more expensive.

As a domain has to be renewed annually, it’s worth taking this into consideration before settling on the right one for you.

Registration Requirements

A .COM can be registered by anybody around the world without any restrictions. ccTLD domains often need the registrant (the person registering the domain) to have a local address or be a citizen of that country. This is a mandate set forward by local registries.

If you are interested in expanding in a certain ccTLD but can’t fulfil the local requirements, OnlyDomains offers Trustee Services for several TLDs. This means you can use our contact information to fulfil the registration requirements.

Availability of Your Desired Domain

There are 154 Million+ .COM domains registered and the largest ccTLD has just 24.7 Million domain names. 

There are significantly more .COM domains registered than .UK, which means there is a higher probability of you finding the exact domain you are looking for in .UK (or any ccTLD) vs a .COM.

If you are set on a .COM, there are ways to get around availability too.


To conclude, there is no clear winner as both of them are solid contenders – the right answer depends on your website’s needs and goals.

If you are an established business with a sizeable number of website visitors, it’s a good idea to register both .COM and the local ccTLD.

Eg: Dinosaur Designs, a unique jewellery brand founded in Australia with stores across the world uses both www.dinosaurdesigns.com and dinosaurdesigns.com.au. They want to be found by local users as they have several stores in Australia and prefer to protect their brand name in .COM too.

Hope these help you make an informed decision.

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