.com Vs .co.uk

There's many business owners who get confused when they want to launch a website thanks to domain suffixes - namely the choice between purchasing .com Vs .co.uk. There's as many sides to the debate as you want to make, but when it comes right down to it whether you pick .co.uk (British domains) or the international .com domain, depends primarily on where you intend to market your website and secondly on whether the .com is even available (every word in the English language has now been registered - and a whole load more!).

As the domain names are mainly regional it would make sense to purchase .co.uk domains if you intend for most of your clients to derive from the UK market. The main difference between .com and .co.uk domains is regional in the sense that .com domains signify predominantly that a user or business is based in the United States or is a global player (but not always true as there are many successful and thriving UK companies based on .com domains like lastminute.com).

While .co.uk domains denote that a user or business is usually based in the United Kingdom. While this may not seem to make a large difference, many consumers in the UK feel more comfortable purchasing from .co.uk domains, because of the added security (often a false sense of security unfortunately) that they are buying from a merchant within the UK rather than from someone who may be located elsewhere in the world.

However, this is not to say that there are not some positive reasons to also look at a .com domain. This is especially true if you plan to target an international audience, as many people will not stumble upon .co.uk domains as easily when searching from outside of the UK, as they will a .com in the main search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc.

If you plan to sell internationally then you may want to think about using a .com or at least making your prices on your website available in denominations of currency by regional ISP. You will find that people outside the UK have a harder time accepting dealing with .co.uk address sites.

Due to the confusion that surrounds people when it comes to the different ways that a domain can end, many international sellers find that the easiest way to address the issue is simply to purchase both .com and .co.uk domains for their business.

If both are available and the cost is not huge (it should be around £10 pa for the .com and £7 for 2 years for the .co.uk) you may want to consider this solution, then the decision between the two will be mute. However, if this is not an option then you should decide who your target audience will be, and then stick with the appropriate domain name.