.com or .co.uk

Not sure about what category this should be in but heres a quick question

I am building my own website and am wondering which domain to use .com or .co.uk

Anyone got any thought on which is best?

Hi Roz

I’m a web developer in my other non artist life … oh for Art In Wax to support me full time :wink:

Its a good question and one that is raised often … and I find people have very varying opinions on this … I personally think it depends where do you want to sell primarily.

I find my clients often want to sell or promote their services in the UK so have the .co.uk but some buy the .com name too so that no one else can …

I don’t like to give advise on these things but for my own sites, www.artinwax.co.uk and www.breakofday.co.uk I just have the .co.uk ones

Look forward to seeing the website

Hazel

2 Likes

Hi Roz
I think that it depends were your customers come from .co.uk tends to be the one for the UK while .com tends to attract more international customers. We have found that America is a very profitable area to trade.
We have on occasion purchased both as it stops others using it, we have one web site where the .com has been offered to us for $10,000 far too expensive to buy so we had to decline and they went to our distributor and offered the same deal, they also refused but told us. We can only hope they either drop the price or that no one else pays that amount of money.
Hazel

When I registered my domain I only got the .co.uk just because I thought I’d only get sales from this country because of postage costs. As it turns out the way I’ve got my website up I can only add UK postage to it anyway so that suits me to have the .co.uk as it does immediately mark you out on search engines as being in the UK, which is something I look for when I’m doing general searches for things I want to buy.

I can see .com being more useful if you think you’re going to sell loads internationally. I do sell internationally, especially to America and Australia who I think are used to paying high postage even for their internal stuff just because of their size, but I think the UK is really my main market.

Jo

.co.uk is cheaper…

This is a really interesting thread, as it’s not something I’ve thought of before.

Sarah x

That was probably a factor too :wink: If I remember correctly it was £6 for the .co.uk for 2 years, or £20 for the .com. And if I remember the josara.com had gone, but I checked and it wasn’t being used for a website, and I really only wanted the .co.uk anyway, so that was all good. I might consider nabbing the .com if it becomes available now I’m a bit more established.

It is quite common to purchase both .com and .uk. I elected to buy both but use .com because at the time a few years ago, it was seen as more international.

Anyone know of a crafter using .London ?

There has been a big selling spree by hosting companies for those domain names if you sell in London, and might be seen as a branding thing, but I guess it’s more relevant to big retailers and organisations, and a bit like must-have personalised car number plate geeks .
( Never really understood the need for a personalised number plate, and if I was well-off or famous, I definitely wouldn’t want others to know my car registration plate)

I live in London, but decided against spending the extra cash for the London domain name. If I were Liberty, I might go for it, but on the other hand, they are a bit unique anyway, so probably don’t need it.