.com or .com.au ?

[Alex]

Hi everyone,

I got a hypothetical question... Just trying to get a better idea of when (or if to) purchase a .com.au or .com domain.

For this experiment gonna use a strictly Australian generic keyword domain (does not necessarily need to be geographical) but it is the best one I can think of at the moment.

So if you had the choice which would you choose Melbourne.com.au or Melbourne.com? And why?

Kind Regards,
Alex

 

[Alex]

Sorry accidentally put this in the wrong category.

 

[djuqa]

So if you had the choice which would you choose Melbourne.com.au or Melbourne.com? And why?

Kind Regards,
Alex

Neither.
Why?
If both available I would get both.
Frankly, if you have to ask, maybe you shouldn't be owning either.

 

[snoopy]

Depends entirely on the market, if it is international the .com, if it is Australian the .com.au.

Think about what the market expects, ie what the visitors will be most familiar with.

 

[Alex]

Makes sense Snoopy <--- Thank you. And yes djuqa both would be nice!

I've done a bit of research on this and I still am not sure what to think about it. For example on this very forum (which I think as a .com.au domainer space may be a little preferential) there is a link to ozdomainer(dot)com?

 

[DomainNames]

always try to get both. if the .com.au is gone but .com is available grab it.. sometimes it happens

 

[johno69]

For example on this very forum (which I think as a .com.au domainer space may be a little preferential) there is a link to ozdomainer(dot)com?

Because ozdomainer's target audience is global.

 

[findtim]

cessnock.com.au is best as there is no international inbound tourism

cairns.com is great as there is heaps of inbound tourism, but as they said, if you can get both then do IF there is international appeal.

you just have to pick your market.

if its ecom and you do international shipping then go the .com and .au

tim

 

[Eurorealtor]

So if you had the choice which would you choose Melbourne.com.au or Melbourne.com? And why?

Kind Regards,
Alex

In this exact case .com, because this version is not restricted to AU buyer only and it's wide open super premium domain. My opinion

 

[DavidL]

cessnock.com.au is best as there is no international inbound tourism

cairns.com is great as there is heaps of inbound tourism, but as they said, if you can get both then do IF there is international appeal.

you just have to pick your market.

if its ecom and you do international shipping then go the .com and .au

tim

Cairns, I'd pick the .au though. 1.2m local phrase, 1.8m global so there's still more domestic interest.

Also, even if the global interest is greater than local, because it's from all over the place it's harder to attract.

You don't get the SEO advantages that a local ccTLD gets. half the market may not even speak English. You need to get local backlinks to rank on things like Google.fr, Google.co.uk etc which are much harder to get.

I'd rather develop a .au domain with 100K local search volume than a .com with 500K global search volume (I think!).

 

[eBranding.com.au]

As others have said, for international audience .com, for local .com.au.

Best scenario is to get both, but for top-tier terms that's often not possible.

I think for the geo domains used in the examples, .com would be best if you're looking to market the destination globally and it's a place that's well known internationally; and .com.au would be best to tap into the local market and for places that aren't well known outside of the local market. For a term like 'Melbourne', a city that's well known around the globe, I would absolutely choose the .com over the .com.au if I were ever lucky enough to have that choice.

Recently I managed to upgrade one of my websites to a much better .com domain, then within a few weeks also picked up the .com.au domain. Different people, both domains had been registered for years and both registrants were uncontactable. Not totally relevant to this discussion, but I had coveted these for years and I'm still pretty stoked about it

 

[scotto]

Demonoid I had a similar experience.. I owned a .com.au for my online store and was always wanting to get the .com for future expansion. I continually tried to email the owner with no reply, then a year ago I had another look at the .com and noticed it had been dropped and picked it up in auction for a fraction of what I was prepared to offer the previous owner..

But back on subject I agree it really depends on your target audience, if its just a local audience .com.au but both is always best if possible.

 

[eBranding.com.au]

Demonoid I had a similar experience.. I owned a .com.au for my online store and was always wanting to get the .com for future expansion. I continually tried to email the owner with no reply, then a year ago I had another look at the .com and noticed it had been dropped and picked it up in auction for a fraction of what I was prepared to offer the previous owner..

But back on subject I agree it really depends on your target audience, if its just a local audience .com.au but both is always best if possible.

Congrats! It's these types of situations that reinforce the importance of having the correct information on your whois record, the owners could have made some good money, but instead the drop auction houses get some cash.

 

[Data Glasses]

interesting to see porttable.com.au have purchased the .com .............expansion


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