Re: UKNM: are .com domains necessary for startups?

[Andy Proyer]

> .com is an international domain - and the 'Park Avenue' of same. If your

> site presents information and/or promotes/sells goods to an international

> market, then you should start with a .com and move on from

> there... also, if

> you have a brand that is well known, the chances are much higher that

> someone will take a punt on www.brandname.com first.

>

> .net etc. are only necessary (IMO) as extra coverage if you have a vested

> interest in securing your brand online.

>

> .co.uk (or the equivalent for your country) is needed to target local

> traffic, primarily because of the boost to search engine ranking (local

> search engines and directories often give priority to local domains when

> users launch a search for local sites).


But how about from Jo Public's point of view? Does he or she even understand

what a .com or a .co.uk or a .net means? Does anyone apart from us, the

marketing department and the VC's really care whether the suffix is .com or

.vom?


Sure, I advise people to get the .com and .co.uk versions of a name (with

dashed equivalents too if the domain name is more than one word) but I'm not

entirely sure whether it's the right advice or just incredibly obsessive.


There are many, many users out there who don't know that you can type a URL

directly into a web browser and go straight there ...


Andy



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