.net or .co.uk for UK accommodation directory

[chuckylefrek]

I have developed a UK accommodation site and own both the .net and .co.uk of the domain name I was planning on using.

I would appreciate advice on which is the best to use.

I would imagine my site visitors will come from all over the world - not just the UK.

Any advice appreciated.

Btw I have the.info and .org and .org.uk too if any of these are any better. The .com is parked by someone else and is not for sale.

 

[bensd]

If the site is for UK accommodation only then i would definitely use the .co.uk if the accommodation listed is global then i would go for the .net

 

[chuckylefrek]

The site will list only UK accommodation however I thought that it is likely foreign visitors to the UK may use the site to plan their accommodation. I am not really sure to be honest how many visitors to the site from outside the UK there will be.

 

[Pred]

i would only use the .co.uk for this

if however you had the .com, that would be different. i would develop the .com and redirect the .co.uk to the .com

 

[chuckylefrek]

Thanks pred.

Can you explain your reasoning behind what you said I should do if I had the .com

Is it because people are more likely to type the web address in with a dot com extension?

 

[Pred]

hi,
becuase if you're site is a success, thats fine if on a .co.uk, ideally you would have .com anyway, particularly if appealing to an audience outside UK

thing with .net etc is people will automatically type in .com abroad and .co.uk here, so they are the 2 extensions you want for this type of business. again i'm not saying for everything as there are plenty of other extensions that do great, but particularly a .net is a no-no as you will leak traffic to the com and also it doesnt perform as well as the other 2 mentioned, again for what you have in mind

also bear in mind, people here now will type the .com in also, although not in same number as the .co.uk
if you have the com and .co.uk you're covering your bases. i think branding the com is more attractive personally if you have it and you can redirect the .co.uk

pls the .com will show up as well here on google.co.uk as the .co.uk
what you really need also is the site to turn up on foreign search engines too. although .co.uk will come up on other searches if they're searching for uk property etc, but personally think you cant go wrong with the com

do you have it?

bear in mind if you don't and your site is a success, that guy will ramp up his price

 

[chuckylefrek]

Thanks Pred for the very informative reply - appreciate your time!

Unfortunately I do not own the .com and someone else is operating an accommodation site aimed at just Canada and the USA. So there is really no way I can obtain it short of having a large bank account.

One option is to add the letters "UK" after my domain name. I do own the .co.uk and the .com for the domain in question with the addition of the letters "UK" at the end.

I don't want to publicise my domain name yet so let me use an example.

For example if my domain name was SelfCatering.com, I own the domain SelfCateringUK.com and SelfCateringUK.co.uk. As I said, there is a site already for SelfCatering.com that is aimed at the US and Canada only.

My domain name is pretty much the best pair of keywords for the niche I am aiming at so I am not sure if choosing a completely new domain name is a good idea or not.

I am close to the stage of completing this site after a long long time and I want to be sure that I choose the best domain I can before launching it.

Any additional advice much appreciated.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Pred]

given what you said. if it was me, these would be the 2 options:

1/ use the original domain you mentioned, and use in .co.uk only , redirect the .net for what it's worth although the traffic will be virtually non-existent

or

2/ run with the worduk.com and redirect the .co.uk to it

personally nothing uglier i think than .uk domains with uk on end of word, at least in com it looks ok

good luck!

 

[chuckylefrek]

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Just wanted to say thanks. I am still not sure what to do but your advice has helped considerably. I am keeping my eyes peeled for any suitable alternatives where the .com and .co.uk are available.

I am curious about .net and whether a UK hosting company should use the .net? I am under the impression .net was supposed to be for ISPs?

Cheers

Paul

 

[dashu1]

I'd use the .net since it will rank equally well in the UK & on google .com, so your site will be visible to uk & international searchers.

If you use the .co.uk your site will not appear outside google.co.uk, except on page 999 maybe.

I'd simply use a 301 redirect from the .co.uk to the .net so that if anyone does directly type in the .co.uk version they'll land straight on your .net website.

 

[chuckylefrek]

Thanks dashu1.

This is what I love about SEO related things - I get different opinions from everyone I ask

 

[dashu1]

Listen, as an example go to google.co.uk & search for doctor who toys & you'll see it's a dot net at the top.

Go via a proxy to google.com & search for the same thing & the same site is top.

On google .com you'll see doctor-who-toys.com in 3rd or 4th - thats mine.

On google.co.uk it's nowhere - it used to be - but google has become very territorial.

For some reason they rank .nets just as highly everywhere, but .coms are almost exclusively US & .co.uks are very much UK.

Hence my suggestion that if you are aiming at not only UK customers to use the .net & redirect the co.uk to it.

The amount of type in traffic you'll get will, in reality, be miniscule.

Go to any search engine page & what do you get? - A ginormous box to type your enquiry into & a button to press.

The number of mongoids who go to the task bar & type in "whatimlookingfor.co.uk" is probably less than 1 in 10,000, so it's not a good idea to base your business plans around it, despite what domainers may kid themselves to believe.

The main traffic has & will always comes from search engine placement, and to get that you need to be using the .net, not the .co.uk.

 

[chuckylefrek]

hey thanks Dash - that example is most enlightening and I am now very tempted to just go with the .net

I agree that most people just type into the google search box - the number of clients I have had who have told me their website was not working only for me to realise they were not typing their website address into the address bar - doh!

 

[dashu1]

Go for it. If it doesn't work then switch the site & redirect from one to the other.

It's all well & good domainers coming here & going on about how they get 1000 type in traffic hits for cars.co.uk per week, when you don't take it in the context that if they could be bothered to develop the site they'd get 100,000+ hits per week.

holidaysintheouterhebrides.co.uk/com/net/etc will clearly fair much worse!