The .com or the .co.uk for UK Market?

[Alien]

So, I know this is an old question , but I have the .com and the .co.uk both reg'd for a site that I'm currently developing.

It's being aimed at the UK market, do I go with the .co.uk and park the .com over the top of it (redirects then), or actively use the .com?

Thanks!

PS: Poll attached for quicky opinions!

 

[springer]

.co.uk

From Edwin's site:

80% of UK users would choose a .uk website over a .com website in the search results

77% of UK consumers prefer to shop at a .uk website over a .com website


Source: Nominet Domain Name Industry Report 2010

 

[Edwin]

I'm only quoting Nominet. The research team they commissioned deserves the real credit

That said, the figures have gone up just about every year and the .co.uk is at a record trust ratio vs .com in their latest Industry Report.

I guess every time somebody hits a .com site only to find it's irrelevant, the company doesn't ship to the UK, etc., their confidence level in .com drops a smidge*. And it's all cumulative...

*technical term; 1 smidge = 2 tads = 4.5 bitty bits

 

[Alien]

.co.uk

From Edwin's site:

80% of UK users would choose a .uk website over a .com website in the search results

77% of UK consumers prefer to shop at a .uk website over a .com website


Source: Nominet Domain Name Industry Report 2010

Interesting, thanks!

 

[Edwin]

I should add a qualifier to the above: if you are planning to serve customers from all over the world AND you expect to get a significant proportion of your business from outside the UK, THEN (and only then) you would be better off with .com.

If you ship (or offer your service) worldwide but most of your customers will be UK-based then you're going to be better off with .co.uk.

If your customers are going to be UK only (for whatever reason) then it's .co.uk all the way!

(p.s. if the domain name contains a distinctively British English spelling of something, then go for the .co.uk regardless of any of the above)

 

[doodlebug]

.com makes you think dollars rather than pounds so yes .co.uk for me thanks

 

[Alien]

I'm only quoting Nominet. The research team they commissioned deserves the real credit

Couldn't find in the report though how many users/visitors were surveyed? Was it a few or thousands?

Perhaps I missed that, as only scanned it.

 

[julian]

I should add a qualifier to the above: if you are planning to serve customers from all over the world AND you expect to get a significant proportion of your business from outside the UK, THEN (and only then) you would be better off with .com.

Come on Edwin, you and I both know that that's just complete nonsense...

 

[Edwin]

Come on Edwin, you and I both know that that's just complete nonsense...

I genuinely have no idea what you mean. If you're UK based and serving the UK, then .co.uk is THE best extension. End of.

 

[foz]

When I see .com I think yank immediately, so the notion that .com is synonymous with international doesn't ring true. If you are truly an international entity geo targeting each ccTLD domain name to your audience is the way to go.

 

[aZooZa]

Redirect the .com to the .co.uk? That's what I'd do unless there's a good reason not to.

 

[Alien]

Thanks chaps.

Well, the .co.uk is clearly the winner and this is the route I'll go!

 

[willbon]

.com always has more kudos but definitely own the .co.uk and the hyphenated versions of both as well (if it's 2 words)

developers tend to like the .co.uk more because they think search engines will like them better.... but that's not entirely true.

Really depends on what it's for I suppose, but I vote .com

 

[Matthew Yates]

Hi,

Edwin emailed Nominet to ask about the statistical significance of the research quoted in this thread.

The survey was an online poll of 1089 respondents. We are therefor 95% confident that responses are within +/- 3% of the figures stated.

Best regards

Matthew Yates
Nominet UK

 

[JMOT]

Get whatever extension you can with the exact match for your niche...

Doesnt matter if its a .org.uk, .net, .com or whatever

Rankings are rankings and money is money. Buy your vanity .co.uk or .com once you can afford it...

Or when I cant be bothered buying keyword domains make up something brandable and get the .co.uk and .com . I dont mind doing this now as I dont "need" an exact match domain to make money... (tis nice and does help tho )

 

[WaftyCrank]

I redirect my .com to my main .co.uk site, as my business is UK targeted so works great for me. As others have said when I search on google I tend to check the extension and usually pick .uk domains if the service/product I'm looking for is UK based.

 

[Edwin]

Hi,

Edwin emailed Nominet to ask about the statistical significance of the research quoted in this thread.

The survey was an online poll of 1089 respondents. We are therefor 95% confident that responses are within +/- 3% of the figures stated.

Best regards

Matthew Yates
Nominet UK

Thank you for being so forthcoming, Matthew!

 

[Brassneck]

Hi,

Edwin emailed Nominet to ask about the statistical significance of the research quoted in this thread.

The survey was an online poll of 1089 respondents. We are therefor 95% confident that responses are within +/- 3% of the figures stated.

Best regards

Matthew Yates
Nominet UK

Matthew

Out of interest, who was actually surveyed and how was the survey conducted? There could potentially be a lot of response / sample bias with surveys like this.

Stephen.

 

[Alien]

Hi,

Edwin emailed Nominet to ask about the statistical significance of the research quoted in this thread.

The survey was an online poll of 1089 respondents. We are therefor 95% confident that responses are within +/- 3% of the figures stated.

Best regards

Matthew Yates
Nominet UK

Thank you for being so forthcoming, Matthew!

Thanks Matthew and Edwin for taking the trouble and time to get this detailed.

Interesting though, I would have thought much more than 1000 people could have been surveyed?

 

[Edwin]

Interesting though, I would have thought much more than 1000 people could have been surveyed?

You'll frequently find that even surveys that are widely reported (such as consumer confidence surveys, exit polls and so on) only have about a thousand answers (and many have in the high hundreds) because of the math involved.

Once they get things down to an error margin of +-3% to +-5% most surveying organisations assume that's "good enough" as you could keep asking an almost unlimited number of people and the error margin will drop more and more slowly.

Here's a fun calculator that shows that it takes very few people (relatively speaking) to produce statistically meaningful results.
http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm