Use DomainName.co.uk or DomainName.uk for a new website?

Just wondering what the consensus is on using DomainName.co.uk v. DomainName.uk for a new brand?

The website would be in the UK finance sector. The .com and all variations of .com with hyphens etc. are gone.

The ".co" within ".co.uk" is obviously redundant and just ".uk" is shorter, but .co.uks are what most lay Brits are aware of. I'm concerned if people would end up using ".co.uk" anyway, even if we told them the brand was "DomainName.uk"?

Will the public become significantly more aware of ".uk"s by themselves over the coming years or is that unlikely?

I'd welcome your thoughts. Thanks.

 

There is not a straight answer, there are pros and cons on both sides. It really boils down to personal preference.
I saw a new website the other day that had been developed on .uk They didn't even bother registering the .co.uk!

Personally for me. The .uk sounds and looks much better.

Cheers

 

.uk is a cheap variant of co.uk, judging by resale values. I do not see that changing anytime soon.

 

If you own both, then you can present the same website regardless of the URL. If that's the case, it's purely down to preference and politics.

If your position is that promoting .UK is the best approach for the future, then use .UK and redirect .co.uk.

If your plans for that domain don't stretch more than a year or two ahead and you feel like co.uk will get the bulk of traffic right now, then use that as primary and redirect .uk.

As long as you own both, the actual difference to traffic is negligible as long as redirects are properly configured.

 

I am aware of one startup financial institution using .uk: CPay
cpay.uk looks a lot better than cpay.co.uk in my opinion

 

You also have literally have tens of thousands of companies that have the letters "UK" at the end of their company / trading name.
So it makes sense to make the change at some point. just for branding / continuity.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. You've given me some food for thought as regards the pros v. cons.

 

I think .co.uk is the more recognised version and would opt for that pretty much every time. Although I got a decent .uk domain which I might use for a sideline business in the future.

 

Thanks.

Congratulations on getting your .uk.

While register new domain names, I noticed that HeartInternet use .uk now rather than .co.uk.