.com.au VS .com! What Is The difference?

Are you an Australian business looking to launch online? This is a quick guide to whether you should pick a .com.au or a .com?

eCommerce For Brands

February 12, 2019

COG Digital is a leading Sydney Digital Agency. Having been around for 10+ years, we have heard a huge range of questions to do with SEO, Ecommerce and Digital Marketing.

One common question that we get asked is, “I’m an Australian business but I want my website to be seen by international users. What domain should I purchase? A .com.au or a .com

Technically speaking, the primary difference is .com.au identifies your website as an Australian business.

When registering a .com.au you must have an ABN or ACN to verify that you are in fact an Australian business. Anyone can register a .com without any verification. This builds trust within the Australian market and the user knows they are visiting the site of a recognised local business.

Search Engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo recognise the geographical location of internet searches and make the assumption that if the searcher is located in Australia, then Australian businesses are more relevant and will rank these pages higher than their global .com counterparts. This is a significant advantage to helping your website appearing on the front page of search engines.

But as we mentioned earlier, what if you’d like your website to attract international users? Then it may be smarter for you to choose a .com. At COG Digital we audit your exisiting website (if applicable), competition, market, target audience, and then present to you the best solution for your specific business model. In some instances we recommend businesses to purchase both domains and have them both point to the same website.

This can be an easy solution depending on your business and scale of operations. However as digital experts we also know that this method can be problematic. Buying then redirecting a variety of different sites to the same URL can be considered as spamming by search engines, which can reflect negatively on your search engine rank. It is for this reason that we perform a comprehensive analysis to determine the best course of action for your business.

In relation to cost, the pricing between the two is minor with a .com.au slightly dearer. Essentially this is because you are getting the benefit of higher ranking in Australia’s search engine market.

You may have a WordPress website that needs a domain set up using .com.au, or you may have acquired a Shopify website that uses a .com domain name. No matter what the type of website or the domain, you can make updates to your website and domain. Though you do need to be careful to ensure that the changes you make to the domain name structure of your website include some basic SEO principles such as updating records to ensure there are 301 redirects set up and in place, and DNS redirects from the old domain name to the new one. Google Search Console will also need to be notified of the changes otherwise at organic search you see a negative result in how the new domain is indexed.

We know you need a trusted professional brand and marketing agency to support your business. At COG Digital we are digital marketing experts. Call us today on (02) 9523 6007 and help your business gain traction online.

We’re focused on providing first class lead generation and digital marketing services, where services are affordable, simple to understand yet deliver leads and perform well.

Our Sydney Branding Agency has two primary functions. The first is to deliver a dynamic consulting service to Australian small businesses, which includes the transfer of knowledge, advice and strategic processes that are purposefully built to make them more profitable, sustainable and enjoyable.

The COG Digital structure makes sure we are providing brand, marketing and technology solutions for Australian small businesses that are underpinned by true value. Our approach is reflective of the robust structure of our broader business model. It’s COG Digital’s mandate to continually embolden and assist Australia in becoming more innovative, competitive and prosperous.

COG Branding is human first. Great technology and software requires smart humans to guide and manage how they are put into place. Our delivery of digital solutions have smart people at the centre, orchestrating customised strategies that use a variety of applications to obtain efficiency and operate successfully for Australian small businesses. We offer both packaged products and customised services – because not all of our clients’ businesses are the same.

When trying to understand what is the difference between com.au and .com you also should consider the actual purpose of a domain name, and what other important digital elements are related to this, such as cyber security and what sort of impact my domain name has on the ability for my business to safeguard itself against cyber attacks..

Our purpose is to create more time for business owners, and to nurture opportunities through to success.

Over time it’s become apparent that our skill is in being able to provide value when others are not able – and this continues to remain a core part of the COG Branding purpose. COG Branding is a Sydney technology solutions agency with an approach that transfers knowledge to business and brand stakeholders with the goal of increasing client side intelligence. We know this assists the success of the broader businesses digital transformation process.

Part of the COG Branding small business technology service suite is to provide aftercare that maintains the investment and achieves ongoing performance. Our Sydney digital marketing agency are experts at managing the complex suite of digital marketing products and softwares. We have the skills and experience to integrate intelligent business solutions that link your customers to your branded digital touch points and assets.

COG Branding develops and maintains a variety of website technologies, thus assume the responsibility to provide a managed hosting solution via first class local partners. COG Hosting is focused on security, performance and viability, and our management of web hosting services is logical and made by a common sense approach. We know that advanced technology and software solutions require smart humans to guide and manage the implementation into the business itself, though we also ensure that the decisions we make on behalf of our clients needs to be transparent and easily understood by our customers. We align with the best website hosting partners

With all browser accessible applications and websites you need a domain name. Via COG Domains we offer a full account management system where you can purchase, renew and manage your own domain names and account. What makes COG Branding unique is that our focus on providing Australian Small Business true value, ensures our products and services are logical, common sense and suited to our market and economy.

Our experienced trusted Sydney digital agency offers free quotes and consultations, so to start succeeding online call us today. (+61 2) 9523 6007

News

Previous
Current / Total
Next