.com versus smallcountry .tld

Is the .com still king in that country?

[walkman]

does anyone have any experience from small countries as to whether people assume that the .com is still the "default" one or do they adopt their .pl , .hu or .whatever first?

thanks,

[elguiri]

Most type in traffic will go to the .com

The search engine will reward you in local searches for the local tld.

Buy both and send the .com to the local with a 301 or DNS

[webdoctor]

Most type in traffic will go to the .com

I'm curious about this claim - are there any stats to back this up?

I'd always assumed that people go for their local TLD for type-ins - i.e. in Germany people add .de, in France .fr, in Sweden .se and so on. That's been my experience with the people I know in those three countries... (?)

send the .com to the local with a 301 or DNS

Could you explain how you would send one domain to another using DNS? AFAIK this can result in duplicate content issues (?)

[elguiri]

This is my experience in Spain and I understand the same happens in Portugal.

You may be right in those countries - like the UK they were a bit more organised in pushing their tld's - but in smaller countries (i.e. slow take-up countries) that tradition was not always established.

Whatever way you cut it, if you can own both, own both.

[elguiri]

AFAIK this can result in duplicate content issues (?)

You might be right. Better 301.

[g1smd]

Point both www and non-www for both domains at the one server, and then 301 three versions of the domain name to the one canonical version you want to be indexed.

Two domains, two subdomains, one server, three redirects.

[walkman]

thanks.

The thing is that it's not as easy to buy the local version. It's not an open system; you must have a company there and it costs a fortune, especially given the amount of names I have registered.

Ok: so, how come we never see large sales for .co.uk or .de names? I mean, they have some 60+ million people and something like (their word for) stocks.com is certainly valuable.

[maximillianos]

I've discovered my .TV domain ranks quite well locally (here in the US)

I think it is due to so many mainstream sites/companies starting to use .TV domains.

[sandyk20]

My Research with google over last 2 years:

1. A .COM hosted physically in local country will get better traffic + results compared to your country specific TLD.
(ignore the google webmasters configurations compeletely here, its a virtual implementation).

2. A country specific TLD plays very important role if you are planning to target local traffic (only your country traffic) but always remember to get a .COM of same and re-direct the .COM to your country specific TLD ignoring where you are hosting your site(s).

Hope if this info is useful and makes sense.

[walkman]

>> A .COM hosted physically in local country will get better traffic + results compared to your country specific TLD.

I think the bias kicks in here: .com names are more likely to be advertised /linked thus the better ranking. IMO, if nytimes.com was nytimes.xz, they'd still rank the same.

I think that since the users are bombarded with dozens of .tv .net .co.uk .be .DE .vt or whatever extensions they will try the .com first. Even in major countries, say UK, they are .com .co.uk, .tv etc etc so given that .CMOS are the "best" (i.e. the best companies already bought the best names) people are more likely to try /trust the .com more in that split second decision on where to click.

[g1smd]

The downside is that having pages from the .com indexed might get you lots of traffic from far-away places that you don't want.

[sandyk20]

Hello walkman,
Thank you for the comments I am not starting a debate but only inspired by your comments since you and me both know how to use internet!?

I am from a country where internet is booming around **(taking place/happening)** I have couple of projects in mind targetting only my country (however this shall take couple of months to expand/grow). When considering a novice user who hardly knows about internet will first abviously hit a .COM instead of a .IN regardless of country specific TLD.

Target audience always goes to people who think they are making business with are local people (as far as mindset of my country people goes).

Please make sure this is not a debate although I point my posts after making a 30 seconds survey with people who know and dont know about internet in my local country.

Regards, :)

My Edit: Its going to be beneficial if quote buttons are placed above WYSYING editor above like rest of forum software tools... will be very very handy.

[walkman]

sandyk20,
we are both, in a sense, guessing since it varies so no hard feelings :-)

[Hunter]

does anyone have any experience from small countries as to whether people assume that the .com is still the "default" one or do they adopt their .pl , .hu or .whatever first?

Depends on the Country and the product/service. If the product service is local than a cctld can mean a lot.

I think that since the users are bombarded with dozens of .tv .net .co.uk .be .DE .vt or whatever extensions they will try the .com first. Even in major countries, say UK...

Not true. Some countries prefer their cctld, unless they are looking global.

Ok: so, how come we never see large sales for .co.uk or .de names?

Huh?

_{Poker.de $957,937
NAV.no $717,978
Blackjack.de $300,000
Cruises.co.uk $184,464
Connected.co.uk $157,931}

[walkman]

and how much were blackjack.com or poker.com sold for? My guess would be $10+ million

my assertion stands. Those buyers will get benefits from having the keyword in the .de domain and also profit from the german market but the .com rules IMO even if poker was an exclusively german game.

[walkman]

too late to edit: it would be interesting to see how german word for example, in .com would do against the same word in .de. Meaning that it would be used only in Germany or by german speaking people.

I think I am biased having been used to .com-s all this time. I suppose, say italians deal with the .it more and more and see it on ads all the time so it's different. Here is US the .us is pretty much dead, at least for "serious" sites.

--Just did a test: Searching for Cruises UK brings on top the cruises.co.uk site...other extensions .de .com etc. brings the domain.tld first. Google counts the entire tld as part of the search, and it makes sense. On the google.co.uk the cruises.co.uk is first even though the cruises.com is first on google.com.

[Durham_e]

Thought the below survey should be mentioned:
--------------

60% of UK Marketers choose .co.uk as primary Web Addresses

273 marketing professionals were surveyed by Tickbox.net. The survey was conducted: 01 / 08 / 2007 – 15 / 08 / 2007.

--------------

The interesting part was that the most likely to choose a .co.uk address were younger than those who might have preferred another suffix presume .com. To me that shows that those newer to the Internet may see their local extension as being more familiar and relevant than those who were exposed earlier to the Internet when .com was more prevalent. Example - Google.com became Google.smallcountry.tld.
If you have a global presence .com for sure but if you want to be seen as local then smallcountry.tld.

One of, (or possibly the) biggest traffic sites down our way doesn't even appear to own the .com (parked and smothered in links) and it's a hugely profitable business.

[Olney]

I share your opinion that younger generation & new business will prefer their ccTLD. The established sites do use dot coms because they could get them.
I read a lot of people write use the dot com if you think global but most business' make most of their money with costumers in their own country. I'm American but even people who keep saying this don't realize that their premium dot com's actually only cater to US residents. If you look from the outside you can see it clearly.

[walkman]

"...The survey, conducted by domain registry Nominet"

Maybe a bit bias there, but still, it makes sense. UK is a huge economy within itself, so Amazon, Goldman Sachs etc have to dedicate their full staff to UK, Fr, Ge, It and maybe a few other countries. If you have a Verizon type name, it's just a $10 a year fee so it's not an issue (they already had the pages on a /uk/ folder.)

But, if I have a page about a heart condition, and my domain is thatdisease.com I think it helps me everywhere. The fact that you own that .com, IMO gives you stature. Why would you own (bought, or at least not sold) a great name and not have any good content in that the thinking goes. Also if I have jfhiehgfyegfyegh.com and jfhiehgfyegfyegh is an obvious German word, I don't see how the .com hurts me in Germany.

anyway, thanks for your thoughts. Names are running out so the local ones are all that's left in many cases

[Hunter]

I don't remember anyone in this thread saying that a .com would hurt you in a country outside the US. The point is that a cctld can help a great deal for certain products/services in countries outside the US.

[edited by: Hunter at 2:22 am (utc) on Nov. 6, 2007]

[walkman]

>> I don't remeber anyone in this thread saying that a .com would hurt you.

sorry let me clarify:
If I have keyword.com and you have keyword.com.tld or keyword.tld. If users in that country choose to click on the .tld with other things being equal, the .com hurt me.

[Hunter]

I see...well again a cctld can help a great deal for certain products/services in countries outside the US.

[Gilsan]

What would happen in the opposite following situation:

If I had a EnglishNameDomain.de (german) and wanted to use it in the US market, would it have any chance of success against the likes of EnglishNameDomain.com or .net or .info etc.

Since the .com has so much success in most countries, it would be interesting to know if a name with a foreign ccTLD will have any chance of success in the US or Canada or even other countries?

Thanks

Gil

[walkman]

Gilsan,
personally, I would ignore any greatkeyword.other-tld. I would assume that a domain speculator bought it and stuffed it with ads. But then, most people might not think that.