Alternative to .co.uk for UK sites

Are there any TLD’s that compare?

[Smiley]

It seems to me that .co.uk is THE domain to use for UK websites regardless of their content. Apart from .org.uk, .me.uk, .com, .net and .uk.com I have seem .uk.co being used for some UK sites but I still think .co.uk out shines all.

In the US .us is now becoming more popular, are there any serious UK alternatives in the pipeline?

[sem4u]

.co.uk is the most widely used and expected by users.

I think you can get .ltd.uk as well.

[Receptional Andy]

.org.uk works fine for me too. Currently have a nr1 site on google for a competitive term using .org.uk so Google certainly doesn't mind.

[react]

.net.uk (isp's only I think) and .plc.uk are available too

[creative craig]

I got a PR5 with a org.uk site and have had no problems with any other search engines.

Craig

[incywincy]

i've got some uk.net domain names that are #1 for their targetted search terms. uk.co is not available anymore.

[ritch_b]

No real alternatives as yet.

As others have mentioned, there's the likes of .net.uk (ISP and network providers only), .ltd.uk (private limited companies only) and .plc.uk (public limited companies only).

There is the .uk.com option, but this isn't a geniune uk domain and is one I've steered clear from so far. That said, plenty of others have had good experience and results with these.

In the UK it seems that .co.uk or com domains are the defacto standard and ones that the consumer recognises most.

R.

[Smiley]

Thanks for all your responses :)

So .org.uk works well on the SE's too - do nominet have any special rules for .org.uk domains?

[creative craig]

My org.uk site just had the normal (I think) registration form from nominent.

Its not a money making site but it isnt an organisation either :)

Craig

[ritch_b]

Nominet reckon...

The .org.uk SLD is intended for the registration of Domain Names which denote non profit making or public service organisations. These may include: charities, trades unions, political parties, community groups, educational councils, professional institutions, etc. However, Nominet will take no action with regard to the registration or use of a Domain Name unless such registration or use conflicts with the Rules, or the Dispute Resolution Policy and Procedure, in each case as amended from time to time.

Although my personal domain is a .org.uk & I've seen for-profit businesses use them before, so shouldn't be a problem really.

R.

[Receptional Andy]

No special rules AFAIK.

Here's some quick stats on how many of each domain are in Google's current index (based on allinurl searches):

.co.uk - 6,190,000
.org.uk - 2,830,000
.uk.com - 558,000
.uk.net -188,000
.me.uk - 51,000

To me this suggests that .org.uk should be the second choice after .co.uk, but also that all the other extensions are indexed by Google too.

Nominet themselves are using the .org.uk domain extension.

[Smiley]

Thanks Receptional_Andy,

Very interesting to see nearly 3 million .org.uk domains in Googles index. About time I registered a few...

Smiley :)

[MHes]

What about Yahoo.co.uk and Aol only showing .co.uk for UK only sites?

Do they also show these other uk endings?

[Receptional Andy]

>What about Yahoo.co.uk and Aol only showing .co.uk for UK only sites?

Sorry, i'm not quite sure what you mean here. Can you clarify please?

[creative craig]

I think he means do the other .uk extensions come up in results when you search in Yahoo.co.uk.

I have searched and they do come up with no apparent problems :)

[Receptional Andy]

Ah, I see. That's a good question because yahoo.co.uk's results are very different from google.co.uk (because .com etc. are excluded) but it looks like they have a list of UK-specific tlds including the common ones listed above.

[CHC]

Interesting figure for the number of .co.uk domains listed in google. I have the UK register and there are less than 3.5 million UK domains in existence and over 750,000 of these are detagged.

[Receptional Andy]

I made no claim as to the accuracy of the above - more of a measure than anything else. To get the figure for .co.uk I searched Google for allinurl:".co.uk"

[google.com...]

This probably includes duplicates of the same domain, but as a comparison between domain extensions it's still valid.

[1Lit]

Is it true that yahoo.co.uk ONLY lists websites with the TLD .uk?

Many UK companies use .com

I would have thought they would have had a more sophisticated system for deciding what is a UK site and what isn't.

[Hunter]

are there any serious UK alternatives in the pipeline?

.com :)

[aussiejulie]

Hi I was wondering the same but Im talking about .au the Australian prefix. In google they have a few .coms in there as well and I was told that if you have a .com hosted in Australia it would posibly get in as well?
Any thought there? Also if I have a .com site Australian owned and based currently ranking No1 under "dog training australia" would it be spam if I registered the same domain in .com.au
Thanks in advance for any help
Julie

[Receptional Andy]

1lit:
>>Is it true that yahoo.co.uk ONLY lists websites with the TLD .uk?

Ifyou choose th 'uk only' option, yes. Try searching google.co.uk (uk only) for 'multimap'
[google.co.uk...]

The top result will be multimap.com because google has located the site in the uk by IP address. Searching yahoo.co.uk (uk only)
[uk.search.yahoo.com...]

It excludes all .coms .net etc and so eventually finds multimap.co.uk in position 7.

Aussiejulie:
If your .com is hosted in Australia and Google has correctly located you by IP address (which it's not as good at as it could be...), your .com will show up in Aussie results anyway. Registering a com.au with the same content is a bad idea because google will only ever list one of the domains and exclude the other. Just check for your site in google's Australia only results and if you already appear, you're fine.

(Welcome to webmasterworld by the way, Julie :))