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.com / .net. / .co.uk Which is more professional?

Dal123

Dal123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Recently I've been thinking of registering in the country I'm in, then I thought maybe .com would give a more professional appearance; but also could deter customers as they think they are dealing with a worldwide organisation and there would be more red-tape (problems and bureaucracy). What would everyone recommend? Was thinking of getting a few, but then when do you draw the line? Could work-out expensive😱?
 
Although I own both the .com and .co.uk domains for my company I've found the .co.uk one is used more often. My advice would be to build the web site on the .co.uk domain and set up the .com to redirect to it.
 
co.uk and .com are the best

If you are a service oriented site, go with .co.uk


Don't use .net. I am always cautious of .nets.

-Omi
 
Being that your website is based in the UK and directed at UK customers, use co.uk.

You may get more hits with .com, but your number of customers should be no different than with co.uk.
 
Queso said:
Although I own both the .com and .co.uk domains for my company I've found the .co.uk one is used more often. My advice would be to build the web site on the .co.uk domain and set up the .com to redirect to it.
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+1 Absolutely the best way to go


Depending on the kind of company you have you should register as many as possible. I have a site and because the entire business is online i've registered as many as i can (.eu/.us/.org/.or.uk/.mobi etc) this is mainly to protect our brand... and for future expansion if tiw works out 🙂 . For most sites I would say .co.uk & .com would be more than enough.
 
It's really hard to say, but .com is like a wildcard. There are both retarded and awesome web sites using this TLD. Nothing special.

I'd use .co.uk if I wanted to emphasis that the service is UK-specific. For example, Amazon. .com is the main web site, while .co.uk and .de, for example, are region-specific web sites.

I wouldn't use .net. But keep in mind that they are all purpose-specific TLDs. For example, the W3C is an organization, so .org is the logical choice.

Bottom line is, if it's an international business, get .com. If it's not, use .co.uk.
 
WHOIS Privacy

When you register a domain, details like your name and postal address can be seen in a public database. WHOIS privacy hides these details for .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .name, .cc, .tv and .me domains. Use the checkboxes to add WHOIS privacy and choose how long you want to buy the service for.
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What about this WOH IS privacy, is this worth it? Where are your details visible?

Email: Do you think two accounts; one .co.uk and .com or just one; I think with .com but can that be advertised on the .co.uk site?
Thanks for help people.
 
Dal123 said:
What about this WOH IS privacy, is this worth it? Where are your details visible?
Click to expand...

My host offered it free and I'm for it. There's many whois lookups, both online and from Terminal even. You can get the owner's home address, phone number, and email address. This is because you have to use legitimate information when filling it out. You can lose your domain if you don't. Mostly you'll get spam, both in your inbox as well as at your home. It could be used for identity theft or by stalkers in worst case scenarios.
 
Dal123 said:
What about this WOH IS privacy, is this worth it? Where are your details visible?
Click to expand...

I have 35 domain names, and privacy on 5 of them. I never get junk mail, or spam. Also, since its generally $10 a year per domain, I wasn't about to pay another $300 a year for my domains.
 
Dal123 said:
What about this WOH IS privacy, is this worth it? Where are your details visible?

Email: Do you think two accounts; one .co.uk and .com or just one; I think with .com but can that be advertised on the .co.uk site?
Thanks for help people.
Click to expand...

They're visible when someone does a WHOIS lookup on your domain name. I don't think it's worth concealing your details unless you have a serious need to, for example, your site is something that could spark hate mail or whatever.

I think you should build one site across both domains, with either the .com site as a parked domain on the same account, or as a redirect to the .co.uk domain. You shouldn't build seperate sites.
 
Just registered my Domains.

Thanks for all your advice people:😀
I've just registered both of them. Now: I got one email account with the .com site, and I'm planning to use this email on both sites. Is this possible, would've thought it is; just a matter of placing link on a site is all?
When registered it said "wait 24 hours to go through", it will be a while till I finish my site, I'm still learning and know very little about this advanced subject, keep changing mind on designs and finding new and better ways to do things.😱
So on my business cards I currently have my email through gmx.com and it doesn't look very professional. In 24 hours I will have: email@preciseformwork.com and would like to put this on my cards. I would've thought it was possible to do this as I've paid for email hosting through www.123reg.co.uk so surely I just set this up through apple mail? Sorry for novice questions 😱.
 
Dal123 said:
Thanks for all your advice people:😀
I've just registered both of them. Now: I got one email account with the .com site, and I'm planning to use this email on both sites. Is this possible, would've thought it is; just a matter of placing link on a site is all?
When registered it said "wait 24 hours to go through", it will be a while till I finish my site, I'm still learning and know very little about this advanced subject, keep changing mind on designs and finding new and better ways to do things.😱
So on my business cards I currently have my email through gmx.com and it doesn't look very professional. In 24 hours I will have: email@preciseformwork.com and would like to put this on my cards. I would've thought it was possible to do this as I've paid for email hosting through www.123reg.co.uk so surely I just set this up through apple mail? Sorry for novice questions 😱.
Click to expand...

You can use whichever email you want. I'd strongly recommend using the .co.uk for everything though – including email addresses.
You should set up the .com varient only as redericts. so if a user goes to yoursite.com they are redirected to yoursite.co.uk. Email the same, you should use a forwarded on all the .com variations to the .co.uk address.

Having the .com redirect is particular useful nowadays because most browsers will automaticaaly add '.com' into the address bar if you just type in for example 'amazon' it'll go straight to amzon.com
 
If your business is operating in the UK, go with .co.uk for sure. With my web design business, I use .ca because I live and work in Canada. As a result, a majority of my clients are local.
 
NathanCH said:
If your business is operating in the UK, go with .co.uk for sure. With my web design business, I use .ca because I live and work in Canada. As a result, a majority of my clients are local.
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I've noticed .ca is usually more expensive than .com, but if you're in a certain country and you want to target those people, then .ca or .co.uk would be the best option. We use .com because we cater to a more global customer base.
 
NathanCH said:
If your business is operating in the UK, go with .co.uk for sure. With my web design business, I use .ca because I live and work in Canada. As a result, a majority of my clients are local.
Click to expand...

I am in Canada as well an dthe only reason I use .com is because to transfer .ca domains there is a couple loops more you gotta jump thru that i just don't want to be bothered with if i need to change hosting
 
Thanks for all your input people 😀 it's much appreciated 🙂
I only registered one email: .com, I'm going to contact them now and get a .co.uk 🙂
 
So I take it by redirecting you are saving on bandwith/ costs, and maybe it helps web presence by redirecting it/ linking it.
So how do I redirect it when I upload my sites? I imagine its just a simple line of code?
Cheers people 😀
 
The redirection is made using DNS entries, which is something your ISP will either do for you or give you access to do.

DNS is the way networks (including the Internet) translate computer names (e.g. www.google.com) into IP addresses. Normally ISPs where you control this yourself have how-to guides on their web pages on how to configure it.
 
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