Domain Extension - uk.com

[gadget]

What's your views on the uk.com domain extension?

Yes I know .com and co.uk (and perhaps org.uk) are better but as the big keywords went years (& years) ago, I'm interested in what people think of this as an alternative.

[channel5]

I don't believe that uk.com is an official second level domain..

see

.uk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.com - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ash]

.uk.com 'domain extensions' are effectively subdomains of the uk airfare deals discount travel at uk.com website.

[gadget]

Thanks guys. I know that but wondered if you thought using them was a good thing or bad thing?

[monty]

Originally Posted by channel5 I don't believe that uk.com is an official second level domain.. see .uk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .com - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indeed it is certainly NOT an official namespace.

A company called CentralNic has registered the name "uk" in the .com. TLD namespace.
They are then offering you a sublevel domain of theirs to create a third level domain.

[They have also done this for various other target markets (eu.com, etc).]

While I'm certain this company has a high number and quality of distributed nameservers etc supporting their own personally created internal namespaces, you should be aware that you will be relying on this companies provision of such.

Also, this is a privately created subdomain namespace, and as such the company will likely be the regulator of any and all disputes and will also have the freedom to adjust their business model as they see fit.

----

In summary, if you are looking for a domain for keyword traffic, and the traffic will just be passing through your site then I wouldn't discount them totally (providing the name is very good, and the content will also be good enough).

Most people (average web surfers) are hesitant towards them though, so your content will need to be what they are looking for.

For a merchant site - I'd look elsewhere. I wouldn't buy for such a merchants site, I'd be more confident if they had a poor quality domain in an official public namespace. (It would take lots of real world advertising about the company to even make me consider it!)

[tomj]

Originally Posted by monty Most people (average web surfers) are hesitant towards them though, so your content will need to be what they are looking for. For a merchant site - I'd look elsewhere. I wouldn't buy for such a merchants site, I'd be more confident if they had a poor quality domain in an official public namespace. (It would take lots of real world advertising about the company to even make me consider it!)

Thats rubbish i'm affraid, I own tons of them and for ppc domains/lander domains they rock.
genericterm.uk.com v somethingnotquiteasgeneric.co.uk gets a higher CTR for me as there are so many more quality .uk.com domains left still. Users see the relevance to their search and click, simple as.

They SEO well too so no complaints there.

Agree on merchant site as the annoyance with these domains is users dont remember to type in .uk.com 99% of the time they always go for name.co.uk/.com

Thankfully the cost puts most people off registering them but I have a reseller account at way cheaper rates than 123reg so I'm happy.

However I would not consider trying to build a brand and long term business out of a .uk.com domain, I'd take a genuine TLD any day of the week!

[gadget]

Ok, here's the options (for an affiliate site with good on-page and off-page seo) ..

majorkeyword.uk.com .. or .. ukmajorkeyword.org.uk ?

[monty]

Originally Posted by tomj Thats rubbish i'm affraid, I own tons of them and for ppc domains/lander domains they rock. genericterm.uk.com v somethingnotquiteasgeneric.co.uk gets a higher CTR for me as there are so many more quality .uk.com domains left still. Users see the relevance to their search and click, simple as.

I don't think its rubbish at all.

I didn't say "genericterm.uk.com" can't outperform "somethingnotquitesogeneric.co.uk" in that scenario.

What I'm saying is that there IS a higher hesitation factor with them than proper namespaces.

Where I said 'somethingnotquitesogeneric.co.uk" WOULD win, vs 'verygeneric.uk.com' is in terms of completing the sale - as I said, for the MERCHANT! Most people will more happily buy from "longerfullname.co.uk" than "short.uk.com", and I stand by that.

They (.eg.com) can be used for what you are describing, but they do still have a slightly higher hesitation factor like-for-like. Hence I said it needs to be a good keyword and the content needs to be what they are looking for - otherwise retreat will kick in.

Originally Posted by gadget Ok, here's the options (for an affiliate site with good on-page and off-page seo) .. majorkeyword.uk.com .. or .. ukmajorkeyword.org.uk ?

IMO, an element would depend on the nature of the affiliate site and market etc. But I would be tempted to try the .uk.com one, since the .org.uk option is a ukprefixed word and even then is in the .org.uk space.

Also, ukmajorkeyword.org.uk would depend (IMO) totally on the actual word in question and how it looks with a 'uk' prefix.
i.e. ukclips or ukumpire are much harder to 'eye-break' into their parts than uksailing or ukhomes

[jezaff]

Originally Posted by monty I don't think its rubbish at all.

you are both saying the same thing ?

its great for a quick redirect landing page but dont base your business around it given the owner of uk.com could shut down or change their business model etc.

From reading the above, it seems you'd be pretty screwed if the owners of uk.com went bankrupt and sold off the domain. Any contract with them aint gonna be worth much after that? The new owner would be laughing though!

For some this is too big a risk, for knocking up quick sites its not really a prob. Nuff said. !

[tbp]

majorkeyword.uk.com .. or .. ukmajorkeyword.org.uk ?

Personally, I would always go with the ukmajorkeyword.org.uk, as these have always done very well for me. Also tells Google thats its targeted at UK sites, handy if your server isn't in the UK.

To be fair though I haven't tried any .uk.com's, and i`m not against them. Its just out of the two if they were both available i`d go for the .org.uk

[gadget]

Thanks everyone. Decision made.

I went with the org.uk as these have also done well for me in the past.