Limiting your website with a local domain name can have both advantages and disadvantages. The decision to use a local domain name depends on your specific business goals and target audience.
If your primary focus is catering to a local market and establishing a strong local presence, a local domain name can be advantageous. However, if you have broader aspirations or your brand doesn’t align closely with a specific region, a more generic or global domain name might be a better choice.
The technology that birthed the World Wide Web has provided power to people not to be limited to or by their local market or even local economy. By the internet technology, the world is a global market easily reachable by any informed web marketer.
Despite this level of market reach accessible by anyone, some people still limit themselves or their marketing to their locality through the domain names they register and operate with.
Possibly due to ignorance of the implication of their actions or due to outright pride for a name that represents their location. Would you like to know how and why they are limiting themselves? Then, stay with me here till the end. Here we go;
The Internet Is A Global Open Market
The internet technology is far spreading its coverage round the world. From anywhere in the world that you have the facilities and devices to get connect to the web, you can take advantage of marketing your products, services and campaigns to the whole world.
Registering a domain name that is peculiar to your business such as www.yourcompanyname.comand subscribing for a webhosting plan is very necessary to show you’re a serious business person to web surfers who come across your website.
There are different endings of domain names which try to say something about the location or the industry or the ownership etc such as:
Any domain ending with .ng indicates that it is of the country Nigeria.
Any domain ending with.ai indicates it is about artificial intelligence technology.
Any domain ending with .uk.gov indicates it is about government in the United Kingdom.
Any domain ending with .host indicates it is about hosting industry.
Any domain ending with .biz indicates it has something to do with business, etc.
Doing your online business and marketing with any of those domain name endings tantamount to limiting your reach to those specific industries or locations as the case might be.
Search Engines Are Location Conscious
As the knowledge and use of the internet widens, the volume of content the search engine bots have to deal with in both indexing and displaying of search results SRPs increases. In their attempt to accomplish usefulness and relevancy to web surfers, the SEs place priority to location based search results.
So, if your domain name is location biased like www.mysite.ng or www.mysite.ng.com, you have already made the work easier for it to know the audience based on location to rank your site for. That would definitely limit the performance of your site to a certain locality instead of the wide world that is open for you to take advantage of free of charge.
Certain Domain Endings Are Unique To Countries
Just like I have earlier mentioned several domain name endings are location biased. When I say location biased, I mean country specific domain name endings. And, almost every country has hers. Some examples are:
.pt is a domain name ending specific for the country of Portugal.
.br is a domain name ending specific for the country of Brazil
.in is a domain name ending specific for the country of India
.us is a domain name ending specific for the country of United States
.ca is a domain name ending specific for the country of Canada, etc.
Domain Endings That Are Global Compliant
There are very few domain name endings that are not specific to countries but are generic in nature. Meaning they can be used by anybody from any part of the world and for most industries or markets. Such are usually referred to as top level domain – TLD name endings. They are according to value and popularity:
.com, which is the most generic and location unbiased domain name ending.
.net, which is a generic and location unbiased domain name ending
.orgwhich is both organization specific and generic location unbiased domain name ending.
The prices and demand of these TLDs are rated according to the order of placement above. So people who wouldn’t want their sites to suffer location biased limitation usually go for them. The search engines bots would have no hesitation indexing and ranking them for the reach of the wide world market.
Domain Endings That Are Industry Specific
Due to the widening reach and use of the information high way technology, there is increasing creation and approval of industry specific domain name endings. The name endings make it easy for people to know the niche or market a site is focusing content on.
It could be a good idea to escape the location limitation challenge by registering an industry specific domain name. Let us examine some examples of them:
.bizwhich is business specific and location unbiased domain name ending
.churchwhich is religion specific and location unbiased domain name ending
.hotelwhich is hospitality specific and location unbiased domain name ending
.realestatewhich is landed property specific and location unbiased domain name ending
.travelwhich is travel specific and location unbiased domain name ending
The search engine will find it easy to index and rank these names for the industries they represent in the wide world market.
Where To Get Your Domain Names Registered
These days it is not difficult to find places to search and register a domain name. It is just a matter of opening your browser and asking the search engines or asking around on social media and within seconds you’ll be facing hundreds of links or web pages to go and do that.
A newbie or beginner could easily fall into the temptation of clicking any relevant link or web page nearer his or her mouse pointer or finger on the smartphone screen and find himself or herself to regret after a year or so. Wisdom demands you exercise due diligence on anything purchases or subscription you’re making online.
To guide you properly to the right place you can subscribe for things like this without getting your finger burnt, is why we are here discussing domain names, webhosting, web designing, web development and web marketing.
I usually advice my audience to register their domain names at a site different from where they subscribed for hosting plans for some reasons you’ll find explained in my other contents here. Whenever you are ready to search and register your new domain do it here or on this other place are my chosen options. Thanks for sharing your time to read through this content.
Domain Name Market Places
Buy/Sell/ Domain Names
Flippa.com
Dynadot.com
GoDaddy.com
Afternic.com
Moniker.com
Snapnames.com
TDNAM.com
GreatDomains.com
Sedo.com
Parking Services
TrafficZ.com
NameDrive.com
Parked.com
WhyPark.com
Online Research Tools For Domain Names
DNJournal.com
Buzz.yahoo.com
Technorati.com
Pulse.ebay.com
Justdropped.com
Uspto.gov
Domain Name Forums
Forums.digitalpoint.com
Sitepoint.com
Assessing Domain Name’s Worth
Glurk.com/index.php
Dnsaleprice.com
Advantages of a local domain name:
- Geographical relevance: A local domain name can help establish a strong connection with a specific geographical region or audience. It immediately indicates to visitors that your website is targeted towards a particular location or community, which can be beneficial for businesses targeting local customers.
- SEO advantages: Local domain names can potentially improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Search engines often prioritize local results for relevant searches, and having a local domain name can signal that your website is relevant to those specific search queries.
- Trust and credibility: Using a local domain name can enhance your website’s trust and credibility, especially for local businesses. Visitors may perceive your website as more legitimate and trustworthy if they see a local domain extension, as it indicates a physical presence or connection to their region.
Disadvantages of a local domain name:
- Global reach limitations: If you have aspirations to expand your business beyond the local market, a local domain name may create limitations. It might be challenging to establish an international presence or target a broader audience if your domain name is tied to a specific region.
- Branding challenges: Local domain names may pose branding challenges, particularly if your brand name or business name doesn’t directly correlate with the local region. This could create confusion or make it difficult for potential customers outside your local area to identify and remember your website.
- Availability and competition: Local domain names with popular extensions may face a higher demand and limited availability. It could be more challenging to secure a desirable local domain name, as it might already be registered or require a significant investment to acquire from a third party.
