Benefits of a .com v .ie domain for your website

Baby01032012

What’s the benefit of a .com address? I know it’s always recommended and avoids uncertainty of one day the owner of the .com asking you to sell your .ie domain to them. But is it really that important. Look at rent.ie I doubt it’s owned by same company as rent.ie

I’m looking at available domains for a new business and I have so much choice when it comes to .ie but I can’t get a name that’s just right with .com

tricky D

A .com owner has no rights to a .ie unless there is enforceable trademark in play which is rare.

If you can get both you just point one to the other, whichever is your main market.

Baby01032012

Thanks tricky D so you see no benefit of having .com with a .ie and no downside of not having .com. I guess depending on the nature of the business if you could see it scaling up globally you may want to own the .com

To add I see my market as primarily Ireland with no desire for a market outside of Ireland unless I was to sell it to someone who wanted the model globally.

tricky D

I didn't say there was no benefit. There are many good reasons to secure both eg. scalability as you mention, brand protection, default assumption of .com by users.

In your case You would be best off trying to secure both the .com and the .ie and point/redirect the .com to the .ie. Not getting the .com would less than desirable but not necessarily a disaster unless a competitor grabs it and uses against you.

Axwell

You ideally want both, for the cost of a .com there is literally no reason not to so that you avoid any hassle down the line if someone else gets the .com and is using it. Even if there business is nothing to do with yours if someone types the name of the business depending on seo they could come up ahead of you. If the domain is more focused on the same service as you then its likely they will be a competitor which you obviously want to avoid.

mneylon

If you are primarily focussed on the Irish market and have no plans to ever expand overseas then you probably won't need the .com

Mrs OBumble

If you ever want to sell to people outside Ireland, a .ie just looks dodgy.

mneylon

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If you ever want to sell to people outside Ireland, a .ie just looks dodgy.

Dodgy is a bit harsh

tricky D

Until recently .ie domains were strictly managed so minimal squatting or dodgy mis-spelled domains. It has high trust. Unfamiliar to some beyond our shores but dodgy, no.

Mr E

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If you ever want to sell to people outside Ireland, a .ie just looks dodgy.

That's a bit of a sweeping statement, in fairness. We have lots of international customers visiting our .ie domain.

Baby01032012

Mr E wrote: »

That's a bit of a sweeping statement, in fairness. We have lots of international customers visiting our .ie domain.

Thanks all.

Mr. E Do you have a .com as well or how are they redirected to the .ie domain or is it purely a google search that brings them there.

Mr E

Our company website is on a .net domain (because another company has the .com) and our web application is on a .ie site.

Baby01032012

There was a domain name i was quiet interested in. The .ie is available, the .com was marked as may be available. I enquired and a broker came back to me saying the seller will sell it for USD55,000. As a company that hasnt started trading no way am i paying 55,000. However any opinions welcome.

Mike3549

Baby01032012 wrote: »

There was a domain name i was quiet interested in. The .ie is available, the .com was marked as may be available. I enquired and a broker came back to me saying the seller will sell it for USD55,000. As a company that hasnt started trading no way am i paying 55,000. However any opinions welcome.

Keep an eye on that .com domain. Chances are low, but sometimes people forget to renew their subscription and it might be temporary available again.

Graniteville

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If you ever want to sell to people outside Ireland, a .ie just looks dodgy.

I sell online into 14 eu countries and if anything, the .ie is a benefit as it's seen as trustworthy.

And it's a decent volume we do too.


I've no interest in acquiring the .com as it would be seen as dodgy as its not a trusted trademark name.

mneylon

tricky D wrote: »

Until recently .ie domains were strictly managed so minimal squatting or dodgy mis-spelled domains. It has high trust.

High trust for who though?
I just wonder if the average punter thinks this way or not.
I know that a lot of people working in IT in Ireland would have the knowledge of the policies etc., to give it a bit more trust, but I wonder if that trust goes beyond that niche.

Axwell

I think most would be aware .ie means Irish - so an Irish company vs one from somewhere else and that is the level of trust it brings certainly within Ireland and I am sure somewhat abroad. Theres an expectation you can pick up the phone and call an Irish number, or if its ecommerce the product will be delivered within 1-2 days and shopping rates will be decent if its local. I would rarely bat an eye lid at a .ie website worrying that it is a scam and the idea that people in other countries would consider .ie dodgy is far fetched. A .com is attainable by anyone you have to be way more on your toes.

As an aside an ssl certificate is a must have at this stage now also, especially that Chrome has started to highlight the lack of one on a website and I think its something everyone is going to become more aware of in the coming months and anyone without one is automatically putting themselves in a case where visitors are suspicious and wonder is the site untrustworthy.

Mrs OBumble

Axwell wrote: »

I think most would be aware .ie means Irish - so an Irish company vs one from somewhere else and that is the level of trust it brings certainly within Ireland and I am sure somewhat abroad.

Well known to Irish people and expats.

I wonder what your average American, Indian, Chinese, Aussie, Nigerian, etc knows about .ie vs .com

Its all about who your target market is. I have some content rich .net sites that wouldn't work at all as .ie

Axwell

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Well known to Irish people and expats.

I wonder what your average American, Indian, Chinese, Aussie, Nigerian, etc knows about .ie vs .com

Its all about who your target market is. I have some content rich .net sites that wouldn't work at all as .ie

Thats why I said certainly within Ireland and somewhat abroad.

Target market is a reason to pick a domain but SEO and content is the main thing driving the traffic to it. If the content is legit and its bringing traffic then the domain is somewhat irrelevant as its doing the job. Considering the amount of scam and phishing websites on .com though purely because anyone could sign up to one for a few dollars and the wider audience there are far more trust concerns there as to them being dodgy. One could equally say having a .net website is as odd or dodgy looking as its not a .com and .net was usually associated with tech companies and ISPs.

Its all relative and depends on target market as you said and content but I fail to see why a .ie would be considered dodgy in any way purely on the domain choice.