Loyalty for .uk domains
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We were encouraged by the news that British Internet users are six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine.
In an online survey of 2,324 Internet users, which was carried out for us by YouGov, we also learned that 62% believe a .uk address suggests a company is local or more relevant than a .com, and a third (32%) believe that it is important for international companies to have local domain names in order to attract local customers.
When asked about searching for a particular company on the Internet, 72% said they would visit a .uk web address above any other and only 5% of respondents would try the .com option first.
Our CEO, Lesley Cowley commented: “The findings show that British Internet users are loyal to local web sites and have higher levels of trust for .uk domain names. It’s clear that the trust issue is one of increasing importance to the Internet industry, as well as Internet users.”
I carried out a mini survey amongst some of my friends and customers a few months ago using fictitious domain names for online shopping sites. Asking them to choose which store they would feel they would trust enough to make a purchase from, judging only by the domain name. The results were 90% in favour of .co.uk names.
Perhaps your findings would suggest a change for .uk domains is needed so only UK residents are eligible to register them. Or perhaps just the cctld on it’s own available to UK residents only.
Posted by Eddie Wilson at 1:17 pm on April 27, 2007[…] A post in April on the Nominet News blog has largely escaped under the radar - the key point being the results of a survey: […]
Posted by » The Rise of the ccTLDs Domain Blog: at 7:32 am on June 17, 2007[…] A post in April on the Nominet News blog has largely escaped under the radar - the key point being the results of a survey: "We were encouraged by the news that British Internet users are six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine." […]
Posted by » The Rise of the ccTLDs Domain Blog: at 7:40 am on June 17, 2007Interesting and valuable findings, but the logical conclusion is surely that, nominet, you need to launch some more .uk second level domains?
Registering a concise, plain English .co.uk domain that isn’t already taken is extremely difficult - in many cases, impossible - and this is compounded by the fact that there are _so_ many domain squatters. Additionally, most businesses are not PLCs and so can’t/shouldn’t use .plc.uk, many are not Limited Companies and so can’t/shouldn’t use .ltd.uk. So there’s nowhere to go. Is it any wonder that they then turn to other domains such as .uk.com or .gb.com or abuse ones such as .uk.net or .net.uk?
And it now seems that Google is ramping up the pressure on this same issue:
http://www.justsearching.co.uk/JustBlog/geographical-targeting-in-seo.html
It’s all very well acknowledging the value of .uk domains, but when the general purpose one is effectively full and the others are too constrained, what then?
Posted by Jonathan Schofield at 1:01 pm on December 18, 2007