The moment you decide to start a website for your business or something else – you then have to decide about what your domain name will be; what does it matter if you register your website with a (.com) or a (.co.ke)? But wait – what is a domain name to begin with and how long or short should it be? This blog post is ideal for beginners and hence the explanation is going to be as uncomplicated as it should be.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is simply the unique address to a website and it looks like this for example – www.facebook.com or something like this – www.nation.co.ke The domain name contains 3 main pieces of information; the first part (www) shows the server type, the second part (name) shows the address name chosen by the owner of the website, and the third part (domain extension) shows the level of the domain name and it can be a TLD (top level domain) such as the (.com) extension or it can be a CC-TLD (country code top level domain) such as the (.co.ke) extension. There are several other domain levels that can be discussed but this article will just cover the (.com) and the (.co.ke) domain extensions used in the examples above to keep this uncomplicated for beginners.
When to use (.com) and when to use (.co.ke)
The first thing to remember is that whether you choose (.com) or choose (.co.ke) for your domain name extension, your website will be accessible from anywhere in the World Wide Web. However – there are instances where you might want to choose one over the other for these 2 considerations;
1. Geographical reasons
If your business exclusively targets the Kenyan region, the (.co.ke) domain extension will express that your business is country-code specific to the Kenyan market. So in the example above where we have the www.nation.co.ke website, one can tell that the information in that website is mostly about Kenya. If someone was searching for the latest news in Kenya, they would most probably click on the website with a Kenyan domain extension in the results even though there might be other domain extensions for other countries in that list of results.
2. Market Target
On the other hand, when your website targets a global audience such as in the www.facebook.com example; the (.com) domain extension does not associate you with any particular country code – hence it is the most widely used domain internationally. Another advantage of using a (.com) domain extension is that it is familiar to all the users on the World Wide Web and while country-code top level domains are familiar to people in the specific geographical regions, they tend to be unfamiliar in foreign country codes.
How long or short should a domain name be?
When you have a lengthy business name, it is advisable to get creative when using it in your domain name so as to avoid a complicated domain name. Let’s say for example your business name is Joseph & Stephen Company Valuers and you decide to use it as your domain name; here is how it is going to appear assuming you choose a (.com) domain extension –
www.josephandstephencompanyvaluers.com
– not very legible is it? Now how about we shorten the domain name by abbreviating a part of it and have it appear like this –www.jscvaluers.com
– much legible now is it not? The takeaway here is that the more legible and easier your domain name is – the simpler it will be for people to memorize it and that is a great thing for any brand.
.jpg)