Benefits of Localized Website

[Arguille]

What are the advantages of having a website that is localized? I mean a website that has .co.uk instead of .com? Which is better to use when registering a domain name?

Please correct my terms if they are wrong.

[Catherine]

The domain name TLD (.co.uk, .com etc) you should choose depends on the area your site will serve. If you are developing your site to offer services Worldwide, it's better to choose .com TLD, however, if your site is being developed to serve a particular Country like the UK, you may choose .co.uk domain TLD.

[sb123]

A Big Advantage : If your .co.uk website is also hosted on a UK-based web server, the local Google server (Google.co.uk) will rank your site (yoursite.co.uk) better and that means better exposure to UK-based customers/visitors/surfers, (of course your "ultimate benefits" from this fact will also depend on proper relevant keywords and relevant content, and other offsite & onsite Search Engine Optimization techniques used).

Another example of clever geo-targeting website: Our own eUKHost.com is a global-targeting "dot com", but the name EU + UK also identifies it as a local or region-specific hosting service website -- Europe (E) or European Union (EU) as well as the United Kingdom (UK) specific hosting service. In deed, eUKHost is a great name that identifies with these 2 regions quite well. This is a great example of how you get a great relevant name for your online business. Short - Sweet (sounds so nice! ) - Very Relevant - Well-targeted! HTH

[Arguille]

So EUK is an international web host then because it uses .com TLD. There are website though that have .co.uk TLD but they provide international service. So how do these websites fair in the international market?

[sb123]

IMO, eUKHost.com is an established international web hosting company because it has focused well on providing world-class hosting services, and not simply because it uses the international ".com" extension.

My example above was an effort to show how the domain name can be used to focus on the services it offers to targeted audiences -- local and global. Having witnessed eUKHost's excellence in offering great hosting packages and services, I used its domain name as example; also if other hosting services using the .co.uk extension are offering good global-standard marketing and services successfully, then they too might be as successful in the global hosting scenario. One would need to study those sites in-depth to know if they are as successful or not.

The point is, there are many more crucial factors that ensure global success of an online company than just its domain name and extension. The domain name and its extension can help a business like a brand name does, but that's only one important facet of an organization and needs many other crucial capabilities like (in general) having capable professional management and supporting staff, acquiring sustained domain expertise, offering fail-proof solutions -- excellent products and services, using great marketing techniques, planning and execution, keeping up with technological advancements, excellent coordination between all departments, etc. There are so many other online and offline factors which can make the good domain name great!

[Arguille]

I get it now, thanks for your explanation and patience with me.

The domain name is just a representation of the whole company. The name itself doesn't make the company successful but it helps in some way.