Scott
Hi everyone, Thanks for accepting me into the group.
I am hoping some of you will give me your opinions on a problem I have, because I just cannot make my mind up what to do for the best.
I'm sorry it's a long question but there really is no way to make it short.
Any opinions will be really appreciated.
I’m launching a business and the company name has 2 words. The second one being "Business".
So let's pretend the company name is "Internet Business". For everything below I'll use the substitute word “Internet"
Internetbusiness.com was taken by a cyber squatter and you can easily find out how much they are selling it for. A ridiculous figure so I'm not interested in buying it.
I purchased the .co.uk version and to protect the brand I also purchased the .uk version.
However, I then decided that I wanted to also market to the U.S so the general consensus is if you cannot get the .com extension go for .net in the U.S. (Really have no idea what American's think of companies using the .net extension).
I purchased the .net version, and to make it less attractive to anyone to ever buy the .com version I also purchased internet-business.com
This was all a year ago as it's taking time to get everything together but we are getting closer to launching.
However last night I discovered that I can now get the domain name, internet.business
Last year the .business extension was not available.
So now we have the following domains:
Internetbusiness.co.uk
Internetbusiness.uk
Internetbusiness.net
Internet-business.com
Internet.business
Wh at would you launch as?
I'm thinking .co.uk is the best obviously for the uk but the fact I want people from the U.S to also become clients as well, means I'm not sure what to do, as I do not want to have to run 2 separate websites.
The domain name Internet.business is clearly fantastic and perfect match for our branding and company name, but I think the public still aren't used to these new types of domain extensions and so they may be confused if seeing them on the sides of Van's etc, and inadvertently think they have to put .com at the end, or may even think they aren't as professional and credible as a .co.uk name, So not take the company seriously.
I'm just not sure.
So what domain shall I use?
I can of course use .co.uk in the UK, but do a campaign using another one in the U.S marketing campaigns and simply do domain forwarding to the .co.uk website, however that in itself has a problem, because the U.S people will see the website name is actually .co.uk when they land on the site after clicking on a marketing campaign advert.
To confuse matters further, I could use domain forward "masking" so when they click on the U.S domain it stays in the browser when they land on the .co.uk website, however I have read that domain forwarding using masking does have a negative affect on Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking (although this is improving) but also the visitor cannot copy url links and share them with friends because the masking means the real link is not displayed.
So there it is. I have no idea what domain or domains to use to launch the business.
Remember, the first name is not Internet, that is just an example.
Any opinions would be appreciated as I want to launch making the right decision. My gut feeling at the moment is to launch 2 websites. .co.uk for the UK and one of the other ones for the U.S.
Thanks for anyone that has taken the time out to read this. Lol 👍
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Tiffany
I think .net may be more common in the US than the UK but I'm not sure. But personally I'm always put off by a .net domain, I don't know why. I think your gut decision is the right one but I have no experience at all in this type of thing!
Lorenz
Hey, if your intention is to sell only in the UK I’d take the .co.uk but if you’re planning to sell globally as you mentioned (USA for example) you should choose .net or .com
For an international business I’d choose the .com and then set up the hreflangs correctly. Anyway, you should only use one domain and stick to it. From an SEO perspective it wouldn’t be very efficient to use more domains. If you have further questions just pm me.
Scott ✍️ » Tiffany and Lorenz
Thanks for taking the time out to give me your opinions.
It is clear to me that the .com domain with the hyphen in it is not going to be a good option.
Having looked at the combination of opinions you have all provided I've decided I will launch 2 websites. .co.uk for the UK and .net for the U.S
If only people were more into the new domain extensions, then .business one would have been perfect to solve this and cover both the UK and U.S on the one website.
Seems people just don't view them as credible enough yet to see them as a proper domain option. 👍
Holgate
Jeez, I hope you're not going to procrastinate like this all the way through your new venture or you'll never get any business done lol.
You either want 2 websites to target UK and US or use something like on this link below which enables dynamic access depending on your IP location. By that I mean the website will show the appropriate domain and web content version depending on the location of that searcher. It depends on your business type with this system because it's better for ecommerce sites to be honest.
https://geotargetly.com/change-website-content-based-on-visitor-geo-location
How To Change Website Content Based On Visitor Location
Scott ✍️ » David
It is annoying the hell out of me too but I do want to get this right as it is important.
The option you have provided still leaves me needing to decide on a domain that would suit and it's becoming clear that the .com unavailable domain, is really the only acceptable one to please the u.s and u.k at the same time.
I'll have to go with 2 separate websites I think 🤔.

Browne
I did this with my main site. It is a pain, you’ll have to do your SEO in its entirety twice. If you can get the .co, do so. It’s the new .com! Ok it’s not quite as ‘good’ but in googles eyes it is, and it’s becoming more and more common since dotcoms are long gone if they’re any good.
Scott ✍️ » Browne
Hi. I did read up on .co
Would you say use that for one site covering both the UK and U.S or would you say .co.uk site for UK and .co instead of .net for a U.S version of the site?
Browne
If you were going to do the two, .co.uk is excellent for the UK (better than .com even), and yes I personally would choose .co over .net. Net feels like something you buy in 2006.
Scott ✍️
Ok, thanks. What do you think of .business as it is part of our name.

Mike
Point One – People who invest in domains are not cyber squatters, especially when they no doubt registered the name long before you wanted it.
Point Two – When setting up your business it would have made sense to use a name which was freely available in the extensions you wanted.
Point Three – If using two domains with two separate marketing strategies then it will not matter if the US domain is slightly different from the UK ie theinternetbusiness.com
Point Four – Always go with the .com for the states
Point Five – I would use the slightly different .com for UK use as well, Saves time, money and a lot simpler to work with one site.
Scott ✍️
Hi Mike, you've made some good points here.
The only point I don't agree with is to set up a company where the .com is available.
I know it makes sense but the name we have come up with is spot on and we were lucky the UK version had never been registered.
We only saw the potential for the U.S market later and I knew it would be gone.
That name is being bought and sold just to make money as it has changed hands around 5 times from what I have been able to find out bad the last 2 they have increased it in value by $900 each time so I do understand the investment.
Whilst cyber squatting is not the correct term it is still a pain that these names never get to be used by companies that would actually do something with them.
Most .com names just stay with the same owner, never being used, in the hope one day they will get a silly offer for it. 99% of the time that will never happen, as you know.
All your other points are definitely something I'll consider. Thanks. 👍
Mike
It's unusual that a good name has not been used before. Quite often they are used to make spam sites or Private Blog Networks (PBN)s.If so they should be left alone.
I would check on archive.org just to make sure the name has not been used before.
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
ARCHIVE.ORG
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

Scott ✍️ » Mike
Well that was interesting.
It has basically been bought and sold since 2009 and never ever used. Just the registrar holding pages and on one occasion an under construction page a few years back before being sold again.
Mike
Is that the co.uk? You need to check all the domains bought.
Scott ✍️ » Mike
I Just checked the .co.uk and it has never been used. Just holding pages over the years.
Mike
That's good. I would do one last check in Ahrefs
https://Ahrefs.com/backlink-checker
Do both checks whenever you buy a domain.
Scott ✍️ » Mike
thanks. Zero back links on the .co.uk or the .net.

Suthan
I'd say use the co.uk as your primary domain and park your .Net domain, and to avoid the Google penalty on duplicate content, you can add canonical meta tags.

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