Identifying a new domain name for your business or business idea can be fun. Knowing what ending to register after that domain name can be more complicated. Those endings are called domain extensions.

How Many Domain Extensions Do I Need?

List of available domain extensions
Do domain name endings matter?
What domain extensions should I buy?
Why you should have multiple domains

A domain extension is the combination of characters immediately following the period in a web address. With more than 3 million domains registered in Australia, domain extensions provide an easy way to filter some domains to make it easier to find the domain needed. You will find a broad choice when contemplating the domains extension list. So many that you might find yourself asking; should I buy multiple domain extensions.

List of available domain extensions

What are your possible domain extensions? The domain name extensions you should register depend significantly on the purpose of your website and the type of business or organisation involved. So before working out what domain extensions you should buy, let’s list the primary domain extensions that might be right for your business:

.au
.com.au
.com
.org.au
.org
.gov
.id.au
.asn.au
.melbourne
.net.au
.edu.au
.sydney

When you purchase your domain name, you will discover that there can be a wide range of prices. Some are hard to believe. In a few cases, businesses have paid more than US$30m to purchase one domain name. Not that we are suggesting that you need to spend anywhere near that. Ours start at just $14.95.

Do domain name endings matter?

Simple answer; yes. Domain names and the extensions you use with them can dramatically impact your business and your online success. Your domain name is the name of your online business. Users will search for it. It is essential that you give the selection of a domain name and extension the time and thought it deserves. Sometimes the domain extension can be a powerful tool in attracting local customers to your business. The use of the two local-based domain extensions, .melbourne and .sydney are highly effective in boosting Google search rankings in those two locations. Even using .au or .com.au will boost your Google search ranking for searches made by users in Australia. Australian users will find your website before a site without that extension. The SEO performance of different domain extensions makes it even more evident that businesses should buy multiple domain extensions to ensure that they rank high in search.

What domain extensions should I buy?

What are the best possible domain extensions for your online presence? If you are establishing a business in Australia, you will likely register a .com.au domain extension. It is by far the most frequently used domain extension for Australian companies. In December 2021, auDA reports that there were over 3m .com.au domain name extensions in use as opposed to 216K .net.au and only 75K .org.au. (auDA, Quarterly Report 2021 Q4) Other domain extensions tend to be associated with particular sectors. So if you are an educational business, you may wish to append .edu.au to your chosen domain name. Or, if you are a not for profit, the .org.au suffix may be more appropriate. In these instances, users can use the extension to achieve a better understanding of your business. One domain extension is a recent addition to the stable of possible domain extensions. It is innovative and different to the rest of the crowd. Introducing the .au direct domain The .au extension does not seek to define the domain by business, education, or charitable purpose. The .au domain can be used by sole operators or individuals and businesses. The beauty of the .au domain extension is that it is short and memorable. It allows your domain name, brand name, or company to stand out in the online setting. Better still, it establishes your Australian credentials. For more info on the exciting .au domains, read here. The chances are you should probably register more than one domain for your online presence. Multiple domains are becoming a common strategy for the business as they seek to build, maintain, and protect their online presence.

Why you should have multiple domains

Having agreed to your primary domain name, it’s time to consider what other extensions make sense for your business. For example, let us say you have decided to register domainname.com.au; you should augment your online presence with domainname.au, and because you have an outlet in Sydney, you may even want to add domainname.sydney. While this will contribute to your overall domain name bill at the end of the year, this is the clear response to our earlier question – should I buy multiple domain extensions. Yes, you should. The reason is straightforward. Multiple domain extensions may become vital to secure your online success. After all that work, no business owner wants to compete with another site with the same domain name but a different extension.

Maintain loyalty of your customers

You also definitely don’t need others creating bogus sites with similar names. These sites trade on your excellent reputation and seldom offer the products or services for which you have become known. These sites trick potential customers. Every interaction with your customer is valuable. You certainly do not want to help create an environment where they need to be vigilant that they are not going to an online presence that is not their preferred target. In time they may even believe that some of the tactics undertaken by these imposters are you, further diminishing your business brand. Some people register missing extensions to hold them over the primary owner in the future. They will only release access to these extensions if the primary domain holder pays amounts far higher than the extension’s original sale price. While there are a few reasons that you should buy multiple domain extensions, there are more reasons that you should also consider multiple domain names themselves. Here are just seven to think about.

Make the right choice for your business

You should buy multiple domain extensions for your business, but how many domain extensions you should register will depend on careful oversight of your marketing strategy and your competitors' market activities. However, you don’t need to buy all domain extensions. Remember that you can easily redirect traffic from alternative domain names and extensions to other online sites. It is very straightforward to embark on a strategy of buying multiple domain extensions. But if you need more advice, please call us.

Melissa Toh