Let’s assume you’re Canadian, and you have this great product or service that’s only available locally. Now, let’s say you want to put this product up for sale on the internet – should you get a local domain name, or would a normal dot-com be sufficient enough?
You see, there’s a very good reason why local domain names even exist on the market – it helps search engines identify which websites are most relevant to the searcher’s immediate geographical vicinity, and conversely it helps website owners identify themselves to the search engines and to their viewers.
Here’s a rigid example: using the aforementioned assumptions, let’s say your website’s domain name is a local one, www.mycanadianmoosemug.ca. And there’s another website domain name online, called www.mycanadianmoosemug.com. When a viewer searches for your site (most likely with the keywords “my canadian moose mug”), both of those domain names will pop up on the list of hits because the domain names both meet the search criteria – but most likely, your local domain name is top of the list because it’s local name is more relevant to the search term “canadian.” Now, since the viewer wants a genuine Canadian moose mug, the local domain name is more prominent because it implies that the website is really from Canada itself – the regular dot-com might be just an importer or a copycat, and probably more expensive.
So you see, it is at that point getting a local domain name is more affordable than getting a normal dot-com in terms of garnering more viewers to your website. It more than compensates for the higher domain name registration costs (in general, local domain names cost around at least 20% more than regular domain names). But, of course, if your website is meant to cater to more than one country and consists of content spanning more than one nationality, perhaps a normal dot-com will do you more justice.
It all depends on your content and your intentions for your website, whether or not you should get a local domain name. Just keep that in mind the next time you go register.
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