So we are currently working on setting up a website for our business which for regulatory reasons is based exclusively inside of Canada.
The issue I am running into is that the .com domain is owned by a domain reseller and they are asking for >20k for it. At this point in time that is a fairly large expense and I am trying to find a way to assign value to the .com vs .ca debate.
How big of a hit is it really to have a .ca versus a .com suffix as a Canadian company? I am having a hard time trying to find good sources of information on this type of topic before hiring a consultant. Most of my competitors are using a .ca so I don’t believe it will be detrimental, but if the .com is a tangible benefit would it be worth changing the name?
I have a couple options, I have the .ca domain of the same name already and I have the .com domain with an “s” at the end of the name which doesn’t change a whole lot about the business name. For context it basically changes the name from apple to apples. It still makes sense and sounds alright.
Is it worth it to rebrand slightly to the plural version of the business name to take a .com suffix?
Any help/resources would be appreciated.
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The thing is owning your brand. You dont wanna be Mcdonalds.ca as a roofer because Mcdonalds.com owns the the search already
Very relevant as the closest name to me is quite a big lumber company and I’m guessing the domain was picked up in hopes enough traffic is misdirected there to annoy them into purchasing
Just put “brand” or “company” or some other generic word at the beginning or end. The .com matters way more than the actual domain words.
Make money then buy the dot com when it’s not a big financial hit. Invest in your products and selling now.
There might be cases where it matters like “bookings.com” where it’s the actual brand name or if your a local service provider and need a local sounding domain but for the most part it couldn’t matter less.
The importance of a domain name suffix depends on your business goals and target audience. If you are a Canadian company that is primarily targeting Canadian customers, then a .ca domain name will likely be sufficient. However, if you are targeting a global audience, then a .com domain name may be more beneficial.
Wow. I guess this is different from country to country because in the UK we have .co.uk as our country suffix and personally I much prefer any website with that suffix.
I know it’s going to be aimed at Brits, the prices will be in pounds etc.
It feels like most .com websites are squarely aimed at Americans so I always try and get to a .co.uk if possible.
I was hoping it is something similar in a sense that having a “Canadian company” and having the “.ca” contributes to that identity and provides some solidarity in the consumer base.
I know personally, that idea resonates with me but given the general publics computer skills I was worried about losing traffic to people recognizing the name but then just throwing the .com in there without thinking twice.
Some of the comments on managing SEO and brand imaging have quelled my concerns though!
If you’re mainly targeting other Canadians, you might be better off with .ca anyways. If I see something is a .ca, I’ll stay longer and poke around because I know I won’t run into “we don’t ship to/service Canada”. I LOVE seeing .ca because I know I’m in the right place, this website and product is meant for ME.
You’ve already hoarded a good domain for service to America, tell the guy to kick rocks.
In my view, not that important. Also, .com and .ca are not your only choices here.
I own a consulting company. I picked an obscure, Latin name for the company so that I could have a .com domain for it. Only to learn that my clients struggled to spell that name correctly. I then rebranded under a simpler name. The .com was, predictably, taken. I wound up getting a .net domain instead. As I do network consulting, that seemed appropriate anyway.
There is a preference for .com, and a lot of people are brainwashed to assume that .com confers some level of legitimacy. This has gotten worse with the proliferation of TLDs-for-profit in the modern era, which overwhelmingly contain spammy web sites. But I certainly wouldn’t value it at $20K.
It’s important, but not massively so as long as you take the time to point it out. Most people expect web addresses to be .com and will be confused and possibly give up if that doesn’t work. It depends a lot on how you are using it, if it’s direct, email, business cards or whatever, just point out that it’s a .ca address. If it’s via search, as long as your SEO is up to grade, they will just be clicking a link. It’s mainly if people see it written somewhere then type it in to their browser themselves later where they can get it wrong.
This is a very succinct way to put it. I think this thread has helped me to better frame measurement of the value of the domain versus the associated tasks around it like SEO and other prospecting/lead generating ideas.
Could you do something like appleca.com? I’ve seen a few websites where companies have a shortened version of their location in their domain name. Appleca or maybe applecity or appleprovince. Or even the other way cityapple.com?
That’s actually a pretty clever idea. I’ve never considered anything like it! I’ll have to workshop that a bit! Thanks!
I don’t think it’s worth worrying about, your SEO and marketing will matter way more than your domain name.
Think of it this way, how many clicks will 20k in advertising buy you? How many clicks or lost revenue will you get from a .com vs .ca probably next to none.
I tend to agree. There are far more efficient ways to utilize the money at this point.