.com or .ie

Truss

If setting up a business that you feel could go somewhere would you go for the .com or the .ie domain name? The perfect name for the business is taken through .com but not the .ie - the business could sell products internationally...is there any reason I should try to get the .com or would the .ie do just fine?

Pixelcraft

general rule of thumb, if available get both, if not for local markets .ie is best, for international it's not very well known, so a .com would be advantageous.

none

.eu could be another option.

the_syco

Remember: some people may assume the .ie and .com are both the same, and thus you may get orders for the other one to you...

Tim M-U

when people are googleing for something, any want something irish, then their going to choose the one with .ie . ideally, get both, and have .com forward to .ie , so if they choose to go internationaly, it easy.

D.W

Truss,
lot of mis-information from posters above bar Pixelcraft. A .eu-hello? Ever seen one rank anywhere for anything even remotely competitive?

My advise is go for a .com EVERYTIME no matter if your marketplace is Irish only or elsewhere. A .ie severly restricts your International rankings big time-rules them out in almost all cases unless VERY uncompetitive.
I would "consider" the .ie version IF you were trading as that, wanted to rank in Ireland only (which no serious online business does) or had a brand name in the Irish marketplace. After that I would go after every possible concevievable version of the .com or consider a new .com totally if applicable. If its a new business work around your initial domain name considerations.

No idea what your niche is/may be-however do a search for any major term from SEO to Dublin hotels on Google.ie and see how many .ie domains you spot. I'm going to guess 2 max from 20 and I'll eat my hat, cat and well anything else that rhymes with hat if you see a .eu anywhere. Then go to G.com and see can you see a .ie domain anywhere-again hats, cats etc. shall be devoured if need be.

All the above is based purely on natural serps vs branding.

jmcc

Truss wrote: »

If setting up a business that you feel could go somewhere would you go for the .com or the .ie domain name? The perfect name for the business is taken through .com but not the .ie - the business could sell products internationally...is there any reason I should try to get the .com or would the .ie do just fine?

Get the .com if you intend to trade internationally and the .ie if you intend trading in the Irish market only. If the .co.uk and .eu are available get those as well.

Regards...jmcc

forbairt

jmcc wrote: »

Get the .com if you intend to trade internationally and the .ie if you intend trading in the Irish market only. If the .co.uk and .eu are available get those as well.

Regards...jmcc

Have to agree with pixelcraft and this advice

Just like Pokemon gotta get them all

I don't give that much stock to .net / .org

But try getting as many as you can that are going to be useful to your business and brand protection so when someone in the UK has the same idea and decides to launch the .co.uk you've got it similar with the .eu

Other interesting ones to get might be the .mobi ...

Not so sure about the .tel haven't exactly recommended to customers to get that one yet verdict is still out from me on it for the moment at least

.ie = 25 ish quid
.com = 6 ish quid
.co.uk = 4 ish quid
.eu = 5 ? ish quid

You should just be able to redirect them all to your main site anyways

Other things to think about may be will people by mistake put an s onto the end of your domain name ? might be an idea to get that as well

Now ... its coffee time

mneylon

jmcc wrote: »

Get the .com if you intend to trade internationally and the .ie if you intend trading in the Irish market only. If the .co.uk and .eu are available get those as well.

Regards...jmcc

100% agreed.

Morlar

This is kind of a related question - does anyone know why .ie domains are so expensive in relation to other domains ? Particularly .com ones, are .ie the most expensive out there?

Eoin

The problem with going for a .com is that you either need to come up with a completely arbitrary business name, or you will need to put dashes and so on in the domain name, which I am not a fan of.

Morlar wrote: »

This is kind of a related question - does anyone know why .ie domains are so expensive in relation to other domains ? Particularly .com ones, are .ie the most expensive out there?

This has been covered quite a lot. Anyone can register a .com automatically. To get a .ie, you need to be able to prove your claim on the domain, and this is subject to a manual checking process - therefore more overhead, and more costs.

It's a hell of a lot cheaper than it used to be.

mneylon

eu / co.uk/ com / net / org / info / biz / mobi / tel - all 100% automated

So registrars mark them up from a relatively low base cost

.ie - the base cost to the registrar / reseller is higher than with the domain extensions above PLUS the amount of work for the reseller's staff is considerably higher

none

D.W wrote: »

... A .eu-hello? Ever seen one rank anywhere for anything even remotely competitive?
... and I'll eat my hat, cat and well anything else that rhymes with hat if you see a .eu anywhere.

Off the top of my head.

http://www.toyota.eu
http://www.lexus.eu
http://www.hyundai.eu
http://www.bridgestone.eu
http://www.sandisk.eu
http://www.energizer.eu
http://www.tag.eu
http://www.gucci.eu
http://www.carrefour.eu
http://www.metro.eu
http://www.bavaria.eu

All quite usable and rich in content.
Go to google.ie and you may be amazed to notice a presence of .eu there.
Energizer - .eu on the 1st page
Toyota, Bridgestone and Hyundai - .eu on the 2nd page
Don't underestimate the power of Euro bureaucracy;)

forbairt

none wrote: »

Off the top of my head.
.....

All quite usable and rich in content.
Go to google.ie and you may be amazed to notice a presence of .eu there.
Energizer - .eu on the 1st page
Toyota, Bridgestone and Hyundai - .eu on the 2nd page
Don't underestimate the power of Euro bureaucracy;)

My only response to this would be .. are there smaller brands with rankings for eu for generic terms ? I presume for the most part you're putting energizer into the search ? and I also preseum the main energizer site with link to the .eu in some way

R3al

Morlar wrote: »

does anyone know why .ie domains are so expensive in relation to other domains ? Particularly .com ones, are .ie the most expensive out there?

.ie domains are administered by IEDR who registration process involves an applicant proving a connection with the domain and Ireland, this means that each application needs to be checked manually which leads to a higher administrative overhead. If you register a domain name directly with IEDR they currently charge €62 + vat.

Getting back to the original topic I would also agree that both .com and .ie domains should be registered if available, remember if you are going to point both domains at the same website you should implement a 301 redirection so that any search engine ranking is not affected.

mneylon

R3al wrote: »

If you register a domain name directly with IEDR they currently charge €62 + vat.

If you register a co.uk with Nominet directly you pay even more ...

But why would you?

That's insane

4red

OP, you say your preferred business name is already registered elsewhere as .com. If you register it as .ie and trade under that name, won't you get into trouble for trademark copyright?

Any thoughts on this folks?

mneylon

4red wrote: »

Any thoughts on this folks?

Registering a domain name does not give you special rights in it, so there wouldn't be a trademark issues unless the holder of the .com was trading in the same sector and had registered trademarks OR sufficient goodwill / acquired rights in it

StuartC

Id snap up the .ie, I wouldnt worry about people finding their way to the other .com site unless they're in the same field of work as yourself.

AARRRGH

Get the .ie and .com.

If you only get the .com, and someone comes along and registers the .ie, you will be kicking yourself.