Having a quick look through Alexa’s top 100 UK websites, I was surprised by how many of these have forgotten to buy the .co.uk top-level domain version.
Here’s the main ones I noticed:
apple.co.uk
facebook.co.uk
myspace.co.uk
wikipedia.co.uk
blogger.co.uk
flickr.co.uk
wordpress.co.uk
digg.co.uk
reddit.co.uk
stumbleupon.co.uk
about.co.uk
download.co.uk
As they are all very popular, well-known websites the volume of brand queries are likely to be very high, many via “Pages from the UK” searches on Google.co.uk where most of these websites won’t be listed because they don’t use the .co.uk TLD and are hosted in the states. Still they could always try and buy the domains back, it might cost a little more than the original registration cost though!
Kevin Gibbons is Founder/Director of Strategy at SEOptimise. Kevin is well known within the search industry as a blogger for sites such as Search Engine Land, Econsultancy and Search Engine Watch. Kevin is also a frequent SEO speaker at a number of conferences including Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies (SES), a4uexpo, SAScon and BrightonSEO.
MySpace actually lost a recent legal battle and had to give back the .co.uk which they had won unfairly.
Kevin, What would be your ranked pick of the top 10 domain extensions you should acquire for an international site/brand? In general how would you structure all these domain names… would you direct all domains to one site or create sites specific to each extension? Possibly a bog post topic…
I wonder if these companies tried utilized the ICANN’s arbitration UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy)?
Thanks -Kevin
Getting your own domain name back can be a very difficult exercise and we’ve been through this painful process ourselves; getting a domain back is always very tough. We always try and get .co.uk and .com addresses for our clients, the other TLDs are hardly acknowledged outside of the web design industry.
P.S. Well done on getting to 1000 subscribers! You must be chuffed!
Hi, interesting topic you have taken up here. :)
Its funny to see, that such large sites, havent got the .co.uk extension? Why is that?
But if you dont mind me using your blog to tell about an important issue, I myself have experienced.
That is Registrar who “steal” their customers search for available domains!
Try read these blogs about the issue, its not a rumor, its proven:
http://kevinboss.net/website-design/be-careful-when-checking-if-a-domain-is-available
http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/network-solutions-steals-domain-ideas-confirmed/
Because of that, I have now stopped using Network Solutions and GoDaddy as the sites where I search for avaliable domains, but also as the companies where I buy my domains. I dont want to support companies that does such amoral things.
Above mentioned two companies is on my blacklist now. :)
I have been recommended by a friend, these following sites as a reliable and secure:
1. 77gb.net
2. moniker.com
This is just for your information. Just spreading my experience with others so they dont experience what I have.
Good luck and best regards,
well apple might have not wnated to anoy Apple (ie the Beatels company) by bying the .co.uk