How to Purchase a .com.au Domain Name for an Australian Business

In my opinion, you should choose a domain name before you register a business name… but that’s the seo geek in me talking. Having a domain name with your keywords contained in it is half the ‘SEO’ battle. Either way, you will need to decide whether to purchase a .com or a .com.au version or both!

.com or .com.au?

There are no rules you need to abid by when selecting either .com or .com.au. (Except that you need a ABN, ACN or business number to register a .com.au).

However, there are two streams of thinking… one is that you need .com even for Australian businesses, the other is that you need .com.au. What you need to consider is your target market. Are you targetting primarily Australian clients, or the global market?

A while back a domain with .com used to present as an overseas business and a lot of Australia’s perferred to view websites with the .com.au because that meant they were Australian. But .com has lost that stigma now and is pretty much accepted in Australia. But be aware that search engines may not show your website in local area searches because it is a .com and not a .com.au. To satisfy both camps, and you have the funds, buy both the .com and the .com.au and have the .com permanently redirected to the .com.au.

Anyway… if you have registered a business in Australia, then you should jump online and purchase a matching .com.au (and/or .com) domain name. Here are the steps I take to register a domain:-

I use www.crazydomains.com.au but there are a few around:-

1. Go to www.crazydomains.com.au and type in the domain you are looking for and click “SEARCH”;
2. From the list of results choose the one you want and click “ADD TO CART”. (If you don’t like the results, then enter a different domain in the search box and click “SEARCH”);
3. Click “REGISTER SELECTED”; (The next couple of screens are trying to sell you addons)
4. You will need to create an account with CrazyDomains, just follow the prompts, “CONTINUE ORDER”;
5. Click “CONTINUE ORDER” (I don’t add DNS Upgrade);
6. Click “CONTINUE ORDER” (I don’t add privacy protection but you might be interested);
7. Click “CONTINUE ORDER” (I don’t add promotion);
8. Click “CONTINUE ORDER” (I don’t add hosing);
9. Next, because you are registering a .com.au they will need to confirm that you are the owner of this business name, so you need to put in here the ABN; ACN or Business Number in here and the Business Name and select the type of business it is. Crazy Domains will need to check that you are in fact the owner of the Business Name (it doesn’t have to be exactly the same but similar, eg xyzbookkeepingtownsville.com.au can be owned by XYZ Pty Ltd). Once it is authorized, they will send you an email. This could take as little as a couple of minutes or a day or two.

If you have problems, Townsville Social Media Marketing are happy to help. [email protected]