What the new .co domain name means for your business

On July 20, a new domain name extension, .co, became available for use globally. We asked guest blogger Shashi Bellamkonda, Director – Social Media & Social Media Swami of Network Solutions, to help explain why this could be a good opportunity for your business. Shashi is a regular contributor to the DC Examiner and Tech Cocktail. Network Solutions works to help small businesses succeed online with Web hosting, do-it-yourself website builder software, online marketing tools and domain names.

An essential pillar for any business is its brand. Brand presence on the Web is a key factor in a business appearing in Internet searches and being found by existing and prospective customers.

For small business owners, the essential ingredients for building a strong brand are:

• A memorable business name
• brand identity elements:
  • domain name
  • logo
  • email address
  • business card
  • social Web presence ( Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

A domain name is important for your online brand, and to solidify your brand presence, you should search for a .co for your business. As the number of registered domain names grows, you may not find your first choice for a domain name if you look only at domain name extensions like .com or .net. According to  “The State of the Industry “report released by Verisign in June, the overall base of .com and .net domain names grew to 99.3 million domain names in the ?rst quarter of 2010. Along with the new .co domain extension, there are several other extensions that you could use for your business if you can’t find what you want in the .com arena. For example, if you are into video, .tv may be the perfect extension for your business. (See a list of domain name extensions on Wikipedia.)

.Co and the Web user’s perception

As a first step to weigh your options, check and see if your brand or the domain name you desire is available as a .co. You can find a list of registrars here http://www.cointernet.co/registrars/co-registrars (Disclaimer: This list includes my employer Network Solutions.)

My colleague Steven Fisher has written a few articles about using .co domains for Collaborate, Company and Commerce that may be helpful in a business context. In a study by global market research firm Penn, Schoen and Berland, 75 percent of Web users surveyed said they associated .co with “company,” “corporation,” or other commercial endeavors. Some countries have .co domain name extensions available for companies (such as.co.uk or .co.in), so if you do business overseas, using .co can help your business gain greater recognition globally.

Google has approved .co domain for international use, saying, “We will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted.”  Even though the extension .co is technically for the country of Colombia, it will be recognized as a business domain depending on the content of the website.

Your takeaway :

1. Not satisfied with the domain name you currently have? Check and see if the domain name you want is available as a .co extension.
2. Already have a domain name? Consider protecting your brand by registering your URL with a .co extension as well.
3. If your company name could sound like a different name, use this opportunity to register a .co for the similar sounding name. (For instance, my name, Shashi, could be misspelled as Shashee or even Sushi.)
4. Starting a new business? When deciding on your business name or tagline, register your domain name to match them, and check out .co for availability.

As I write this article, the counter for the number of .co domains registered on http://www.cointernet.co/ shows that nearly 300,000 have already been registered.

The Small Business Success Index study by the University of Maryland and Network Solutions® found that only 47 percent of small business have websites. In today’s global economy, once you have a website your company is immediately global. Should you choose to register a domain name with any extension, one place to start is Network Solutions, which is one of the .co registrars.

Visit Shashi Bellamkonda’s blog. This article contains the opinions and observations of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of Network Solutions or its clients or partners.