.au Domains: What is it and what does this mean for your website?

For years we’ve all been used to recognising a local Aussie business by the “.com.au” tacked on to the end of their website’s domain name. But now, in classic Australian fashion, we’re shortening the name.

What is a .au domain? Why is it different?

In March of this year, .au direct domains became available for Australians. All of the old domain names like .com.au, .gov.au, and .net.au, will still exist and continue to be used, but now Australian businesses and consumers will be able to make shorter, more striking web addresses.

So, instead of a website or email address looking like “yourwebsite.com.au”, they might look like “yourwebsite.au”

Domain owners were given a 6 month priority application window to apply for exact .au matches of domains that they owned at the start of the year. The end of that priority window is coming to an end at 9:59am (AEST) on the 21st of September, so you’ll need to act fast.

After that date, anyone with a local connection in Australia can register for this domain type, not just businesses. Australians also won’t need to show any proof that the domain matches their name or their business.

Do I need to get one?

The reason for getting a direct .au domain comes down to 2 things:

1. SEO/Aesthetics/Useability

While it’s not clear whether .au will be ranked higher or lower than .com.au in search engine algorithms, most of the time, a shorter domain is optimal. Shorter domains are also more favourable because of the way they look. Imagine trying to put “haroldspetsupplieswarehousemelbourne.com.au” in a nice spot on your business card. If you’ve already sacrificed giving information about your brand to make your website url shorter, like “harolds.com.au”, it looks and works so much better with an even shorter domain name like “harolds.au”.

2. The simple fact that if you don’t, someone else can

While an extra domain registration will cost you another 20 odd dollars a year, that price is significantly less than what it might cost you later. Phishing attempts are much more successful when they know information about the company and come from addresses that look legitimate. If you leave the .au version of your email domains on the market, then scammers can use that domain to send emails and convince workers to divulge sensitive information.

‘Cybersquatters’ or ‘Domain Sharks’ register domains that haven’t been taken with a name that matches a business or trademarked product in an attempt to steal online traffic and ransom the domain name to companies for much more than they should be paying for it.

For example, Jing Ren registered the domain “android.co.in” on a domain registration platform and later put the website up for sale at almost US$20,000. Google, of course, could afford to litigate and win. But there are hundreds of cases of smaller businesses being caught by cybersquatters who claim they were only “domain investing”

So, if you’re a sole trader or a small business with a website it’s worth thinking about, but you might be alright. Unfortunately for medium sized or small businesses that rely on their website, it doesn’t look like we’ve got much choice but to buy an extra domain.

Go to your chosen domain hosting retailer for more information on how to register or have a read for yourself on getyour.au