Benefits of Owning a ccTLD for your Business

What is a ccTLD?

A ccTLD is a Country Code Top-Level Domain. Each country has a specific top-level domain associated with their country, typically, but not always consisting of the first 2 letters of the countries' name. For example, .au is the ccTLD for Australia, however .za is the ccTLD for South Africa (an abbreviation of the Dutch Zuid-Afrika), as .sa had already been registered prior to the registration of the ccTLD for South Africa, for Saudi Arabia.

What are the Benefits of using a ccTLD?

Making use of the ccTLD associated with your country allows for greater location-based SEO and attracts local markets to your brand. Customers will easily spot your business as the efficient and accessible choice for their particular needs, as customers tend to feel more comfortable trusting local brands, making use of sites in their own language, viewing products in their own currency and having their purchases delivered or collectable from within their own region. 

Many ccTLDs also allow you to bring out your creativity in deciding on your domain name. Many extensions such as .be for Belgium, .ie for the Republic of Ireland and .pe for Peru, just to name a few, open the door to fun and catchy domain names including subscri.be, food.ie, develo.pe. By incorporating existing ccTLDs into your brands' domain name give you a unique twist on online marketing and make your brand stand out from the crowd, as compared to using a standard .com or .net domain.

Often, short, catchy domain names are unavailable for registration under the generic .com, .net, .org and .co domains. ccTLDs are more readily available and have a wider range of name choices that better fit your brand. It is therefore more worthwhile to register a ccTLD than to pay excessive prices in order to transfer or secure a generic TLD.

Are there any restrictions with using a ccTLD?

Occasionally, countries will have restricted domain registration rights, such as to own a .ke you must reside in Kenya, and in order to register a .ac.za SLD, you must belong to a higher education institution, learned society or associated research and support institution that is domiciled in the Republic of South Africa.

When registering any ccTLD, you may also be asked for certain documentation proving that the domain will be used for legitimate purposes; such as the nature of your business, location, products etc which will then be used to determine whether your company portrays the correct message and targets associated with your country.

For more extensive rules and regulations of owning a ccTLD, please refer to the specific requirements of your countries' ccTLD registration guides. To register a ccTLD on our portal, navigate to the Web-RAR tab and search for your intended ccTLD. You will be able to view all those we offer on Gateway as well as our full price-list of all domains. We have multiple namespaces available, including .co.za for $5.90, .co for $25.00 and .tv for $31.00.