When deciding between a .CO.ZA or .COM domain for your new website, it’s important to consider your target audience and your website’s goals.
The .COM domain is globally recognized and suitable for businesses targeting an international audience, while .CO.ZA is specific to South Africa and can build trust with local consumers.
Both can rank well in search engines, but .CO.ZA may have an advantage in local searches. If possible, consider purchasing both domains to cover all bases.
Lets explore the differences between these two domain name extensions, namely the choice between purchasing .com vs .co.za and which will best represent you or your business online.
Top Level Domain (TLD)
Both .co.za and .com are top level domains. A Top Level Domain (TLD) or domain name extension is the suffix part of a domain name. For example the .com in www.domains.com.
The right TLD depends on the kind website, brand, business, products, or services to be displayed on the website as well as the locations of your desired target audience.
Both .co.za and .com can be position your brand equally on the internet, however there are positives and negatives to each choice.
Is .com Better than .co.za?
.com is the most popular TLD on the internet. It was originally designed for commercial businesses, however it has gained such popularity that any individual or organization on the Internet can use it.
NOTE: if your exact match .com is available, grab it before someone else does.
.co.za is the TLD for South Africa. .Co.Za domains denote that a user or business is usually based in South Africa.
While this may not seem to make a large difference, many consumers in the South Africa may feel more comfortable purchasing from websites that have a .co.za domain names. This is because they have more trust in the product or service being fulfilled due to the localization of the website.
For example, I’m sure you’ll feel safer purchasing an expensive item watch from examplewatches.co.za with versus examplewatches.com which may not be locally based.
.com domains can also be localized by displaying prices locally or by having different homepages, or websites altogether for different regions, for example https://www.amazon.com/South-Africa/
If you plan to sell internationally then you may want to think about using a .com. this will make scaling your brand internationally easier.
Scaling with a .co.za is not that complex either, lets say for example you wanted to launch your services in the UK, then you could operate two websites, www.mybrandexample.co.za and www.mybrandexample.co.uk
Recommended Read: What Is The .co.za Meaning?
Why is .com More Expensive?
.com is more expensive than a .co.za domain name as it is the more popular TLD. .com is used around the world, while .co.za is mostly used by South African individuals and organizations. A .com extension is considered as the best domain name for your website.
On the domain aftermarket, brandable .com domains can sell for thousands of Rands.
The Advantages of Registering a .co.za Domain Name in South Africa
Registering a .co.za domain name in South Africa has numerous advantages.
Firstly, .co.za domain names can be trade marked with the CIPC.
Secondly, If you are targeting a local or national audience then South Africans may trust .co.za domain names more than other domain names like .ar (the TLD for Argentina).
Another advantage of .co.za domains is its ability to rank higher in search engines, more specifically – Google South Africa.
Your website is determined to be more localized, hence being more authoritative when covering a certain topic versus, numerous .com websites covering the same topic.
This is because Google want’s to serve users the most useful resource on the web for any particular search query.
Real world example:
In the screenshot above, we can see www.standardbank.co.za, ranking first (The top result after paid ads, and featured snippets) for the key phrase “savings vs investments”.
What’s important to note that it is the .co.za domain of Standard Bank (Standard Bank has several TLDS for the different locations the financial institution operates in, like https://www.stanbicbank.com.gh/ for Ghana).
Their .co.za domain is outranking several .com domain names like investopedia.com, which has a higher domain authority than the .co.za of Standard Bank.
But because the Standard Bank domain name is more localized and suited to a searcher from South Africa, it would only make sense that Google would choose to rank it higher than a .com domain which may be targeting several locations and most likely will not have as localized content.
I see .co.za outranking .coms for local content, products and services more often.
However a .com only targeting a South Africa audience can do just as well, or even better, take www.takelot.com for example – which dominates commerce search results on Google Search South Africa.
Due to the confusion that surrounds individuals and businesses when it comes to the different ways that a domain can end, many find that the easiest way to address the issue is simply to purchase both .com and .co.za domains for their website.
If you are able to purchase both the .com domain name and .co.za domain name for your desired website, consider redirecting the domain name you wont be using to the domain name that you will be using, until you might need it in the future and in order to not miss out out on any potential direct traffic to your website.
For example: When you enter www.timeslive.co.za into your browser’s URL bar you will be taken to www.timeslive.co.za. When you enter www.timeslive.com into the your browser’s URL bar you will also be taken to www.timeslive.co.za. Ask your webmaster to assist you in accomplishing this redirect.
.co.za is better if you are a local business or individual that only aims to target a local or national audience, while .com is better if you will be targeting an international audience or for branding purposes.
Are there Other Local Domain Name Extensions?
Yes! you can go even more local than .co.za
Here are South Africa’s current available local domain name extensions:
- .co.za
- .joburg
- .durban
- .capetown
- .org.za
- .net.za
- .web.za
- .za.com
- .africa.com
Preferred Domain Name Registrar
Our preferred domain name registrar is www.domains.co.za. All our .co.za domain names are registered with them, including TheFrontline.co.za. Find your next domain here.
Hope this article has given you the answer on whether to choose .co.za or .com.
At the end of the day, if you can – go with .com, however if both .com and .co.za is not available, don’t stress about it – one can always build a brand with a different domain name extension.