AU Domains - Opportunity or Scam?

You need to secure you .au domain before 20th September - or do you?

.au Domain Administration Limited (auDA) has released the new .au domain and is reserving domain registrations for existing .com.au domain owners until 20 September.  That means if you have a .com.au domain you have until 20 September to lock in the .au equivalent before it becomes publicly available.  So should you register your .au domain?

What is the benefit of a .au domain name?

auDA claims that you should have a .au domain because it is shorter and easier for customers to remember.  They also infer that somehow a .au is more identifiable as Australian than a .com.au domain.  Of course .com.au domains have been used since the internet became publicly accessible and everyone in Australia is used to using a .com.au domain name.  In reality the introduction of the .au domain is simply a money grab for adDA and their resellers.

Myths Busted:

• There is no "ranking" benefit of a .au domain over a .com.au
• If you have a .com.au domain, you would have to redirect your .au domain to the existing domain to maintain the current Google rankings or redirect your existing urls to the .au address.  Google will ignore any doorway sites using the new domain to access the existing site
• Australians are not stupid, they can remember .com.au

The only people to benefit from the .au domains are the people selling them.  If your main target market is Australians then a .com.au domain works perfectly well.  If you are targeting international customers then a .com domain would probably serve you best.

Does this mean you should not register a .au domain name?

For some businesses there is a strong business reason to register a .au domain in addition to their current domain.  That is, the protection of their name.  The introduction of the .au domain is in reality an invitiation to your competitors and scammers to engage in identity theft and phishing scams.  If your business name is well known, highly desirable for Google rankings or if you have a high ranking domain in a competitive market the introduction of the .au domain is a threat to your identity and you should register the equivalent to your .com.au domain to protect the integrity of your name.  After 20 Septemer 2022 your competitors will be legally able to register a .au domain that matches your .com.au doamin unless you have registered it beforehand.