Choose a TLD for a football transfers website

[DanHorvat]

I have a brand name in mind, and .com is taken, and I can't make up my mind on which TLD should I choose.

Imagine the brand name is "GreatTransfers", though it's not.

Most of the articles will be about Premiership, but not exclusively. I want to keep my options open as there's a chance we might become a global authority on football transfers, and there might be localized versions of the site in the future - I'd like these to be on the same TLD.

So .co.uk sounds good, and we could report on the European transfers from a UK standpoint, as if we're a UK source that covers everything. But Brexit will make the gap between UK and EU greater with time.

Is .uk maybe an option? It's shorter, yet it might confuse some people, and would perhaps suggest the site is about UK only.

I don't really want to set a geographic target, even though most of our audience (and income) will be coming from the UK. I'll choose .co.uk if I don't think of something better.

.eu is available but this really would eliminate the UK, and would be a slap in the face of our UK readers. So I'm not seriously considering this one.

.net and .org are available, and with either of these I wouldn't specifically choose a geographic target, which is good. But since the domain name is brandable and not an EMD, a visitor kind of expects it to be a .com. You can get away with an EMD with a .net, but a brand + .net doesn't sound as good.

.co is available. I'm a fan of .co domains, even if they're causing lots of problems as people keep typing the "m" at the end.

It's irrelevant in this case though, as people probably won't be typing the URL in, but will be coming in through referrals. They'll click a link somewhere.

Most importantly, .com is a parked domain, since 2007, so even if someone types in .com he'll realize his own error. I can choose any TLD I want and I won't be losing traffic to a competitor.

So...

GreatTransfers.co.uk
GreatTransfers.uk
GreatTransfers.eu
GreatTransfers.net
GreatTransfers.org
GreatTransfers.co

?

The question here is really
1. choose UK as the core market and then expand the focus to cover all Europe (and A-League and MLS) but do so from a UK perspective,
or
2. don't declare your core market in the TLD, and choose your own markets based on the articles you write

Any thoughs are appreciated.

[baldidiot]

If you're primarily focusing on the premiership I'd do .co.uk (with the .uk redirecting). Non-uk people should be fine with the .uk domain, seeing as it's about the EPL. That's assuming that a good chunk of your search traffic is likely to UK based though.

You could even do .co alongside for non-uk stuff (ie: two sites - greattransfers.co.uk for UK and greattransfers.co for non-UK, seems to make sense. Or .co.uk and .eu - depends if you want to split into two sites though). Either way I'd probably buy up all the versions so you have the option in the future.

Have you tried to get the .com btw? If you love the name could be worth approaching the owners. PM me the domain if you want to see if it's someone I have/can get contact details for (spend far too much time buying domains).

[Syndicate]

If it was greattransfers it wouldn't appeal to a UK audience -- because that term is very American (I realise you said it wasn't). While i would never have used that name with a .co.uk , if you think the name is more international .co.uk would be a good bet. Afterall, people still associate the UK has being serious, and especially when it comes to gaming. The only other for me would be .net, although to be honest i'm a .com freak!

[alin04]

I think that greattransfers.net is great for international visitors.


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[DanHorvat]

The site is in English so it doesn't make much sense to target visitors from European countries anyway - Germans search the web in German, Spaniards in Spanish, and there are only a few exceptions such as Portuguese that regularly use English to browse the web.

So, writing about Bundesliga in English is pretty much an exercise in futility. Unless the news is big enough to be interesting to the English-speaking reader. How interested are UK people in EU football anyway? Do they care about Bayern at all?

It would make sense to target UK, USA and, to a lesser degree, Australia (or Australian fans of EU/UK football).

Let's say I won't end up with a .co domain unless something radical happens. I'll go with .co.uk or .net.

Still didn't make up my mind.

[Syndicate]

I suppose it would be dependent on what information you were providing and whether it's intended for an international audience, but ESPN show the Bundesliga.

The other thing is English is still the main international language, so more often than not it would be non English speakers second language. While many Brits isolate themselves to everything British, it's not true of other Europeans, Asians and Africans (especially when it's to do with betting).

What i'm trying to say is - someone from a non English speaking country would probably prefer to read about a foreign league in English (if they couldn't get it in their own language).

I suppose Net is more neutral, but .co.uk more compelling!

The site is in English so it doesn't make much sense to target visitors from European countries anyway - Germans search the web in German, Spaniards in Spanish, and there are only a few exceptions such as Portuguese that regularly use English to browse the web.

So, writing about Bundesliga in English is pretty much an exercise in futility. Unless the news is big enough to be interesting to the English-speaking reader. How interested are UK people in EU football anyway? Do they care about Bayern at all?

It would make sense to target UK, USA and, to a lesser degree, Australia (or Australian fans of EU/UK football).

Let's say I won't end up with a .co domain unless something radical happens. I'll go with .co.uk or .net.

Still didn't make up my mind.

[MMM]

I know it's not the question you asked, but if I had to pick a domain that will give all the transfer market details, analysis, rumors etc, I wouldn't go with greattransfers, but more in the direction of transferinsider or something like that.

[Planet Mark]

'greattransfers' sounds kind of lame for me too... that might work for a non-native English speaking audience better than a native one maybe? (in which case my vote would be for a .net etc instead of the .co.uk).

[Cayman012]

What is "TLD" ?

[MMM]

https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=tld

[baldidiot]

'greattransfers' sounds kind of lame for me too... that might work for a non-native English speaking audience better than a native one maybe? (in which case my vote would be for a .net etc instead of the .co.uk).

er...

Imagine the brand name is "GreatTransfers", though it's not.

[Planet Mark]

haha, feel foolish now, ah well.

[MMM]

Lol. same, sorry!

[DanHorvat]

I knew this would happen.

[baldidiot]

I knew this would happen.

Tbf it was almost inevitable!

[chaumi]

You could consider one of the newer TLDs, Dan. .online as an example (and that arguably would be the best fit out of the bunch). FWIW I've seen a .social ranking well for a casino term.

Though I'd agree that .co.uk (or .uk) or .net shades it in the absence of the .com

[DanHorvat]

Thanks everyone so far.

I'll reveal my brand name now and I'm asking which do you prefer:

NewSigning.co.uk

NewSigning.uk

NewSignings.com

The desired domain name, NewSigning.com, is sadly unavailable so I need to choose between the singular form with a UK domain or plural with a .com.

[chaumi]

I'd use the .com but register the others and redirect to it

[Syndicate]

NewSignings.com --- because i should imagine their will be more than one (signing) - Plural!

Thanks everyone so far.

I'll reveal my brand name now and I'm asking which do you prefer:

NewSigning.co.uk

NewSigning.uk

NewSignings.com

The desired domain name, NewSigning.com, is sadly unavailable so I need to choose between the singular form with a UK domain or plural with a .com.

[baldidiot]

Yeah my vote is for newsignings.com - the plural makes perfect sense here.