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View Full Version : The .org.uk extension - where's it headed?



aZooZa
03-03-12, 01:50 AM
What are your thoughts on this extension?

It's a multiple choice, anonymous poll. Please check all that apply.

Comments welcome here!

GreyWing
03-03-12, 04:16 AM
In my opinion they do rank, but Google could flip that switch any time they want. Too much of a gamble to buy heavily into them for long term use. Maybe pay 6 months earnings on a site or for a domain only would want to get my money back within 6 months on a gamble with them.

atlas
03-03-12, 04:35 AM
but Google could flip that switch any time they want.

I can't see that happening because a lot of charities and similar reputable organisations use .org.uk. Imagine the bad publicity and backlash Google would receive for penalising charitable websites, say a website for childhood cancer built on a .org.uk. The bad headlines pretty much write themselves.

Aiden Roberts
03-03-12, 11:00 AM
I have a few and they rank albeit in not very competitive niches and targeting specific longtail keywords. I think that if you are willing to put in the development time then they can be worth the £6. I wouldn't imagine G would simply turn them off for reasons given above. I was originally sceptical but then decided that most searchers never look at the extension in detail so decided to try them, time will tell if that was correct or not!

Aiden

aZooZa
03-03-12, 11:50 AM
This is becoming interesting. Thanks guys.

FagEnd
03-03-12, 12:02 PM
I quite like the .org.uk extension. Don't see any real difference getting ranked compared to .co.uk Google seems to treat them the same, for mediocre domains anyway :)

GreyWing
03-03-12, 05:22 PM
I can't see that happening because a lot of charities and similar reputable organisations use .org.uk. Imagine the bad publicity and backlash Google would receive for penalising charitable websites, say a website for childhood cancer built on a .org.uk. The bad headlines pretty much write themselves.

I was probably referring more to generic exact match names. Names like quickloans.org.uk have no real business being on a .org.uk and all it needs is Google to scale that down and the price of .org.uk's will plummet. With regards the charity held names, obviously they are usually brands rather than generics so they would still rank. Plus Google love the links in the charity sector so even if they lose the exact match benefit the wieght of links will

I genuinely think it's a bigger possibility than people admit to on here, in fact I think it is a matter of time. Now will Google lose dominance before that happens? That I suppose is another question entirely.

We need remember that the leakage to .co.uk is huge and your are 99% relying on serps for traffic. Serps you have little or no control over if they decide to alter it. So basically you have little or no control over the value of your name.

GreyWing

WealdDomains
04-03-12, 09:01 PM
I think there's a black-and-white angle to whether you personally agree with using org.uk for commercial, rather than charitable, purposes. That has to be a personal choice : are you willing to exploit Google/SEO while breaching the spirit of the extension, or are you willing to sit back and miss a legal business opportunity that your peers are being allowed to exploit. There is also the leakage to co.uk, as GreyWing mentions, plus also leakage to .com. However, moving beyond that, I think there is a genuinely grey area with org.uk around geodomaining and hobby/interest domain names. Where does an org.uk geodomain that combines genuine information with the potential for community involvement with a degree of monetisation sit ? Similarly for a hobby/interest site. Talking about the extremes of the spectrum is one thing, but I think exploring the grey area where the two meet is particularly interesting.

David

aZooZa
06-03-12, 10:35 AM
A hotly-contested one on DL right now. £2,650, three days to go, two bidders.

http://domainlore.co.uk/acnetreatment.org.uk

atlas
06-03-12, 02:13 PM
I saw that. Not quite sure I understand. Acne must be a very profitable niche.

Ty
06-03-12, 06:31 PM
A hotly-contested one on DL right now. £2,650, three days to go, two bidders.

http://domainlore.co.uk/acnetreatment.org.uk


I saw that. Not quite sure I understand. Acne must be a very profitable niche.

I've got to admit the current bidding on this one completely flummoxes me in terms of the rules & values of exact match and domain extension as I understand them, but it's good news for the seller in any case.

Maybe we can work out a way to sell more domains to these two buyers :)

ratboy
06-03-12, 06:41 PM
I think its great for certain niches for sure, I've struggled to rank business type sites with .org.uk, even more so with a hypen - just gets harder and harder

atlas
06-03-12, 08:05 PM
Maybe we can work out a way to sell more domains to these two buyers :)

I wouldn't be surprised if the plural is on DL within days.

atlas
06-03-12, 08:06 PM
I think its great for certain niches for sure, I've struggled to rank business type sites with .org.uk, even more so with a hypen - just gets harder and harder

In my experience, hyphenated domains don't get an exact match bonus in Google, so they're more difficult to rank.

aZooZa
07-03-12, 02:24 AM
One of those bidders won this double-hyphen .co.uk (£850) a few days ago: http://domainlore.co.uk/same-day-loans.co.uk

Rob_F
07-03-12, 04:02 PM
A hotly-contested one on DL right now. £2,650, three days to go, two bidders.

http://domainlore.co.uk/acnetreatment.org.uk

Good spot.

My own feeling is that .org.uk sales and prices are on a downward trend and I don't see that trend reversing. They were probably at their most valuable 6-12 months ago. I own a couple but have no plans to acquire more.

They do have a high trust value and where the subject matter fits the extension, I think they can work quite well. As an investment though, I'd prefer to put my money elsewhere.

- Rob

aZooZa
07-03-12, 04:18 PM
Good spot.

My own feeling is that .org.uk sales and prices are on a downward trend and I don't see that trend reversing. They were probably at their most valuable 6-12 months ago. I own a couple but have no plans to acquire more.

They do have a high trust value and where the subject matter fits the extension, I think they can work quite well. As an investment though, I'd prefer to put my money elsewhere.

- Rob
I've done a lot of checking over the last week, and there are a huge amount of double-keyword generic .org.uk domains still available. Quite a few single words as well. I think the jury's probably still out at the moment, but I won't be buying any more. Can't unload them, and certainly don't have the time to risk developing them.