.co.ke or .com, which is The Best Domain To Buy in Kenya

You are about to register a domain name in Kenya but you are confused on which one to buy between .com and .co.ke. Well, there are many factors that determine the best domain name to buy in Kenya. I understand we have never discussed this topic before and it’s good we tackle it ones and for all.

I have owned both .co.ke and .com domains and came to realize that each of them has its advantages and disadvantages.

One advantage of .co.ke over .com domain in Kenya is that readers easily identify and appreciate your content because it’s written by a Kenyan. When you explain something happening in Kenya, they know that what you have written is out of experience. In case a blog with .com extension writes the same thing, they will not appreciate it the same way they’ll appreciate yours.

Another advantage of .co.ke domain name is that search engines send more traffic from Kenya than from other countries. Search engines like Google and Yahoo will automatically know that your site focuses on local content, thus giving you more traffic from Kenya. Your articles will rank better than articles from .com sites. But the ranking will also depend on the quality of your content and domain age.

Finally, it’s easier to get available .co.ke domains than .com domains. The competition for .com domain names is extremely high.

Why you should buy .com domain name

.com domain extensions are the most popular names among the existing domain extensions. The reason why most people prefer .com domain names over other domains is that they have higher authority. Sites with similar content witness those with an extension of .com ranking better. If two sites of different domain extensions but with similar domain authority post an article, the one with .com extension will rank higher.

Security issues. In Kenya, if you become a thorn in the flesh of the government, your .co.ke domain name will be deleted, rendering you without a blog. But it’s impossible for the government to delete a .com domain especially one that’s registered at Bluehost.Even if the government begs Bluehost to delete your website, they can’t heed to their request.Bluehost is an international hosting company which works independently.

Local hosting companies are compromised in some circumstances.

For bloggers,.com is the most ideal domain extension when you want to put up content from other countries. It’s not appropriate to post Nigerian content in .co.ke blog. Some readers won’t take your content seriously unless it’s posted in .ng or .com domain.

When you own a .com domain, you can post content from any part of the world.

In addition, growth is not limited for .com domain names, which is why such extensions are more successful than .co.ke extensions.

These are my proposals

• If you want to own a .co.ke domain name, then it should purely focus on local content. But if the site will feature content from other countries,.com domain extension is the best.
• In case you are registering a company that deals with local products, don’t go for .com domain names—.co.ke names are the best. Your clients will trust you with .co.ke name than .com name.
• If you’re a blogger, a political blogger to be specific, you should avoid .co.ke domains—ziko na mikosi. You can even look at Nyakundi and Alai blogs, they all bear .com domain names.
• Above all, it’s better to own both domain name extensions.in blogging, it’s very risky to own a single blog.