What’s the better domain name? Com.PH or .PH or Both?

Investing in .PH (Philippines) domain names seems to be quite tricky, aside from the high cost of registration (compared to the .COM), .PH Domain names do have different domain name extensions, such as .PH, .COM.PH, .NET.PH, .GOV.PH, .ORG.PH, and many more that is yet to come. The most popular ones are .PH and .COM.PH, so which one should we invest in? Do we get .COM.PH or .PH or Both?

Cost

– Higher than TLD registration costs –

Registration of a .PH domain name (.PH or .COM.PH) is around $35 / year (goes cheaper by the bulk), So if you do go for both .COM.PH or .PH, it will cost $70 / year which is definitely high. However, going for both means you get to secure the most popular .PH domain extensions. So you’d have to weigh investing $70 / year in the same name, but same website different domain extension. If it does give a better yield to your business (covering the $70 registration) then I would definitely recommend both.

Traffic

– Which has got more traffic? –

Presently, .COM.PH is getting way more traffic than .PH. .PH seems to be fairly new to people but is gaining traffic pretty quick with recent developments. But looking at the Search Engine Optimization benefits, both seem to weigh equally in the local searches.

Remembrance

– Would you remember if I told you my website’s address? –

 

One of the most important thing about a domain name is if people could remember, and one of the factors of remembering a domain name (if the same word) is the length. .COM.PH is much longer than the .PH counterpart, it is definitely much harder to remember than .PH (especially to those who are not that familiar with our domain names). Having a short name, like Earn.ph vs. Earn.com.ph, will make it more ‘rememberable’. Also just by saying .COM, anyone could miss out the .PH part of it (.COM is more popular than all domain names) and therefore could misdirect visitors to another website.

Developments

– How many popular websites have you seen using PH domain names? –

Developments in the .COM.PH include really big websites, such as Google.com.ph and Yahoo.com.ph, that’s why the popularity of .COM.PH and .PH has increased over the past few years. However .PH is catching up with remarkable developments, like the PEP.ph and eBay.ph, these websites are carrying the .PH in their backs creating lots of awareness in .PH.

Where I stand

When I started I was so torn between the two domain name extensions and didn’t know what to get, so I started to weigh the factors which was mentioned on top. Upon my own research (thru the domain name experts), I found .PH to be the one that will definitely be the premiere domain name in the future. With a shorter extension and developments catching up (along with traffic and at the same price), .PH is expected to overtake .COM.PH in the future. However, it doesn’t mean to say that we all just place our money in .PH (these are only speculations based on the factors), to be safe, it’s best to invest both .COM.PH and .PH, *if* you can get your ROI (Return on Investment) or securing a good domain name for your company.