Secure your .au Direct Domain Now!
Pre-registration closes on September 20. After that you competitors could be hijacking your brand with the .au direct domain registration.
What are .au direct domain names?
Recently auDA, the governing body for the Australian domain space announced the introduction of the new domain extension .au. Essentially this means that qualified applicants can have just .au at the end of their of their domain name in place of .com.au, .net.au, .edu.au, .org.au, .gov.au etc. So in our case this would mean that professionalwebsolutions.com.au becomes professionalwebsolutions.au.
Do I need the .au Domain name?
This one is a bit tricky, and comes to your brand strength and how much you want to protect your brand. There is no indication of any real added value of the .au domain from a marketing perspective; Sure it is a bit shorter and a little simpler to type, however the Australian market will take some time to adapt to this and (based on other Countries where this approach has been implemented) may never embrace the .au domain for commercial businesses.
However (you knew that was coming didn’t you?), if your brand is something you want to protect, we would recommend picking up the .au domain name. Why? If you do not register the .au domain before 20 September, your competitors who have been waiting for the chance to steal some of your market share will have that opportunity with the .au domain. If you don’t register the au domain prior to 20 September it will become available on the market and anyone can register the domain.
In short, we’d recommend registering the .au domain to protect your brand. It may be a good opportunity to secure some related keywords for your brand in the Australian domain space also. (i.e. if carrentals.com.au is taken and your competitors for that keyword are napping, you could secure carsrentals.au.
How do I secure my .au Domain Name?
There are a few different approaches depending on your current scenario:
1. You currently own the .com.au, .net.au, .org.au or similar domain, or
2. You do not own an existing domain in the same domain namespace.
I own a .com.au, .org.au, .net.au or similar domain name
If you already own an Australian variant of the .au domain name you want to purchase, you can follow the steps below prior to 20 September 2022 to secure your .au domain name:
1. Confirm your eligibility for the domain you wish to procure
2. Request your pre-authorisation codes from the auDA registry
3. Apply for the new domain name (noting the different process for already contested domain names)
4. Set-up and configure your domain name Nameservers, DNS and redirect them to your primary domain
If that sounds too hard, simply complete your details below and we will do it for you. The total cost for us to do it is $120+GST which include the first year of you .au domain registration (which will renew at $23.75 annually).
I DO NOT own a .com.au, .org.au, .net.au or similar domain name
The process is very similar to if you do own an associated domain, with one exception (which is the same that applies if someone else has already expressed interest in the .au domain when you own it).
You will not be able to complete step 4 on the left until after 20 September when auDA have determined your entitlement to register the domain.
If you would like us to help with this process, the process is the same, simply complete the form below and once auDA confirm your entitlement we’ll complete step 4, or advise you of the outcome. The fee is the same as the fee covers our time to complete the work and we’re including the first year of registration of a bonus!
Want our Help?
Simply complete the form below, adding in all of the .au domains that you would like to register. Our team will then take care of the rest for you. Please note payment is required at time of ordering and our team will confirm the actions have been completed no later than 4pm Monday 19 September.
If you have any questions or clarifications, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.