.au Direct Domain Names
Your own personal, group or business domain ending in .au
Not com.au, id.au or org. au - simply .au - an easy short domain ending that any Australian can use for any purpose. Register .au direct for your email or website address; events, personal interests, public projects or an ecommerce venture.
How does .au direct work?
When you ask us to register a new domain name for you, you can ask for .au instead of com.au, net.au etc.
Here's some ways the new .au direct domains help Aussies get their message across:
What's so good about .au direct?
Think mobile phone:
The .au address is faster to type on a phone & fits better into the small address bar. Site browsing by phone is on the increase, particularly among younger people - the upcoming generation of new customers.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 54.4 percent of global website traffic...
Source:
Statista: Share of Website Traffic Coming from Mobile Devices
You can register both versions of your website domain for the first year, and ask us to set up domain forwarding (redirect the .au domain to your website address). Then anyone can find your site, whether they use .au direct or not.
Think of flexibility:
Other Australian domain endings all have defined purposes and strict rules about who or what kind of entity can register them, & even what name you can choose. With .au direct, you are in charge. Your domain name need not match a personal name, business/incorporated group name or commercial activity.
Up till now, the only flexible domain option for Australians has been to register a .com domain. The .com space is crowded; it gets harder every day to find a .com name that you want. And a .com website or email address won't show your trueblue Aussie identity.
Think easy communication:
Do you use a less common domain extension like id.au or net.au? You can be sure someone will believe that thatdomain.id.au is meant to be thatdomain.com.au, and wonder why they can't contact you. With .au direct, they can't go wrong.
Think ahead:
Do you have an Australian domain? From six months after the initial release, anyone with an 'Australian presence' is now able to register the matching domain to your Australian website/email name.
Act now to protect your online identity and obtain your matching .au domain name.
Think risk management:
- Your competitors - including big corporate players with mega budgets - can register & keep control over any number of .au direct domains. That reduces the chance of customers finding rival websites like yours.
- If .au direct takes off, Internet users will expect it to work for all Australian websites, especially on phones. Will they find your website?
- A scammer could register the .au version of your domain name and trade off &/or damage the reputation of the real website. You would need to take legal action: a slow, expensive and uncertain procedure. Meanwhile, the damage is done.
No one knows if .au will gain public favour or how fast this might happen. Given our society's propensity for fast & easy, it is reasonably likely. Expect that the younger phone-browsing generation will lead take-up of this shortcut domain ending.
It's simpler and surer to guard your online reputation and identity from the start.
Last updated 13 December 2022
