When it comes to visiting a new country or city, you know you can always trust a local. Whether you’re looking for the cheapest coffee in Copenhagen or the noisiest nightclub in Nantwich, locals often have an innate encyclopedia of knowledge that’s been built up over years of living in a place.

And this knowledge doesn’t deserve to be watered down over a pint at the pub, or even shared in passing through a chance encounter on the street. It should be hosted for the world to see on a dedicated website with a geodomain.

What is a geodomain?

As the name suggests, a geodomain refers to a domain name that exactly matches a real geographical location. This might be a country, city, village, or even a specific landmark – for example, London.com or Hawaii.com. 

Depending on the domain extension and popularity of the location, a geodomain can quickly become a valuable source of local information – with the high traffic to match. 

What is a geo-targeted domain?

You’d be forgiven for thinking a “geodomain” and “geo-targeted domain” are the same thing, but they share an important distinction. Rather than simply adding a domain suffix to a geographical location, a geo-targeted domain incorporates geographic keywords with specific search terms to maximise local SEO. This could look like europeancoffeetrip.com or francewine.fr. 

Why use a geodomain or geo-targeted domain?

Geodomains can be incredibly lucrative for certain industries, particularly tourism and hospitality. But regardless of your sector, by contextualising your domain name with a location-specific term, you can narrow your audience base and take advantage of a number of key benefits:

  • More relevant traffic: If you’re a lifestyle store that only ships within the UK, a spike in US traffic won’t do your revenue much good. By specifying your location with a geo-targeted domain, such as londonlifestyle.co.uk, you can ensure you’re getting clicks from potential customers only. 
  • Higher click-through rates: Search engines are especially favourable to geodomains, often because there’s fewer websites competing for local traffic. So you’ll likely notice your website rising through the search rankings much more quickly than if you were bidding for generic keywords. 
  • Better backlinks: Other local directories, businesses, and blogs are more likely to link back to your website if it includes a relevant local search term – that’s a referral and an SEO boost in one.
  • Stronger community: A geodomain or geo-targeted domain shows that you’re part of a specific local community, which can improve brand recognition and enhance trust in your business. It also makes it easier to differentiate your brand from others – for example, if you run manchesternailsalon.co.uk, users are less likely to confuse you with gloucesternailsalon.co.uk. 

3 local domains in action

Unsure how to make a geodomain work for you? Here are three websites putting a spotlight on their local community…

  1. www.manchestersfinest.com: This highly trafficked online publication gives you all the latest about the UK’s second city – from what gigs are coming up to lists of air-conditioned restaurants. It even has an e-commerce shop with Manc-themed merchandise.
  2. www.visitgloucester.co.uk: This is a great example of a geo-targeted domain done right – and even better, they’re our neighbours! The online directory captures tourists searching terms like “when to visit Gloucester” and “should I visit Gloucester”, supplying them with all the information they’d need for their upcoming trip. This includes trusted hotel and B&B recommendations that get a helpful backlink at the same time.
  3. www.prestatyn.co.uk: Loyal Fasthosts customer and partner, Gareth Williams of WebUp Media, jumped at the opportunity to secure the geodomain for his town of Prestatyn in Wales. Since then, he’s been working on building the community website that this little-known location deserves – stay tuned for when it goes live.

Get a geodomain with Fasthosts

If you’re struggling to get relevant clicks on your website or you’re hoping to improve the number of local backlinks referencing your business, a geodomain (or geo-targeted domain) could be the answer. 

Fasthosts has you covered whether you want to transfer your existing domain to a more relevant extension or buy an entirely new one for less than the price of a coffee. Chat to our friendly team today to find out how we can help.