A new .au domain is coming this month, and it’s kind of a big deal for your business.
At Avenue De Saxe we play a big role in designing, building, hosting and maintaining websites for many of our clients, so we wan’t to make sure that you are aware of the big changes happening and how it could affect you in the long run.
Earlier this year a new domain type launched for Australian websites. For the first time we will be able to drop the ‘.com’ and just use the ‘.au’ in our website URLs. For example as well as our regular avenuedesaxe.com.au we can now own and use avenuedesaxe.au
Now is the time to act!
Businesses and people that already own domains ending in .au (eg: .com.au, .net.au, .org.au etc) get priority access to the .au version of their domain name before it becomes available to the public. From now until September 20th, you can register for the .au version of your domain.
Why is this important? Because after September 20th 2022, someone else can buy the .au version of your website URL and can do with it whatever they please. It may end up costing you a lot of money to try and buy it back down the track (not to mention the branding problem you might have on your hands!). It’s important to know that you do not have to switch to this URL or even use it, but owning it is the important part.
Why is it so important to own your own domains?
Owning your own domain is important because if you own it, nobody else can. It is for this same reason that while we may build and host your website for you, we will always insist that you are the one that buys the domain (we can’t begin to tell you how common it is that our clients have to try and contact some old website developer because they are the ones that originally bought their domain!).
So what do you need to do? So glad you asked!
It’s actually really simple. Visit the auDA’s Priority Status Tool website and enter your current domain to obtain a priority access token (note that you will need access to the email that was originally used to buy your existing domain). Once you have this token you can use it to purchase/register for the .au version of your domain name from a domain hosting website like GoDaddy (this is our recommended option). Purchasing the domain will likely cost about $10, so it’s not exactly going to break the bank, but registering for it early could save you a lot of trouble down the track.
Again, you don’t have to switch to using the new domain, but it’s definitely worth owning it to stop someone else using it.
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Need some help?
Our team can definitely help you with this process if you aren’t sure what to do.
Simply contact us at support@avenuedesaxde.com.au