Most new websites tend to look for a domain name with a .com or .net tld (Top Level Domain). They feel this gives
site a more professional appearance and will appeal to a more international audience and in many cases this is true. However, it can also be beneficial to look at purchasing a domain name with a country specific tld.There are a number of benefits that can be gained from choosing a domain name with a country specific tld, especially if you conduct your business primarily in one particular country.
Search Engine Benefits
Most of large search engines will give you a higher search ranking for a site that has tld of searchers country. For example, if someone from United Kingdom is performing a search for widgets, a search engine will often rank widgets.co.uk higher than other sites selling same product but only have a .com tld.
Having a country specific tld will also allow you to be included in a lot of great country directories that stipulate that your domain name has a certain tld. Getting your site into these directories can be a great way of improving your search engine ranking as these are 1 way links from authority sites for your chosen subject. These kind of links are graded much higher than reciprocal linking.
Buyer Confidence
Having a domain tld will often give buyer more confidence when making a purchase as they consider site to be local, therefore governed under same laws as buyer. This makes it easier to follow up and sales and make complaints if any problems occur during purchase of product. It also helps to settle any nerves if buyer is able to see a street address that they recognize, rather than a foreign address.
