My disappointment with Canadian companies runs so deep that I yell (well, only to my wife) at signs for Canadian businesses that demonstrate, with .com, their lack of patriotism. In this post I am going to propose and discuss some ideas as to why Canadian companies are afraid of being Canadian online, but, by the end, I still won’t have a definitive reason. Only more questions.
The Myth of Price
In Canadian internet history price probably had an impact. Canada’s first .ca registrar, Internic, still sells .ca domains for $50 per year. That is outrageous! There are companies like Net Firms and Domains At Cost that sell .ca domains for just over $10 per year. Is there some benefit—unknown to me—to paying five-times more per year with Internic? Ten years ago, I would have called this myth confirmed and am sure price contributed to the lack of .ca domains in the 90s, but there is no excuse today. Myth busted.
The Myth of Limited Exposure
Complete malarkey! Dot-ca domains give you no less exposure to the global internet than .com domains. If your site is visible to search engines (and all that stuff) you will be ranked equally. And you get the benefit of being ranked higher on Google.ca or other localised search results.
Dreams of Globalisation
Tying right into the limited exposure myth are dreams of globalisation. Everybody wants their company to succeed and many companies want to expand globally. How does having a .ca domain stop you from doing this? Are you scared to lose customers when they find out your company is Canadian?
Dreams of Being American
I am sure many companies aspire to be more ‘American’. I, as a devout Canadian, think we, as Canadians, should try to distance ourselves more from our southern neighbours (yeah, that is how you spell it even when talking about Americans), but many people disagree. Is this really a valid excuse for using .com over .ca? Probably. But should it be? If you truly want to be seen as ‘American’ in your online presence, then go for it. But if you are a small landscaping business in the Ottawa area, who are you kidding? Really?
It’s Better Somewhere Else in the URL
This is another poor excuse: it is better to demonstrate your canadian-ness somewhere else in the URL. I have the perfect example, kraftcanada.com. Really? Why make me, as a frequent user of your site, type all that in? Now before you go and yell at me: yes, I am aware that kraft.ca works. And yes, I know that the Canadian division is called ‘Kraft Canada’. But in what conversation, am I going to say, ‘I want Kraft Canada Dinner’ and not just ‘I want Kraft Dinner’. (Actually I will never say that, because I detest Kraft Dinner) The same applies to your URL.
Is it the Fault of Web Developers?
Yes. I am sure there are countless developers in Canada that recommend their clients get .com domains instead of .ca and they are a lost cause.
Is it CIRA’s Fault?
This is a blurry issue that has been in the news lately, but generally, no. It is not CIRA’s fault, at least not completely. At any rate, CIRA should encourage .ca leasing, and I totally agree: CIRA Should Give Out Domains, Not Door Prizes.
Blame it on the Users
The users are partially to blame. I am sure some study has been done demonstrating that users assume web addresses end in .com and instinctually type those characters. But, I bet there are many times the amount of users who don’t even know what the URL is for web sites they visit regularly—Google abstracts that information away from them.
canada.com
I can think of one great example of where the .com is helpful: canada.com. canada.ca is taken (obviously) by the government, whereas canada.com is owned by one of the great media conglomerates of our fair country. So from canada.com’s point of view, this makes perfect business sense: draw users away from canada.ca by accident or poor web education and get them to use your site to find information about Canada.
Where Does That Leave Us?
So, where does that leave us? Well no where really… we still need more .ca domains and I still don’t know why Canadians are afraid to be Canadian online. If in doubt, buy both and redirect .com to .ca.
9 Comments
I have always wondered why Kraft insists on using kraftcanada.com - it quite annoys me. ps. kraft dinner is AWESOME.
Very well articulated point of view. Even though I am less web savvy than the writer I strongly believe that we should celebrate our 'Canadianess' every chance we get - and yes who are local companies kidding by using .com instead of .ca. Being an average (and lazy) user Goggle is my best friend - I rarely actually type in a URL anymore!
It's great to be a Canuk. =)
Excellent post! I agree fully with your point.
However, there is nothing "American" about the ".com" top-level domain. ".com" simply illustrates the the website is a commercial website.
@Jason: True there is nothing definitively ‘American’ about .com, but (and maybe it's just me) .com just instantly gets associated with America.
@Thomas: It's not just you. When have you ever seen an American company use the .us domain? Therefore, since "all" American businesses use the .com domain, why should anyone believe it's not?
I agree that all Canadian content should be registered under the .ca domain.
[Giving Up] I've typed many different things into this space now and tried to make them sound coherent as a comment, yet all come out as rants and diatribes based on the internet and it's current state that aren't suitable for this space.[/Giving Up]
There is one last point, and is the main reason i would recommend to a client to go for a .com first:
People type in ".com" without thinking about it.
It's not as weak as you might think at first, direct-url navigation to your webpage is still a significant source of traffic. Landing on a similar .com page might negatively associate your brand to something you don't control.
Ways around this: - get (if available) both .com and .ca, and point the .com to your .ca domain. You get best of both worlds.
However, a .ca has other benefits - mostly there are just more domains available! CIRA has around 1.3 million .ca domains registered, while .com is around 100 million. That means you're 100 times more likely to get the URL you want..
Good post Thomas. Too bad you weren't around to work on the CIRA site when we re-designed it :)
I just stumbled on your site (from a twitter follower) and I must say "Well done!" I love this post.
Yes, you'll notice my "URL" is a .com but I "just" purchased my .ca (it was previously taken and it finally got freed up YAY!). I'm a true Canadian at heart - hard not to be when you're born on the 1st of July ;) - so I'm really happy I can use the .ca now.
Anyways... I'll stop rambling and check out the rest of your site!
p.s. LOVE the use of the Museo font, it's one of my favs.
@Karinne: Glad to hear you got your .ca back. And, yes, Museo is fantastic!