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Bookkeepers urged to secure their .au domain now with new rules just days away from cut off

Do you really need to care about .au instead of a .com?

With the 20 September cut off looming to secure your .au domain name before others have the opportunity, Alex Cumberland of the website platform Oncord, urges bookkeepers to take action to protect their online property.

Shortened .au direct domain names are now available as a new option for Australians. If your business has already registered a .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, or .asn.au domain, then right now you have priority to register the shorter .au version.

“This is something I don’t think businesses are generally aware of,” said Alex. “Eligibility for .au domains is broader than say a .com.au domain. This makes it easier for others to register a .au domain that might be valuable to your brand.

“To be eligible for a .com.au domain the registrant needs to be an Australian ‘commercial entity’, however with .au domains, the registrant simply needs to have an ‘Australian presence’. That means a much wider group of people are eligible to secure shorter .au domains,” continued Alex.

“Ideally I’d recommend every established Australian business try to claim a suitable .com, .com.au, and now .au where possible.”

Australian Bookkeepers Network (ABN) Director, Peter Thorp, says that bookkeepers might be more vulnerable than some other industries to these changes, given the similarities in business names that some bookkeepers have with each other.

“There’s a lot of bookkeepers operating with similar names,” said Peter. “Business names well connected to industry terms are at risk of being gazumped.”

“Bookkeepers should lock their .au names down now and they’ll be safe in the knowledge their online property is protected.”

Alex Cumberland continues with helpful advice on taking the easy steps to register for the .au domain.

 “It's easiest to register a .au domain through your current domain supplier, rather than switching providers so close to the deadline,” said Alex. “It costs less than $20 to register, which is a little sum for peace of mind.”

To track down your domain registrar, visit the administrator auDA, which provides a "WHOIS" lookup tool: https://whois.auda.org.au/

You can check whether you have priority status here: https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool

There’s more to learn from Alex and his Oncord team at The Bookkeeper Event Cairns! Come checkout Oncords stand in the expo area, October 6-8 2022!

Category
ABN
Published
13 Sep 2022
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