Legibra’s Second Level Domain Gets Approved! Introducing Legibra.ke
Quick question, do you think it matters what your domain ends in? Do you think the extension of your domain name, whether its business.co.ke or business.com affects the chances of success for your business? Well, we are willing to bet it counts, that’s why went ahead and got ourselves a second level domain name. In this article, we are going to discuss what is a second level domain and why is it important for business.
What is a Second Level Domain?
According to Wikipedia;
A second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in Legibra.ke, Legibra is the second level domain.
The Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC) – an entity charged with the management and the administration of the dot ke Country Code Top-Level Domain (.ke ccTLD) name started rolling out second level domain names in July 2017 to capture the huge and untapped domain market in Kenya. But what’s the difference? Why would a company register the .ke domain at KES 7-10k? What’s the value to their business?
Three Reasons Why Legibra Registered a second level domain name; Legibra.ke
- To Provide Our Clients and Prospects A Memorable Identifier for Our Online Location
One of the main reasons why businesses register a domain in the first place is to be found online when a prospect searches on Google or Bing. The business uses the domain to advertise and communicate their internet location, whereas the target audience use the domain name to store or remember it when they want to find the business’s online location, just like a phone number. Because the human capacity for memory is limited, and because time is scarce, shorter domain names tend to be more memorable than longer ones. By introducing second level domains, Legibra can use Legibra.ke instead of Legibra.co.ke which is shorter and hence more memorable.
2. Second Level Domain as a form of authentication
Other than making it easier to locate a business online, a domain name can also be used to authenticate that a business is indeed what it claims to be. For example, the domain Legibra.ke serves as an indicator that Legibra is indeed a Kenyan company. Also, for Kenic to approve applications for second level domains, one of the requirements was to be a trademarked company. Therefore, anyone who sees Legibra.ke, and understands the process of getting a second level domain name, will immediately know that Legibra is a trademarked organization.
3. To Improve Brand Visibility
Whenever you tell someone that your business is online, they always assume it’s under the domain .com. On the other hand, someone searching for a Kenyan business from the U.S is likely to search for business.co.ke. To avoid losing traffic by visitors typing the wrong domain name we have registered both generic and second level domain names. But we are not the only ones doing this, a number of brands and companies engage in systemic and defensive domain name registration to ensure they are in full control of their domain and no one else uses it for malicious activities.
Summary
Going by the statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya, domain registration in Kenya is still low compared to countries like South Africa which have over a million domains in their registry. And while Kenya may have been ranked as a leader in Africa’s domain market, there is still much that needs to be done especially in creating awareness of the benefits of domain registration for businesses.
If you’d like to know more about the .KE second level domain, Techweez hosted an AMA (ask me anything) with KeNIC’s CEO- Abdalla Omari.
There’s also a forum discussing the introduction of .ke second level domain. And here’s Wayan Vota – a digital development entrepreneur and the co-founder of ICTworks-in a discussion with Moses Kemibaro, suggesting that KeNIC should have given out the .KE second level domains at a cheaper cost to boost registration from business local business owners and personal website owners.
Would you register a second level domain? Let us know your opinion in the comment section below. We love to hear from you.