Instead of using .com.au, businesses can now register for .au domains.

There is a bit of hype at the moment about these new .au domains, so read into at your own leisure.

We aren’t lawyers or web marketing experts, but we are business experts, hence why we are putting our two cents worth forward on the topic. We like to get the conversations started for the topics which we believe need to be discussed for your business.

We agree that having a strong web presence is crucial for business, and if that involves having an easy to find domain, then so be it. You will need to chat with your marketing consultant as to which domains get the best results for your business.

Some news articles are suggesting it is imperative for Australian business owners to register their relevant .au and .com.au domains to avoid a cyber criminal impersonating their business.
My first thoughts are that although this may be true, what is the point of releasing .au domains if they pose such a threat?
Is this purely a money making situation for domain registries, to double their income of every registered Australian business to hold not only one domain but the matching .au domain at the same time?

Is the benefit from releasing the .au domains outweighing the cyber risk and the cost to Australian businesses?
I would love to hear more validated reasons as to why they have released the .au domains.

In the meantime, best to be safe than sorry, so make sure you discuss with your I.T experts about registering your .au domain before 20th September 2022. After this date, you do not have priority preference of .au domains relating to your existing .com.au domain which you may hold.

Here are some articles which refer to the .au domain release: