About 4.47 million people in New Zealand use the internet today. Imagine being able to promote your business to an audience as huge as that.Â
For that to happen, you need to be visible on the internet.Â
There are many ways you can show your fellow Kiwis your business exists. One of those methods – and dare we say one of the most effective – is having a .NZ domain.Â
How does a .NZ domain exactly boost your online visibility? Â
It involves search engine optimisation or SEO.Â
People perform SEO to increase their chances of landing in the first page of search engine results. Why does that matter? Because consumers rely on search engines – like Google – when looking for information.Â
So, one of the best cases of online visibility is appearing on Google. Â
And what’s one way to achieve that? Getting a .NZ domain. Â
Here are three ways a .NZ can push your website up towards Google’s page one: Â
It drives traffic from New Zealand itselfÂ
When a person types in a search query, Google provides different results depending on the searcher’s IP address.Â
For example, if a person in New Zealand searches for a swimsuit shop, Google will prioritise websites that indicate they’re New Zealand-based.Â
How does Google determine those websites? For one, by looking at their domain names.Â
So, if you own a swimsuit shop website and your domain name ends with .NZ, you have greater chances of ranking high in the search results.Â
It increases your clickthrough rateÂ
Around 68% of Kiwis that are searching for something online look for websites with a .NZ domain.Â
Kiwis trust websites ending with .NZ more than those ending in generic extensions like .COM or .NET. They prefer doing business with fellow Kiwis – not only for their convenience, but also for supporting their own community.Â
With this in mind, they will opt to click on search results that end with the said domain. Â
It strengthens your local link building effortsÂ
Link building is a process of earning backlinks – or links from other websites to yours.Â
This is integral to SEO. Backlinks are signals to search engines that your website is credible and trusted. Those qualities increase your website’s relevance and your chances to land page one of search results. Â
Now, search engines don’t only consider how many backlinks your website has. They also check where the backlinks come from.Â
Let’s put it in local context. When you get backlinks from local websites, this signals search engines that your locale considers you credible and trustworthy, thus increasing your relevance.Â
What’s a .NZ domain got to do with all this? It follows the same logic as increasing your clickthrough rate. Â
Websites ending in .NZ have more authority in the New Zealand locale, so they have greater chances of earning backlinks from Kiwi websites.Â
A Kiwi website deserves a Kiwi audienceÂ
You may have built a well-designed, fully functional website that’s ready to cater to fellow Kiwis. But all those efforts won’t matter if they can’t find it.Â
Increase your website’s visibility online. It’s as simple as getting a .NZ domain.Â