Do Businesses Need a .mobi Domain Name for their Mobile Website?

If you aren’t already familiar with .mobi domains then a .mobi is known as Top Level Domain or a TLD. Other examples of TLDs are .com , .net and .org .

Now the primary reason for their creation was to indicate that the particular website is a mobile website.

What’s important to understand though is that your mobile website doesn’t need to have a .mobi domain to be regarded as one.

Other common examples of mobile domains that commonly used are sub-domains. These types of domains are used quite extensively with much larger organisations such as Google which is a great example. They use sub-domain names such as maps.google.com and books.google.com etc.

As you can see they are designated by what comes before their domain name which in this case is google.com .

So what you’ll find is that if you were to set up your mobile website under a sub-domain you would use your current domain name.

Two common examples of designating a mobile website as a sub-domain are,

• m.yourdomainname.com.au
• mobile.yourdomainname.com.au

Another way to set up a mobile website is in a sub-directory of your website. The domain name for that would look like,

• yourdomainname.com.au/mobile

Therefore, you can see there are several domain name options you can use to set up your mobile website.

So, if there are others option to a .mobi, why use one?

The first reason you might want to use a .mobi domain name is a really big one. It’s to protect your Brand or Business Name. Simply by purchasing it you are stopping someone else from using it.

It’s important to understand that there is no such thing as .mobi.au so you are competing for .mobi domain names on an international level. So if you can secure your brand it will be quite valuable.

Other important reasons are,

• Displaying your domain as a .mobi can look a little neater, tidier and shorter than a sub-domain or sub-directory.
• .mobi is recognised as the industry standard.
• .mobi makes your website instantly recognisable as a mobile website, which will become more and more important as mobile websites grow in popularity.

Therefore you can see there are several options you have available for your new mobile website. So if you find that if someone else is already using your .mobi somewhere else in the world, then you still have options.

What is important though, is that in 2012, if you’re in business in Australia and don’t have a mobile website then you’re really going to be left in the wake of your competitors that do.

Need help purchasing a .mobi or need advice entering the world of the mobile internet? Then please contact us today for a free, no obligation consultation.