National branding translates into big money online

With a click of the mouse you will come across heaps and heaps of both relevant and irrelevant information on the net.

This has increasingly become the case at a time when ordinary book libraries are being overshadowed by Google and other search engines.

With this stiff online competition for attention, information must not only be outstanding to appear at the top of the search result list, it must also be strategically positioned.

Online business makes sense if more people visit a website because its popularity is what attracts revenues. This means a website must top search lists to make commercial inroads.

There are several options that web experts are turning to in order to remain relevant. Country specific domains are one of the most effective since they narrow down the options for users with specific searches.

With a domain name that identifies a website as Kenyan or South African, it’s easier to get the attention of those searching for Kenya or South Africa specific information.

This is because search crawlers are easily directed to these sites as opposed to the more generic domains — the dot coms, dot infos and dot nets.

But most Kenyan online content is still in the hands of foreign generic domain names, making them inconspicuous and therefore less competitive.

According to ministry of information and communication statistics, around 6000 Kenyan websites are in the generic web-spaces, with another 10,000 on Kenyan webspace.

Lucrative deal
This means that someone in the West is making a lot of money from Kenyan content since every time a foreigner enters into a foreign webspace, there is revenue earned by the hosting country, similar to when a tourist visits another country.

This continues to happen with little intervention from the country’s fast growing internet community.

When Catherine Gitonga, managing director of Smart Youth Investment, went shopping for web space, top on her list was the generic dotcom domain name.

“When you go looking for any organisation online, the first thing you type is the organisation’s name followed by dotcom. In my mind, I was convinced its easier to be spotted online if you are on dotcom, especially by those using search engines, than when you are on co.ke,” she said.

With younginvestors.com taken by an American organisation, Ms Gitonga had to pick a .co.ke domain name for her organisation which educates young Kenyans on investment opportunities at the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

So far, she has no regrets despite having taken the decision as a last option. In fact, she is happy that she acquired a brand name that defines her business very well.

Information Permanent secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo says that the likes of Ms Gitonga opt for a dotcom due to ‘ignorance in the market place.’

Eric Mwamunga, a florist based at the Nairobi City Market, has plans of putting up a website. In the last three weeks of May, he was doing rounds exploring his options.

“From what I have seen so far, I would prefer a dotcom,” says Mwamunga whose decision is based on the price tag that each domain names has.

“Why pay Sh3,000 for something that is on offer for Sh700?”

Dr Ndemo says that this price disparity is fallacious.

Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC) which manages the .ke domain name recommends that registrars charge around Sh600 for a domain but this is not the case in the market.

Most of the registrars ask for about Sh2000 and there are no mechanisms for KENIC to regulate the industry.

Concerns for the high cost of domain Kenya — whether .ke or .co.ke has been a major a major issue for consumers, especially those looking at differentiation as a selling point online.

“A dot-ke domain name gives you identity in the market,” says Eric Onim, the creative director of the studioSaba Creative, a Kenyan web design and development company.

“Even though your business may be targeting an international audience, knowing the roots of the firm gives it a unique identity,” he adds.

According to Eric, when properly optimised using the available SEO and SEM (Search Engine Optimisation/Marketing), a site with a Kenyan identity is likely to be at the top of search engine results since the search systems check the Top Level Domain name prior to checking the actual content of websites.

“If there are two websites with different domains like cars.com and cars.co.ke and a visitor searches for ‘cars in Kenya’, the cars.co.ke is likely to appear above the other because of the system prioritisation ... When hosted locally, a site will load faster for visitors searching from the same network grid, which is Kenyan visitors in this case.”

Authenticity
From the Kenyan domain names, the country also earns some revenue that would have gone into the hands of foreign players if the same content was under generic domains.

“A dot-ke name is proof of authentic Kenyan identity on the internet, and any one in cyberspace can with certainty confirm they are dealing with a genuine Kenyan business,” says Ndemo. “It is sort of a Kenyan Passport in the web”.

As the Kenya prepares for the arrival of the undersea fibre optic cable which will link it to the world, local domain names will make more commercial sense.