Information Centre

In accordance with Australian Domain Name Policy, to be eligible to register .com.au and .net.au domain names, registrants must be classified as one of the following:

• An Australian registered company
• Trading under a registered business name in any Australian State or Territory
• An Australian partnership or sole trader
• A foreign company licensed to trade in Australia
• Be an owner of an Australian Registered Trade Mark
• An applicant for an Australian Registered Trade Mark
• An association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory
• An Australian commercial statutory body

If you don't fall into any of these categories, there are other .au extension options that you may be eligible to register aside from a .com.au domain,  such as .id.au. To be eligible to acquire an .id.au name, you just need to be an Australian citizen or an Australian resident; but note these web addresses cannot be used for commercial activities.

If you are not eligible for .id.au, you may wish to consider registering a .com, .net, .org or .biz domain name. These extensions can be registered by any organisation or individual anywhere in the world and also have the advantage of having high consumer awareness, with .com in particular considered the "Beverly Hills" of domain name extensions.

While is an absolute must for Australian businesses to register .com.au as it's the extension most trusted and recognised by Australians, many local businesses wanting to reach overseas markets also register the .com equivalent of their name. This also prevents a competitor from acquiring it and possibly benefiting from visitors intending to view the .com.au site, but who don't type entire extension into their browser.

See our guide, "Choosing Domain Names", for more handy tips and information on choosing a web address. Ready to register a name? You can proceed with your domain name search and registration here - it's a quick and easy process. We look forward to welcoming you as one of our valued clients!