If you’ve ever spent time in New Zealand, you’ve no doubt seen websites using .co.nz domain names. It would be impossible to have not seen .co.nz before as they’re the most popular domain name used by New Zealand individuals and businesses for website and email purposes.
But just what is a .co.nz domain? Easy, they’re a domain that targets New Zealand. Case closed. While this is definitely true, it doesn’t tell you the full picture.
The technical answer to what a .co.nz domain is is that .co.nz is a second-level country code domain name for New Zealand. Second-level meaning that the domain has two parts with the first part being the .co portion and the other part being .nz. Country code means that it’s a domain that targets a country.
Second-level domains shouldn’t be confused with top-level domains (TLD). In the case of New Zealand, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is simply .nz.
There’s much more to .co.nz than just what it technically is so let’s delve deeper into the .co.nz topic.
Which Country Uses .co.nz Domains?
New Zealand uses .co.nz domain names. They’re the most popular domain registered by the New Zealand population and are the go-to choice of domain for anyone looking to create a website that targets the Kiwi audience.
Think of .co.nz as the online flag for New Zealand. When you see the New Zealand flag on an athletics star’s jersey or someone’s passport, you’ll immediately know they’re from New Zealand. The same can be said for .co.nz domains. When you a see website using a .co.nz domain, you’ll immediately know that the website is for the New Zealand audience.
A Very Brief History of .co.nz Domains
To get a look into how .co.nz started, you must go all the way back to 1987 as that was the year when the .nz domain extension first came to be. The early life for most country domains looks the same, where the responsibility of maintaining and governing the domain was in the hands of a university and .nz is no exception with the University of Waikato looking after the operations of .nz domains.
New Zealand seemingly based its domain structure on the system used by the United Kingdom, where registrations of top-level domains (.nz) weren’t allowed and instead only second-level domains (.co.nz) could be registered.
Each second-level domain (.co.nz, .org.nz, .ac.nz etc.) was meant to indicate to the visiting audience what the website was used for, with .co.nz to be used by commercial entities and purposes. This rule still somewhat applies today as educational institutions continue to use domains like .ac.nz but .co.nz has long definitely outgrown the original “commercial entities” purpose and is now the de facto domain for New Zealand.
Source: Domain Name Commission 2005 Annual Report
In 1995, with Internet usage expanding within New Zealand, the University of Waikato transferred managing responsibility of all New Zealand domains to the newly formed InternetNZ, known at the time as The Internet Society of New Zealand. InternetNZ is still responsible for all New Zealand domains to this very day.
That’s basically how .co.nz and all New Zealand domains came to be. While a large number of changes have occurred within the New Zealand domain industry during the past 30 years, such as .nz domains becoming available, they’re not overly relevant to the story of .co.nz.
Let’s now look at why you would want to register a .co.nz domain.
The Benefits of Using a .co.nz Domain
Despite our own website offering over 1000+ different domain name extensions, we have a special place in our heart for .co.nz. How can we not when OnlyDomains HQ is in Napier, New Zealand? We love .co.nz domain names so here are a few benefits we believe .co.nz domains will offer you:
- You’ll find no better domain than .co.nz if you want website visitors or email readers to know you’re based in or target New Zealand. When using .co.nz, everyone will immediately know your services are catered for Kiwis and that type of instant marketability isn’t something you’ll get from a generic domain like .com.
- They’re very easy to register as you don’t need to supply any special details like a business or personal ID number to register a .co.nz domain. Just a name, address, and contact details should be good enough.
- Using .co.nz will give your website a rankings boost in search engines like google.co.nz as localised search engines prefer to show localised websites.
We go more in-depth regarding the .co.nz benefits in our Is .co.nz a good domain? article.
How Does .co.nz Differ to .com?
When people are looking to register a domain name for the first time, they are usually asking themselves if they should register their local country domain or .com. The people of New Zealand probably debate between using .com and .co.nz, a topic we go over in our .com vs .co.nz analysis.
Despite both being among the most popular domains used in New Zealand, they’re quite different for a few reasons, such as:
- Both domains are managed by completely different governing bodies, with .co.nz being looked after by InternetNZ plus the Domain Name Commission and .com governed by Verisign, Inc.
- .co.nz currently has around 600,000 estimated total registrations versus the 100,000,000+ of .com.
- Domain names like .com, which are classified as generic since they don’t target a specific country, don’t receive any benefits from search engines. Country domains do receive benefits in localised search engines, which means that .co.nz websites tend to receive a bit of a ranking boost in New Zealand search engines.
- .co.nz focuses entirely on servicing a New Zealand audience and .com focuses on a global audience. This doesn’t mean .com can’t be effectively used in New Zealand but it does mean that if your audience is entirely in New Zealand, a .co.nz would be the domain for you. The flip side of that is if you’re looking to target an audience beyond the borders of New Zealand, a .com domain would be preferential.
As you can see, both domains have their unique uses so please check out the .com vs .co.nz post if you’d like a recommendation on what to go with.
How to Buy a .co.nz Domain
If you’ve had enough of us praising .co.nz domains and are now looking to buy one, we can help with that.
It would be very easy for us to say go ahead and do a .co.nz domain search on our website and then follow the onscreen prompts to buy your .co.nz domain but we like being fair so instead we’ll recommend you window shop a bit first and see the other companies that are out there that can register .co.nz domains.
It’s always good to get recommendations from people you know so if you have friends or family that have registered a domain before, get their opinion on who to use. If that’s not an option, then doing a Google search for something like ‘buy .co.nz domain’ will give you plenty of companies to choose from. The things you should be comparing between each company are:
- Competitive .co.nz registration price in NZD
- Excellent NZ-based customer support backed up with user ratings
- Free extras included with .co.nz domain registrations
- Hosting & email services available in New Zealand
Once you’ve found a company that looks good, perform your domain search with them, find an available domain, and then follow their check-out procedure to secure your domain. All .co.nz domains should be registered instantly and ready for use within minutes.
What Other New Zealand Domains Are There?
While .co.nz is the most popular New Zealand domain, it’s not the only domain available that targets the New Zealand market. In fact, there are a total of sixteen different domains that use the .nz extension, ranging from completely open domains to restricted ones.
There are ten New Zealand domains that are open and can be registered by the public, without any special details needing to be provided. The open domains are:
- .nz
- .ac.nz
- .co.nz
- .geek.nz
- .gen.nz
- .kiwi.nz
- .maori.nz
- .net.nz
- .org.nz
- .school.nz
The remaining six domains are restricted, which means they can only be registered if appropriate documentation is supplied. The restricted domains are:
- .cri.nz
- .govt.nz
- .health.nz
- .iwi.nz
- .mil.nz
- .parliament.nz
As you can tell by the domains, they each have their own specific niche that they target. For instance, the domain .school.nz obviously is meant to be used by Schools in New Zealand, and .mil.nz is meant to be used by the New Zealand Military and Defense Force.
Despite all the options available to you, nine times out of ten we still recommend registering a .co.nz domain over any of the others available but if you work in a very specific industry or have a very targeted audience, maybe one of the other domains would be a better choice.
If you’re interested in seeing how the two most popular New Zealand domains stack up head-to-head, please give our .co.nz vs .nz analysis article a read.
Popular .co.nz Websites
Four of the top ten most popular websites in New Zealand, according to website traffic analyser Similarweb, use the .co.nz domain extension. The other websites in the top ten list are global giants like YouTube and Facebook, showing that if your target audience is New Zealand, you should use a .co.nz domain.
The top five most popular .co.nz websites are as follows:
- stuff.co.nz – Popular online news publication, covering New Zealand topics.
- nzherald.co.nz – Another online New Zealand news publication.
- trademe.co.nz – Marketplace, auction and classifieds website.
- google.co.nz – The New Zealand version of the popular search engine.
- anz.co.nz – A leading bank in New Zealand.
The Final Word on .co.nz
We hope by now that you’re aware what a .co.nz domain is, the country they represent, the benefits they offer, how they differ from .com and how to buy one.
As we’ve stated many times during the article, they’re a great domain and the perfect choice if you’re trying to reach the New Zealand market.
If you’re ready to register a .co.nz domain, take the first step with your preferred domain registration company (-> OnlyDomains <-) and do a domain search to see if your perfect domain name is available. Fingers crossed it is!
