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Why get a .CA domain – the definitive guide!

Check out these five undeniable, hard-hitting truths as to why .CA domains make the most sense for your Canadian small business website.
By Meghan Graham
Digital Marketing Manager

Why should you believe in the power of .CA?

Say you’re a Canadian looking to build a Canadian website for a Canadian audience. When it comes time to register your shiny new domain name, do you naturally choose to put .CA to the right of the dot?

Or…wait – what is that we hear? Do we detect a whiff of uncertainty? Doubt in the value and power of .CA?? Be still our beating hearts!

Okay – deep breath. Allow us, the friendly folks at CIRA, to light the way and show you several undeniable reasons why choosing .CA is right (and righteous) for your Canadian website.

Undeniable reason #1: Canadians prefer to deal with .CA websites  

We’ve said it before: Despite some superficial differences, we Canadians stick together. That’s just scientific fact at this point. A recent Strategic Counsel survey showed that a whopping 84% of Canadians prefer shopping on sites with .CA domains. What’s more – .CA tells potential shoppers that site is more likely to offer Canadian shipping, display their prices in good, ol’ Canadian dollars – and more!

Undeniable reason #2: SEO benefits, eh?  

Your .CA domain name helpfully tells Google (and all the other search engines) that you and your site are Canadian. This helps make it far more relevant to visitors searching for local Canadian results. Plus, your Canadian visitors are far more likely to click through when presented with a .CA search result!

Undeniable reason #3: .CA means exclusively Canadian  

By choosing to go with a .CA domain, you’re entering an exclusive club of confirmed Canucks! What do we mean? Well, we at CIRA enforce a Canadian Presence Requirement, so not just anyone – no matter whether they’re in Cameroon, Croatia or Cambodia – can register a .CA. This provides peace-of-mind that when a site has a .CA domain, it’s actually owned by a Canadian individual or business.

On a more serious note, Canadian Presence Requirements help us here at CIRA HQ build a .CA registry that’s secure and can be trusted by all. Kind of like Canadians themselves!

Undeniable reason #4: .CA domains are a more secure choice  

While nothing is truly impervious to the most dedicated cybercriminals out there (we shake our fists in their general direction), .CA domains have been proven to be among the safest out there.

According to the SpamHaus Project, an international non-profit that tracks spam and cyber threats, .CA is among the “least-abused” domains. That means .CA domains are far less likely to host malware or be used to send spam (and not the delicious canned meat product).

What’s more, any .CA domains that are registered come with free WHOIS privacy protection, so your contact info – and home address – aren’t just out there for public consumption!

Undeniable reason #5: There’s more chance you’ll score the domain name you want  

Canada itself is a land of plenty… and that kinda extends over to .CA domain-land! With only around 3 million .CA domain names registered – as opposed to over 125 million .COM domains, there’s a far better chance the domain you want is available in .CA!

We hope this has helped make .CA an even more obvious choice for your soon-to-be christened Canadian website.

If you’re still not convinced in the power of .CA… we might have a quality craft beer or two and a killer Gordon Lightfoot mixtape laying around the office that we could send along to sweeten the deal.

But in all seriousness – .CA is the secure, reliable and smart choice for your site. If you’re ready to take the plunge, let’s get you started finding your .CA today!

Once you’ve found your domain, hop over to our 10-step checklist to building a website, or check out a quick, easy breakdown of the top website building platforms.

About the author
Meghan Graham

Meghan Graham is the Digital Marketing Manager at CIRA. She brings over 10 years of experience in marketing and communications in non-profit, technology, SaaS, and UX. She has a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Ottawa joint program with Algonquin College.

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