Last updated on April 25th, 2024 at 10:34 am
Kenya has a very high internet penetration rate, and many Kenyans spend a lot of time online. Just recently, the Communication Authority of Kenya informed us that the internet penetration stands at 112%, which means that besides all Kenyans being online, we have a few goats, chicken and rabbits that are able to access the internet.
With such a high number of people online, you have possibly thought of getting a website, starting a blog, or making money online through ecommerce. To get started, you need to start by getting a domain name, which is sort of your digital identity. This is the name that will be used as your online address, and your primary identifier on the internet.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is what you enter on your browser when you want to access a website. It is an easy to remember name that is translated to an IP address, much like a name saved on a phone book which calls the associated phone number. Sample domain names that are used by Truehost Cloud are shown below:
www.truehostcloud.com, www.truehost.co.ke, www.truehost.com.ng, www.truehost.org, www.truhost.africa, www.truehost.cloud, www.truehost.co
As shown above, there are different types of domain names, or domain extensions. Domain extension refers to what is on the right of the dot, that is .com, .ke, .africa etc. In this case, .ke is the country code top level domain (ccTLD) name for Kenya (you need not know what that means), and is the only domain name that shows Kenyan identity. It is run by a registry called KeNIC, and there are several variations of the domain to choose from, and these are listed below
- .co.ke – for Companies
- .or.ke – for Not-for-Profit-Making Organisations or NGO’s
- .ne.ke – for Network Devices
- .go.ke – for Government Entities
- .ac.ke – for Institutions of Higher Educations.
- .sc.ke – for Lower and Middle Institutes of Learning.
- .me.ke – for Personal names
- .mobi.ke – for Mobile content
- .info.ke – for Information
Why Choose a .KE domain name
Choosing the right domain name is important, as it is costly to change in terms of money and time invested. The domain acts as the online brand presence, and thus one should get it right. The benefits of having a domain name are:
- Having the domain helps you to control your online presence. It helps secure your brand online, and failure to register a relevant domain name leaves it at the risk of fraudsters, who can register it.
- A domain name gives you credibility, and makes it way much easier for clients to find you online. Customers will also know that you are not a briefcase company.
- A domain name will get you indexed by search engines, and thus you can be found easily through Google. A well chose domain name will lead your customers to you though a search engine.
To register a .ke domain name, one needs to go to a KeNIC accredited registrar and find the suitable name. Truehost is the leading .ke domain registrar, and a full list of registrars can be found here.
