What is the general perception of Australian users towards the .com domain versus .com.au ?
(i.e. would Australians trust or more readily use a site that ends in .com rather than one that ends in .com.au?)

So far I have noticed a heavy inclination for .com.au.
If you are looking for Au crowd, go for .com.au, if you are looking for global biz though, then .com would be preferred.

Thx
GS

Thanks - cannot get the Oz domain name that i want for my website, thus the need to look alternatives.

.au domain names are maintain by the Australian Domain Name Administration (AUDA) http://www.auda.org.au/ and not just anyone can register a .au domain. You need to have an Australian Business Number (ABN), Australian Company Name/Number (ACN), Registered Business Name/Number or Trademark to register a .au domain so it carries a lot more visitor/customer confidence as some spammer can not abuse these types of domains. As said above it also does hold the general status that the site will only sell to other Australian companies which isn't really true all the time but its the generalisation people make.

I think if you use .com.au it will give your site a stronger Australian identity than if you use the generic .com domain name.

I've found that .com.au domains will usually give better results in Google.com.au

Andrew

In this case, *.au.com will provide you with more Australian organic traffic. In SEO terms no one extension is better than the other, unless your audience is to be a specific country. If you main audience is Australians then you should go with *.au.com.

.com.au is actually pretty popular in australia, so if you are targeting only australian audience with your website, then .com.au is a good choice.

.com.au is more popular than .com