Choosing a Domain Name, and What .com.np Really Costs

The short answer

Buy the .com if it is available and affordable. Add .com.np if you want the local signal or want to protect the name. Register both in your company's name, on your own card, at a registrar you can log in to.

The last part matters more than the choice of extension, and it is the part most businesses get wrong.

What .com.np actually gets you

A .com.np is a clear signal to a Nepali audience that you are a Nepali business, and it is cheap. It is registered through Mercantile, and unlike most extensions it has historically required documentation proving a connection to Nepal rather than being a simple card transaction.

That means two things. Registration takes longer than the thirty seconds you are used to, and the process is bound up with paperwork, so start it before you need it. It also means the name is harder for someone unconnected to Nepal to take from under you.

What it does not get you is international reach. A .com.np reads as local to everyone, which is exactly right if your customers are in Nepal and exactly wrong if you are selling offshore development to a company in Germany.

Running both

Plenty of businesses hold both and point them at the same site. That is fine as long as one of them is canonical and the other redirects, because two domains serving identical content is a duplicate content problem that splits whatever authority you have earned.

If you genuinely want both live with different content, as we do, that needs proper hreflang and per-domain canonicals, and it is more work than it looks. Decide which you are doing before you launch rather than after.

Choosing the name itself

• Say it out loud to someone over a phone call. If you have to spell it, it is the wrong name.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers. They do not hurt rankings; they hurt the fifteen times a day someone has to repeat the address.
• Check the name is not already a company somewhere else. A near-collision costs you traffic to a business that is not yours, permanently.
• Keep it short enough to fit in an email signature. Long domains get abbreviated by other people, incorrectly.

The collision point is worth dwelling on. We have watched our own site absorb searches meant for similarly named firms, and the traffic that arrives confused leaves immediately. A distinct name is worth more than a descriptive one that sits next to three competitors in the results.

The ownership rules

Register it yourself. Not through your developer, not through a cousin who did it as a favour, not on an agency's bulk account. The registrant should be your company, the billing card should be yours, and you should be able to log in today without asking anyone.

If that is not currently true, fix it before you need to. Our note on what to do when a vendor disappears exists because of how often it is not true.

Frequently asked questions

Is .com.np free?

It has historically been very cheap or free for qualifying registrants, with the cost being paperwork and time rather than money. Confirm the current position with the registry, since policies change.

Does .com.np hurt my rankings internationally?

It signals Nepal strongly, which helps for local searches and works against you for international ones. If you sell abroad, lead with the .com.

Should I redirect one domain to the other?

Unless you are deliberately running two different sites with proper hreflang, yes. Pick one as canonical and redirect the other. Two domains serving the same content split your authority for no benefit.

How long does .com.np registration take?

Longer than a .com, because of the documentation step. Budget days rather than minutes and do not schedule a launch against it.

What if the domain I want is taken?

Change the name rather than adding a hyphen or a number. A domain that is one punctuation mark away from a competitor sends them your customers for the life of the business.