Spencer Callaghan Speaks to the Power Behind a .ca Domain

CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) is the organization that runs the .ca domain. They enforce the Canadian Presence Requirement, meaning anyone registering a .ca domain name must prove they are either a Canadian citizen, a Canadian company, or a company that does business in Canada. They also effectively act as a distributor of .ca domains to retailers like GoDaddy, etc.

Spencer says that the advantages of a .ca domain name are: it exclusively identifies you as Canadian online so people know they are dealing with a Canadian entity. Data shows that Canadians prefer to do business, shop, and interact with Canadian businesses. Therefore they have more confidence and more pride in doing business with a Canadian company than with other companies. As a result, a .ca domain name provides any company that is working exclusively with a Canadian market an instant sales and marketing lift. Also, any time someone buys a .ca domain name they are giving back. CIRA uses funds from .ca sales to fund the Canadian ecosystem. He goes on to state that there is a lot of evidence that a .ca domain also improves your SEO.

Spencer believes that a great marketing technique for all companies going forward is to focus on providing valuable, meaningful content. In today’s day and age there are a lot of marketers who are concentrating on the volume of content rather than quality, but with the internet culture increasingly shortening their attention and swiping past commercials, that increased content may be largely ignored. At CIRA they usually deal with companies that are buying domains because they are just starting up, so they concentrate on content that helps them through the entire process of getting a presence online, but at the same time they understand that a new business will likely be looking for info on other things like shipping, trademarks, etc. Rather than try to help their audience with those subjects that they have less expertise in, they instead partner with experts in those fields, so that they can continue to provide maximum value to their audience, while doing it in a fun, engaging way.

CIRA has noticed that their audience is increasingly becoming younger. This is a generation that has grown up with Social Media as their main websites for life so they have less control of their personal brand. This is increasingly important for digital influencers. Spencer has seen that there are many influencers out there that have a million subscribers on Youtube but no personal website. That means that they are ultimately at the mercy of Youtube and if the algorithm changes or regulations change, it could severely affect the influencer’s business. One of the main things CIRA has launched for this is a Digital Me campaign. This campaign is centered around getting everyone to control their digital identity with their own domain and website. If, down the road, someone Google’s your name they will see the content that you want them to see rather than old posts in a social media platform that may not cast you in the best light. Darian and Spencer even discussed buying domain names for their children now so they can have that protection in the future.

In order to both support Canadian businesses and to protect their data, it is wise to work with Canadian companies online, especially those that keep your data in Canada, because as soon as your data goes into another country it is subject to that country’s data laws, which could have consequences for you. Overall, with so many great tech companies in Canada today it makes sense to support and use those local companies.

Written by Claudia Palomino