is it better to have a business website ending in dot com or dot com.au in Australia? Can I have both?

i found out that .com placed better in google search.

Yes .com will be better if you plan this site for global audience. If you are targeting just the aussie .com.au will be enough. .com.au is more expensive than a .com. A .com mean commercial, not american as someone answered. You can have both .com and .com.au pointing towards one location, That means you have can many names which actually points to one hosting of files. to be simple.

A .com website can make your business look global versus a .com.au based on perceptions. Also, you'll find that getting a .com.au site can be more expensive since there are restrictions how this can be obtained.

well its up to u. .com means its American and com.au means its Australian. If you want your customers to know its located in Australia then go for a com.au, or else go for .com. And yes it is possible to have both point to the same website. yahoo,google and the rest do it.

Buy both and on one of them redirect your visitor to the other one. But the important issue is choosing a secure, reliable web host supporting both domains.

You need a web hosting service which supports online payments like, Master Card, Visa & Pay Pal. It is very important that your service to be uptime. It means that you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and your visitors can view your website whenever they input your website address. If your hosting service is not uptime it is a real hell!

If you want to run a successful e-commerce you must choose a reliable web hosting service. The security of your business directly depends on the security of your hosting service. (Hacker safe)

You can take a look at: http://top3hosts.atspace.com/business

There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the E-commerce web hosting industry.

However, as an experienced webmaster I recommend Inmotion Web Host which I’m sure it would work for you and fulfill all your requirements. They have a really great offer for hosting & I have used them for over 3 yrs now, and have never had a single problem with them. (I run 2 business websites with them)

They are a Multi-awarded Web Hosting which offer a Full-featured service only $6.95 a month. Their service is really perfect and uptime.

InMotion has been voted #1 E-commerce Web Hosting. You can take a look at all their features at the address below:

http://top3hosts.atspace.com/in.htm

Here I have copied and pasted its features from their website to view:

- Free Domain

- 1500 Gigabyte Hosting Space

- 15000 GIGS of Transfer

- Free Web Site Builder / Easy to Use Control Panel

- Front Page Extensions / Dreamweaver Compatible / Mambo and Joomla

- CGI, SSL Secure Server, FTP, Perl, PHP, PHP Nuke, MySQL

- E-Commerce Ready

- OS Commerce Shopping Cart, Cube Cart, Zen Cart

- Data Backup, Password Protected Directories

- Business Class Hardware - Up to 50% Faster

They also offer "Free Site Builder" that helps you build your web pages without difficulty if you are not skilled in using any creating website programs. (WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get)

By using InMotion, everything you need for your business website is provided in one eCommerce Hosting Package with high quality customer service. This company offer a full-featured service that fulfills all your requirements to sell online.

******IMPORTANT*******

* This service was awarded as the best Business Web Host 2008.

* You Can Register A Free Domain or Use Your Existing Domains. They Support All Domain Names.

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Good Luck!