How to choose a domain name for your business

Your domain name is your address online: the yourbusiness.co.uk that customers type to find your website. It usually becomes your email address too, so you’ll say it, print it and type it for years.

The short answer: choose a name that’s short, easy to say and spell, and as close to your business name as you can get. Pick the ending that suits your customers, check the name doesn’t clash with someone else’s trade mark, and register it in your business’s own name.

Here’s how to get each of those right, and how to hold on to the domain once it’s yours.

Keep it short, and easy to say and spell

Try the phone test. Say the name out loud to someone and ask them to type it. If you have to spell it out, or explain whether you mean “to”, “two” or “2”, look for something simpler.

• Shorter is easier. Short names are easier to remember, quicker to type and fit on a van or a business card.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers. They’re easy to forget and awkward to say out loud.
• Skip clever spellings. “Kwik” or “4U” saves a few letters but costs you every time someone guesses wrong.
• Read it back as one word. Run the words together and check they don’t spell something you didn’t intend.

Start with your business name

Customers will try your business name first, so start there. If the exact name is taken, add a word about what you do or where you are, such as your trade or your town.

A name that describes what you do can work well too. But if it’s nothing like your business name, people who know you by name won’t guess it.

Which ending: .co.uk, .uk or .com?

The ending, the part after the dot, tells people something about you.

• .co.uk is the established choice for UK businesses, and the one many British customers expect.
• .uk is shorter and newer, and still clearly British.
• .com is recognised everywhere, and suits a business that sells abroad.

Newer endings, like .london, .online or .store, can say something about where you are or what you sell, and they’re worth a look if your first choice is taken. Just make sure customers will remember the ending as well as the name.

You don’t need to meet any conditions for the UK endings. Nominet, the registry that runs .uk domains, doesn’t restrict who can register a .co.uk or a .uk. Its registration rules say .co.uk is intended for commercial use, and .org.uk for not-for-profit organisations, but that’s guidance rather than a requirement.

Domains are registered first come, first served, so the .uk version of your .co.uk name (or the other way round) may already belong to someone else. Check every ending you care about before you decide.

Check it doesn’t clash with a trade mark

Before you settle on a name, search the UK Intellectual Property Office’s trade mark register. It shows whether a similar trade mark already exists in the UK and who owns it. Search for the name itself and for close variations.

This matters for your domain as well as your brand. If a domain takes unfair advantage of someone else’s rights in a name, they can complain through Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service for .uk domains, or under the dispute resolution policy of ICANN, the body that coordinates domain names worldwide, for .com. If the complaint succeeds, the domain can be transferred to them.

Register the close variations

Once you’ve chosen your name, think about what people might type by mistake, and what a copycat might register:

• the other UK ending: .uk if you chose .co.uk, and the reverse
• .com, even if you only trade in the UK
• common misspellings of your name

You don’t need a website for each one. Point them all at your main site, so every version brings customers to the same place. With our web hosting, every plan includes unlimited parked domains: extra names that lead to the same website.

Keep the domain in your business’s name

The registrant, the person or organisation the domain is registered to, is its legal owner. If a web designer or an employee registers your domain in their own name, it belongs to them, and getting it back can be difficult if you fall out or lose touch.

• Register it in your business’s name, with contact details you’ll keep up to date.
• Keep the login for your registrar (the company you registered it with) somewhere safe, and make sure more than one person can get to it.
• If someone else registered it for you, ask them to confirm who the registrant is. Nominet’s domain lookup shows which registrar looks after a .uk domain and when it expires.

The contact email matters more than it looks. If a .uk domain isn’t renewed by its expiry date, Nominet emails the legal owner at the contact address it holds. If that inbox belonged to someone who’s left, the warning goes unread.

Renew on time, every time

Domains are registered for a set period, then need renewing. If one lapses, the website and email that use it stop working.

• Turn on auto-renew with your registrar, and keep the payment card up to date.
• Register for longer. You can extend a .uk registration up to ten years ahead.
• Compare renewal prices, not just the price for the first year.
• Check everything renews. Your domain, hosting and email can have different renewal dates.

If a .uk domain does expire, there’s a grace period when it can still be renewed. After that it’s deleted, and anyone can register it. Your registrar may also suspend it sooner. Nominet explains each stage in its guide to what happens if you don’t renew.

Where to start

Search for your name on our domains page. A .co.uk or .uk is £5.77 and a .com is £7.47 for the first year, and you can add web hosting and email at your domain in the same order. Then read why your business email should use your own domain.