Premium UK Domain Names

• What is a domain name?

  A domain name - yourdomain.uk - is your website address on the internet that's used to find your website in a web browser, such as Chrome. It's also used as part of your email address, e.g. hello@yourdomain.uk.

• Should I have my own domain name?

  Your domain name is your unique online address and represents your online brand and business identity. Registering a suitable domain should be done at the first opportunity. A domain name is a useful asset for your company and the cost of securing an unregistered domain is small. Securing closely related domains, particularly the .co.uk/.uk pairing, hyphenated versions of the same domain, or even common miss-spellings, should all be considered to protect your company's brand.

• Which type of domain should I use?

  For the majority of UK businesses the main choices to consider are .com, .co.uk, .uk and possibly .org.uk if you're a charity or non-profit organisation. Of these the most widely recognised are .com domains, but availability is very poor and prices, for pre-registered names, are high. They are good if your business wants a strong corporate presence or is global, but otherwise .uk domains offer a better choice. It's well known that a high percentage of people looking for a UK business will click on a .uk web address over any other, so they make a good choice for most UK businesses. There are also the newer .uk domains, now becoming more widely used, and may even eventually become the new premium UK domain over .co.uk. For this reason I strongly recommend securing the .co.uk/.uk pair. In addition to this are a myriad of top level domains such as .furniture, .clothing, .digital and many others. These are more recent additions to the domain world, and whilst there are some memorable examples in use they are a risky choice due to their current obscurity and are often quite expensive to register.

• Do I have any rights to a domain name?

  No, domain names are independent of established rights such as trade marks. However, if you have a trade mark and the matching domain is being used in bad faith, such as passing off your trade mark, then you may be able to use the dispute resolution process to take control of it. This is a complex subject though and will usually require legal advice to establish the strength of your case.

• Will I own my domain name?

  Technically, no you won't. Domain names are registered on a lease type arrangement and as such you own the rights to use that address, so long as your domain is not allowed to expire. This is why domain renewals are so important to avoid losing those rights and allowing someone else to register that domain.

• What is a premium domain name?

  A small percentage of domain names are inherently of high value and are much sought after. This may be because of their length, they're highly memorable or match a product or service. The vast majority of these are already registered and therefore they have to be secured, if available for sale, via the secondary market. In these cases you should expect to pay a premium price over and above the cost to register an available domain name. You need to do your due diligence before securing a domain with regards to its availability, your chosen company name, and also check for any existing trade marks that may conflict. Premium domains can give you a head start if you chose the right one, so budget for this if you can.

• Is it okay to use a hyphenated domain name?

  Currently hyphenated - hyphenated-domain.uk - domain names are not widely in use in the UK compared to non-hyphenated ones. Although they are sometimes easier to read, generally they are harder to pronounce, less memorable and aren't the instinctive first choice of website owners. If you do want to use one for your main website then be sure that you own both versions so you can re-direct any visitors to the non-hyphenated domain on to the active website. However, I don't recommend using a hyphenated domain name.

Nominet Membership

Nominet are the not-for-profit organisation responsible for the administration of the UK domain space, i.e. all domains ending in .uk, including the dominant .co.uk commercial space and the more recent .uk premium space.

Splash Web has been a member of Nominet since early 2007, using the Nominet IPS tag name of "SPLASHWEB" for all my domain name registrations. My registrar status allows me to register and administer my own portfolio of domain names directly with Nominet. The .uk domain space, as a whole, is one of the most populated in the world, with over ten million registered domains. Visit their website for more information on Nominet .