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How to choose a domain name |
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How do I choose a uk domain name?
Choosing a domain name for a business or individual depends on many factors.
The domain name has two parts separated by a dot - for example mywebsite.co.uk
The part after the dot depends on whether it is for a business website or personal.
For a business domain name use .co.uk or .com
For an organization use .org or .org.uk
For a personal website domain name use .me.uk or .co.uk
The part before the dot is unique to your domain name and should be chosen with care.
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How can I find if a domain name is available?
UK Domain names are, broadly speaking, issued to the first person to request them - first come, first served. You probabluy have some ideas based on your business name. Find if your chosen domain name is available using the box below. It also gives alternative suggestions. Remember to select .co.uk org.uk or your preferred stop level domain name. Choose co.uk or .com for business domains, co.uk or me.uk for personal websites and org.uk for other organisations. |
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It is quite likely that your chosen domain name is already registered. If it is try to think of variants like putting a hyphen between each word so 'mywebsite' would become 'my-website', or if you have a business add the area you operate in - like 'my-business-mytown' The result from the domain name checker above will also give suggestions for variants of the name. |
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If you want your new domain name to be google-friendly then choose something with likely search terms in the name. For a plumber called Jones working in London jones.com would not help with search engines at all. Jones-plumber.com would be better and london- plumber.com would be even better.
Unfortunately most obvious internet domain names like these will have been registered long ago by someone else so you may have to be more inventive, for example thinking about longer names like plumber-in-central-london.com
There is now a possible problem with the name becoming too long. If you want the domain name to help with google and other search engines only this does not matter. If you want to choose a domain name that is easily remembered then a shorter one is better. |
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Domain names can only include letters and numbers and the hyphen (-) character. The hyphen is often used to separate words as in my-domain-name.co.uk but is not absolutely necessary . Google and other search engines can understand that mydomainname.co.uk is made up of the words "my", "domain" and "name". |
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As long as you follow that rule you can use any combination of characters - it does not have to be real words.
So butrrrrrrld-ddddkjh.co.uk would be a prefectly correct, if not very sensible name for a website. If you feel like making up a new 'word' then try it out in the domain name checker box above. |
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Choose a domain name for free
Often you can get hosting from the same company you get your domain name from. Sometimes you can choose a domain name for free when you take a hosting package -click on the 1and1 banner above and look at their hosting for an example. |
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... Including reviews of uk domain registers - Review of 1and1, fasthosts etc. Also uk website hosting review. |
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A variety of domain name registering options are available with prices ranging from free, when bought in combination with a hosting package to £10 per year or more for a co.uk domain - which is, frankly too much. Reasonable co.uk domain prices are from £2.50 to £3 or thereabouts - although sone more expensive ones may offer things like free hosting.
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FAQs - click for answers
What is a top level domain TLD > |