How do I choose a domain name

Choosing a domain name:

Decide whether to choose your domain name to reflect your company name or to be search engine friendly - especially google friendly as google is the prominent search engine.

For a UK company choose a .co.uk name or .com if you want it to have an international feel to it. Also acceptable If you can't get the right .co.uk or .com is a domain name ending in .net or .biz (for business) - but co.uk or .com are probably best. Check what is available below:

If you have come up with a good name there is nothing to stop you registering the .co.uk and .com versions at the same time. If you really want to stop others registering and using any of the other versions it is advisable to register them yourself. Even if you register the name as a trademark or copyright it you should consider registering variants on the name - even if you could establish a legal right to a domain name it would be much more expensive.

For a European company or a business with a presence in european countries (including the UK or not) the .eu domain extension is suitable.

If you want to choose a domain name for an organization go for .org or .org.uk if it is specifically a United Kingdom organization.

If you want to choose a domain name for an individual or family website in the uk, you could choose a .me.uk or .name

The .info domain should be preferably used for information rather than commercial websites.

The .mobi domains are suitable for mobile websites.

How to keep your domain name

Make sure the company you register your domain name with automatically renews it. www.1and1.co.uk, for example will email you a reminder when the domain registration renewal is due, and renew it automatically unless you cancel the domain.