UK domain name registration

For a new business, UK domain name registration should be one of the things you're thinking about at the start of the process. One of the trickiest aspects to navigate is how to choose the best name for your UK site then to find a suitable domain name registration service that you can trust. Every website needs to have a domain name - otherwise no one will find the website or you online.

As with every business, whether online or offline, copyright and trademarking is something to consider when you're choosing a domain name. So buying domains of a generic nature (e.g. lifestyle.co.uk, pillows.co.uk or footballs.co.uk) has always been a competitive area. The domain needs to ensure you brand stickiness, a good memorable domain and of no trademarking issues.

The task of getting a good domain name registration to your name can be a little trickier than you may think. Serious domain purchasing started even before 1996 and the setting up of Nominet (read about Nominet here). So read through the following tips, before choosing the right domain name for your company.

• The first thing you need to do is workout your business, dissect the products you are selling and whether you need people to find you online in order to make sales. This will give you some ideas on what names you may want for a domain name.
   
• Next - you need to find out what names are actually available to you. You can type into your browser and see whether a site appears - but an error message this does not always mean that the name is available. ALternatively, go to Nominet's website and do a domain search to see what's available and what's not.
   
• Next you need to decide if you want to use a .com or .co.uk suffix. Most people automatically believe that it is best to use a .co.uk domain name registration since they are located within the United Kingdom to point out that they are a British based business, perhaps selling goods in pounds rather than another currency. However, if you plan on serving an international audience then it may be more beneficial to use a .com name because it is more recognized worldwide (you can set up geo sites within the main .com domain like uk.domainname.com or fr.domainname.com).
   
• Finally, you need to find an accredited registrar that offer UK domain name registration and check what they charge. You should be looking at around £7 for every 2 years for a .co.uk and £8 per year for a .com. While your web hosting company most likely offers a deal if you buy your domain name through them, this is not always the easiest or cheapest way to go, so it may be worth your time to look around.
   

As previously mentioned, just because a domain is gone - does not mean it is not for sale. Around 50% of all .co.uk domains are owned by companies that sell domains from portfolios. In fact that is what Stung.co.uk does. We register or buy domains and then either develop ourselves into websites, or we sell them on again.