Choosing a domain name feels like a big decision, and it sort of is, because you will be saying it on the phone and painting it on the van for years. The co.uk or .com question is actually the easy part. The bits that cause real trouble later are who owns the domain and what happens when it comes up for renewal.
Co.uk or .com?
For a business that serves customers in the UK, .co.uk is the natural choice. People recognise it as British, it quietly signals that you are local, and good names are more likely to be available than on .com, where most short words went decades ago.
A .com makes sense if you sell internationally or expect to. If you can get both the .co.uk and the .com of your name, it is worth registering both and pointing one at the other, mainly so nobody else can take the one you did not use.
| Ending | Best for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| .co.uk | Most UK businesses serving UK customers | Widely recognised and trusted as a UK business address |
| .uk | A shorter alternative to .co.uk | Available for direct registration since 2014; less familiar to some customers, who may type .co.uk by habit |
| .com | Businesses selling abroad, or where the .com is available | Short, memorable .com names are rarely available |
| .org.uk | Charities, clubs and non-profits | Can look odd on a commercial business |
| Newer endings (.plumbing, .london and so on) | Occasional branding use | Many customers do not recognise them and may mistype them |
Who runs .uk domains?
The .uk family of domains, including .co.uk, is run by Nominet, a not-for-profit company that operates the UK registry. You do not normally buy from Nominet directly. You buy through a registrar: a hosting company, a domain seller or your web designer, who registers it on your behalf in the registry.
That middle step is where most of the problems below come from.
What makes a good domain name
- Easy to say on the phone. If you have to spell it out every time, simplify it.
- Short enough to fit on a van and be remembered after one glance.
- Your business name if possible, or what you do and your town if your business name is taken or generic (for example “exeterplumbing”).
- No hyphens if you can avoid them. People forget them.
- No numbers that could be words (“4” or “four”?), and no odd spellings.
- Not too close to a competitor’s name or a trade mark.
The renewal and ownership traps
Domains are rented by the year, not bought outright. Most of the horror stories we hear from small businesses come from one of these:
- Registered in someone else’s name. If a web designer, an old employee or a relative registered it as themselves, they legally hold it. Make sure the registrant is you or your company.
- Auto-renew switched off, or set to a card that has since expired. The domain lapses, the website and email stop working, and someone else can register it once it is released.
- Renewal emails going to an old address nobody reads.
- Cheap first-year pricing that jumps sharply at renewal. Check the renewal price, not just the introductory one.
- Lost login details. Keep the registrar login somewhere safe, alongside your other business passwords.
- A designer who will not hand over control when you leave. Ask before you start how you would move your domain elsewhere.
How to register one properly
- Check availability at any registrar. Search your name on .co.uk, .uk and .com.
- Register it in your own name or your limited company’s name, with an email address you actually check.
- Turn on auto-renew and consider registering for several years at a time.
- Add the login to your password manager or somewhere safe.
- If you already have one somebody else manages, ask them for confirmation of who the registrant is.
Changing domain later
It is possible to change domain later, but it is fiddly. Old links break unless they are redirected, your email address changes, and the new address has to rebuild whatever search history the old one had. It is much easier to get it right at the start, and if you do change, keep the old domain renewed and redirecting for a long time afterwards.
When we set up a domain for a customer, it is registered in their name and they get the login. That should be true of whoever sets up yours.