Domains

A domain name is your address on the web, also known as your "url". Domain names treat upper- and lower-case letters the same: aBitAbout.com is the same as abitabout.com.

Picking a domain name

Choosing a good domain name is not that hard. The difficulty lies in finding one that is actually available!

A good domain name should be:

  1. Easy to remember
  2. Easy to type
  3. Relevant to your service or brand

Ideally it should also still have the .com, co.uk and .net available to prevent you losing traffic and anyone cyber-squatting on one of the big three domain extensions in the UK.

A lot of descriptive domain names already have the .com taken -  and possibly the co.uk as well. Three letter abbreviations are all gone. Most dictionary words are gone. Most combinations of two, or even three dictionary words are gone.

If you are geographically based, you might want to consider making your locality a part of your domain name: e.g. berkshirewaffles.co.uk. If you are a UK based business, it may be better to have .co.uk than .com or a global address.

Remember that the domain name should also be part of your email address:
  Jenny.Little@YorkFlowers.com
looks more professional than
  flowergirl47@yahoo.co.uk

Example:

Too long: online-flower-delivery-service-york.co.uk

Better: yorkflowers.co.uk

An alternative approach is to create a new name that has not yet been taken and build your brand around that. Existing examples include Jorogo.co.uk (yes, that's how we came up with our name!), eHow.com and  Flickr.com.


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