Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Domain Name Registration
In August 2006, there were a total of 129,217 UK domain names1 registered, with over 92% of the registrations being bought on the .co.uk domain.
The annual growth rate of 16.61%1 domain name registrations for the UK just goes to show that the Internet is still thriving as it was long ago during the ‘.com boom’ era.
But what defines a good domain name? What’s the difference between .com and .co.uk anyway?
This article sets out useful guidance to help you decide what components are needed to build the right domain name for your company website.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a registered name used on the Internet to work as an easy-to-remember address specific to a website IP address (Internet Protocol address).
A good example of a domain name is www.diywebbuilder.co.uk. Even though we read this as being DIY web builder, it actually points to an IP address. Rather than typing an IP address into the toolbar of an Internet browser program, domain name servers around the world save the name as a direct link to the address.
It is possible to have multiple domain names pointing to a single IP address, but a domain name and an IP address can never be duplicated.
What does a domain name consist of?
A domain name consists of three separate levels.
- Primary level – the top level is the country region (i.e. .uk)
- Secondary level – is the choice of domain type (i.e. .co.uk)
- Tertiary level – this is the name (i.e. bbc.co.uk)
Choosing the right domain name for you
Choosing a domain name can be a lengthy and difficult process. When picking the ‘perfect’ domain for your company, you have to consider many aspects in making it a useful domain name.
Some factors that can affect the usefulness of a website domain name include:
Length of name – any domain name that is long can be difficult to remember and even more difficult to spell correctly. Shorter names are easier to remember and can be easier to discuss. Word of mouth is a hugely relevant form of advertising for the Internet.
Good examples of short domain names include:
Spelling - do not chose a name that is spelt in an unconventional way or is unfamiliar to the language of your target audience. Also be aware of names that are ‘new’ or made up.
Examples of successful websites that use unique domain names include:
Relational qualities – people using the Internet have many options when searching for a website. They can either use a search engine to do the work for them, or they can type directly into the web browser. Due to this aspect of user interaction, it is important to decide on a name that is either relative to the companies strategies, like using sports in the domain if the company sells sports products, or relative to the company name.
Even though www.diywebbuilder.co.uk is a company name, you can tell just by reading it is a product for building your own websites.
The more relative the website domain name is, the greater the chance of users finding it.
Hyphenating – Sometimes it’s a disaster. You go to register your new .co.uk domain name and, oops, it has already been registered.
If you are unlucky enough to find this is the case, which is becoming more common with the amount of websites on the Internet nowadays, do not despair, as hyphenating the words can be the answer.
However, this is not always the best solution. Try using other name ideas first. It would be easier to find motorbikes.com than motor-bikes.com as users seldom use the hyphenation between words, unless it is grammatically correct or the user already knows the domain name in advance.
Instead, try to re-create the domain name without hyphenation and possibly think about using another domain type (.com, .co.uk, .eu, .eu.com etc.).
Domain name registration
With these thoughts in mind, you are ready to purchase the domain name from a domain registrar.
Domain name registrars can be found online (i.e. www.pecdomains.com) and are online tools to help search through existing domains to find ‘vacant’ or unregistered domain names.
It is then just a case of registering the domain.
For more information about domain name registration, visit www.nominet.org.uk.
1 Nominet ‘Registration Statistics’ at:
http://www.nominet.org.uk/intelligence/statistics/registration/ (21 Sep 06)
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