Guide to e-commerce - choosing a domain name

Your domain name is a vital part of your identity on the internet, so it is important to get it right. These top tips will help you to select the best domain name for your business, brands and products.

Short

Keep your domain name short and punchy; users do not like to type lengthy names - and shorter names are easier to remember.

Simple

Your domain name is the key to your internet presence and should therefore be recognisable, easy to remember and relate to your business name, brand, product or activities.

Where

If your company is located in the United Kingdom, it is recommended that you register a .co.uk domain name even if your business activity includes export trade. If you have an international presence, i.e. an overseas office or project then a Top Level Domain such as .com or .net might be more suitable. Many businesses choose to register all three extensions or sometimes more to improve the chances of users finding their website and to protect their names from other registrants.

Intuitive

When users search the Internet for a particular product or service they often search by product or service, rather than business name. To increase the chances of them finding your site, you can register extra Domain Names that relate to your core business or products e.g. a vineyard may choose wine.com or grapes.net as well as its company name.

Local addresses

You might decide to open a 'virtual office' in another country. For example, wine.co.uk could also register wine.fr which may point towards the same site, hence attracting a larger audience - you will need to check if a local presence is required in the country in which you want to register this extra domain.

Which category

UK Limited Companies can register .ltd.uk domains as well as the popular .co.uk names - in fact there is a range of endings available.

Format

Domains are always in lower case, however, depending on the user's browser, upper case may be recognised. Play it safe and always use lower case names when printing your domain address on stationery.

Punctuation

No punctuation is allowed except a hyphen, which is normally perceived as a 'space'. If your company or brand name contains two words (e.g. John Smith plc) you might choose to register both johnsmith.co.uk and john-smith.co.uk in order to further protect your brands and enhance your 'findability'.

Numbers

If you wish, you are allowed to use numbers in your choice of domain.