Your domain name is the name of your website after the “www” and is used to uniquely identify your website. Domain names can be purchased from multiple resellers and are registered to the purchaser for a specified period of time. All .UK domain name registration is managed centrally via Nominet.

Normally it is easier to purchase your domain name from the same company who provides your web hosting service as to create a website for the domain you will need some sort of web hosting package.

It is now possible to register domain names with many different extensions beyond just the .COM or .CO.UK ones. You can now register domain names dependent upon their specific usage. with the following extensions:

Eg. .TV for television/video sites .ORG.UK for non-profit organisations
.ME.UK for personal sites .NET for technology related websites
.FR for French sites .EDU for school/educational sites

It is important to ensure that you renew your registration before it expires to prevent loss of the domain name. Normally your web hosting service will take care of these renewals and notify you when payment is required.

Why Would I Use One on My Website?

Required to give your website a unique reference and hence enable people to find it on the world wide web via internet browsers.

Possible Requirements to Consider

  • For optimal SEO your domain name should match your chosen target keywords;
  • Don’t assume a domain name is automatically available – always check;
  • If possible purchase both the www..co.uk and www..com versions to prevent competitors (or others) using your website name;
  • If the domain name you want is for sale, make sure it was used for the same keyword phrases as you intend to use. SEO works best on websites which don’t change keyword phrases in a radical way over time;
  • Always check the history of a domain to ensure it has not been used previously;

Your personal information is available via the domain checking tool Who IS – you can mask the information via your web hosting service if they offer this service;

Examples

To check whether your domain name is available type “check domain name” into Google and use the domain checking tool from any web hosting service or specific domain registration company.

The links below allow you to type in any domain name and see historical and current information about a domain. The last link shows all archived versions of the websites attached to the daomain since 1996. It allows you to check whether your domain name has been used in the past and what it was used for.

Check age of any domain name

Full List of Top Level Domains

Check historical usage of domain name

How to Check Information About Your Domain

  • Go to webpage link Who Is .
  • Enter domain name in LOOKUP box at top of page.
  • ‘Server Data’ confirms the geographical location of the web server.
  • ‘Domain Tools Exclusive – Reverse IP’ tells you how many other websites are located on the server and can provide you with a list of these websites for a small fee.
  • ‘WhoIs Record’ will confirm who the domain is registered to and the renewal date for the domain.

Further Information

Country Specific Domain Names

To purchase a .FR French website address you must have a postal address in France and will need to write the content in French. See the AFNIC website for more information on the legal requirements of a .FR domain. If a company does not satisfy the requirements to register a .fr domain, they would need to locate a provider of domain name registration services who can register the domain.

Organic searches on Google/Yahoo/MSN select the website results to make them most relevant to yourself and where you live. So if you live in the UK, you will only see websites from .COM or .CO.UK. If you live in France you will only see websites from .COM or .FR. It is important to consider your market and which countries you wish to sell to both now and in the future.

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Filed under: Website Jargon Buster

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