In the UK we tend to use ‘.co.uk’, which denotes a British site. ‘.com’ is generally used for either USA or global sites, ‘.org’ for charities, and ‘.ac’ for education. After that it’s a bit of a free for all, and ‘.net’, ‘.biz’ etc are normally used either because the others have been taken, or some salesman has sold somebody a bit of a dud! If you are a limited liability company then ‘YourCompanyName.ltd.uk’ is reserved exclusively for you.
You can either have a domain name which reflects your business, i.e. smithandson.co.uk, or one that helps you get found by the search engines. So instead of TateWebDesign.co.uk we could have chosen WebDesignForSmallBusinesses.co.uk. Then again, you could try for one which serves both purposes as ours does.
Don’t unless you have to. There is a minute advantage in separating the words for the search engines, but many of your customers will type with one finger and aren’t sure where the ‘ – ‘ key is !
Since domain names are cheap we encourage you to buy other domains with the same name but different suffix. If you have a successful site ‘gardenornaments.co.uk’ you don’t want someone starting up a similar business with a website ‘gardenornaments.com’ stealing some of your trade.
Your domain name is going to be your Internet identity, as as such is important. Do remember that it will be appearing on your business stationary, point of sale, company vans/cars, and advertising. It will also be the anchor address for your company emails, so think twice about smithswoodenfencesanddoors.co.uk, and if possible try and use a phrase that will have something to snag the search engines.
*Domain names subject to availability
