Extensive
portfolio of generic .co.uk domains for lease or
joint venture, including:
If the internet is the land, then domain names
are the plots that divide it & websites are the buildings
that stand on them. A domain name is essentially an address,
a way of providing a unique & memorable version of the
digital number it actually represents. Domain names are defined
in terms of Top Level Domains (TLD's) which are considered
international, eg. .com, .net & .org, but also country
code Top Level Domains (ccTLD's) such as .uk, .de & .fr.
There are now over 8 million registered domains in the .uk
domain space as a whole, with the commercial sector, .co.uk,
having by far the largest percentage of registrations. The
UK domain space is administered by Nominet UK, of which Splashweb
are members & who are responsible for maintaining the
register of .uk domain names.
Country level domains are very important in terms of marketing
& promotion as they can be identified by country of origin,
giving visitors more confidence of what they'll find when
they get there. It pays to use the .co.uk domain extension
if you are a UK centred business. Owning the .com version
as well is preferable, but even in these circumstances run
your website on the .co.uk version & redirect any visitors
to the .com domain towards the .co.uk, not the other way around.
There are domains which make good brand names or company
names & can be trade marked if well chosen. There are
domains that coincide with products & services, known
as generic domain names & the keywords they contain make
them popular for use in SEO
(Search Engine Optimisation) & PPC
campaigns. Also there's geographical domains that match
town names or regions are another distinctive type of domain.
In fact when you look closely you realise that just like real
estate, indeed, no two domains are the same. The buying and
selling of domain names is often considered to have many parallels
to the propety market, other than it's much less mature.
choosing a business domain name
There are a few more guidelines to follow when choosing the domain
you want other than being short & easy to spell. If you're starting
a new business secure the domain(s) you want before setting up your
company name. Where possible include at least one relevant keyword
to your main products or service, as this will help you with you
search engine promotion. Stick to the popular domain extensions,
ie. .co.uk & .com, & be prepared to pay more than a registration
fee if all the relevant names you can think of are taken; there
are numerous names available on the secondary market at a sensible
price. Remember that a domain name is your online business premises,
it's an important choice to get right & the right name will
pay dividends in the future.
You should also consider owning some generic domain names that
relate to your business sector. If you sell "organic clothing"
then ownership of organicclothing.co.uk, whether used as your main
website or as a supporting micro-site or ecommerce store, would
help establish you as an "authority supplier". It will
also help you reach traffic available on that phrase & variants
of it. If ownership of the domain isn't available consider leasing
a domain from our own domain portfolio, but also build up your
own small portfolio of domains through acquisition by direct approach
or at domain auction & broker sites such as Sedo.
There is a finite supply of domain name "real estate"
available, which is helping to drive consistent growth in the number
of domain registrations. With no two registrations being the same
there is also an increasingly active secondary market, with registered
domain names being sold at market prices. That said, there are in
fact very few valuable domains, there are many more which although
registered are available for sale at reasonable prices. In terms
of what this acquisition means for your business it may well be
money well spent.
buying a domain name
Whether or not you'll be able to register a domain name will depend
upon whether anyone has got there first. A domain registration is
the equivalent to staking your claim in the wild west & of course
pretty much all of the obviously valuable domains have been registered
& are now owned. In this context ownership of .co.uk means that
you actually have a two year lease & the right of renewal; be
sure to keep your contact details up to date! Domain registrations
are low cost, but good ones take a lot of finding, unless you've
got a unique brand name in mind. When you're checking domain name
availability use the free WHOIS lookup service at
Nominet UK,
it's a bit crude but ensures that your ideas wont be seen by others
who may have an interest. This service can also be used to find
the contact details of a current domain owner. We've listed some
of our preferred domain name registration companies in our directory,
including 123-Reg
& 1&1 Internet
both of which are competively priced.
If the domain name you want has already been registered then visit
the domain in question, see how it is being used, if at all &
if you think it's appropriate make an approach to the current owner
to see if they will sell. There are a large number of domains currently
available in this way, either for sale or lease & it's a good
time to invest some money to get access to the right domain name
for your business, whether existing or proposed.
Prices for domain sales vary considerably & sales are steadily
rising in their value & quantity. A domain's value will be influenced
by the popularity & number of keywords it contains, the number
of searches performed for the corresponding phrase, the cost to
run a PPC campaign on
that phrase, average order value for that product or service sector
& other similar factors, including the "sweetness"
factor - how well does it roll off the tongue!
generic domain names
Generic domains are those that coincide with products & services,
such as officefurniture.co.uk, gardenplants.co.uk or foreigncurrency.co.uk,
are not only highly memorable, but the keywords contained in them
often help to significantly improve search engine ranking, at least
for the matching phrase & often variants of it too. This makes
access to such domain names very desirable within your own sector
& all online businesses will benefit from owning a small portfolio
of the right domains, or gaining access through domain leasing.
Generic domains look great as a part of your marketing & advertising,
they give your brand a degree of authority & credibility if
the name is strong enough & the traffic they attract usually
offers higher than average conversion rates.
Some generic domains also receive significant quantities of type-in
traffic; visitors who type the domain name directly into the browser
address window rather than relying on a search engine. This is an
increasing trend & one which may even change the face of online
searching in the future, particularly as the .co.uk space becomes
more populated & the majority of all two & three word generic
phrases in use have corresponding active website's.
joint ventures
In the same way that high street stores are more commonly leased
than sold, so too are premium domain names being used in joint ventures
online, with revenue share or similar agreements in place. There
have been a significant number of sales of top quality generic .co.uk
domains for many thousands of pounds & a few well in excess
of £100,000. We hold an extensive portfolio of .co.uk generic domain
names, all of which relate to products & services, across more
than fifty popular categories. If you'd like to consider a joint
venture using one of our domain names then please contact
us; it's a great way to get access to a prime piece of online
"real estate" & still keep the shirt on your back.
domain sales & acquisitions
We do release domain names for sale (some are reserved for development),
we are also open to domain exchanges & acquisitions for our
own portfolio (generic .co.uk names only). Please contact
us if you are interested in any of our domain names or if you
have generic domains to offer us for sale; please be sure to include
a guide price.
We are also a UK domain name registrar, through our membership
of Nominet UK,
able to register .uk domain names using our automated domain registration
software.
faq: domain name questions
Q : is it okay to use a hyphenated domain name?
Currently the market sees much less value in hyphenated (hyphenated-domain.co.uk)
domain names than non hyphenated ones. Some of them have a value
in SEO terms because of the keywords they contain. Although they
are sometimes easier to read, generally they are harder to pronounce
& less memorable & aren't the instinctive first choice of
domain owners in the UK. If you do want to use one for your main
website then be sure that you own both versions & forward any
visitors to non-hyphenated domain on to the active website.
Q : should I have my own domain name?
Your domain name is your unique online brand & company identity,
the ownership of a suitable domain should be secured as soon as
possible. A domain name is a useful asset for your company, if not
for today & the cost of ownership is small. Securing closely
similar domains, particularly the hyphenated version of the same
name, or even miss-spellings, is recommended to protect your company's
brand online. Acquisition of a few suitable generic
domains is also recommended.
Q : which type of domain should I use?
The first widely available domains were a few top level domains
such as ".com" & numerous top level county domains
such as ".co.uk". Use of the ".com" domain tends
to imply that you are a global organisation, either in location
or in your client base. Many people also perceive this domain as
making you an American company, as America adopted the ".com"
domain over their own country domain, which has only more recently
been made available to them. Ideally all mainstream extensions of
your chosen domain name should be secured, but try to secure both
the ".com" & your country domain version when you
can. The ".co.uk" country domain is much more familiar
to people than a few years ago & tells people straightway where
your business is based.
Nominet UK membership
Nominet UK are a not-for-profit body responsible for the administration
of the UK domain space, ie. all domains ending in .uk, including
the dominant .co.uk commercial space. Splashweb have been a member
of Nominet UK since early 2007, using the Nominet IPS tag name of
"SPLASHWEB" for all our domain name registrations. Our
registrar status allows us to register & administer our own
portfolio of domain names directly with Nominet UK. The .uk domain
space is one of the most populated in the world, with over eight
million registered domains. Please visit their official site for
more information on Nominet
UK.
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