June 2014 saw the launch of the shorter .uk domain name

Something which happened last year but I think is worthy of mentioning again.  This is great news for UK businesses allowing them to have a shorter, snappier sounding domain name.  Nominet who manage the registration of the .uk top level domains (.co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk and so on) released the new TLD in June last year.

I’ve already registered a .uk domain name

Existing registrants of .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .plc.uk or .ltd.uk will have had the new .uk equivalent domain automatically reserved on the launch on 10 June 2014. This reservation is free unless you decide to register the .uk domain name ahead of the June 10th 2019 deadline.  If you choose not to register the .uk domain name before this time, then it will be available on a first come, first served basis.

To find out if you are eligible for the shorter version of your .uk domain name, visit this page.  Here you can enter your current domain name and it will tell you who has the right of registration for it.

Why do I want another domain name?

Primarily protection of your companies brand should be a good enough reason to ensure that someone else doesn’t register it.  However you might consider the shorter version as it’s a few less characters for your customers to remember.

Remember that you can have as many domain names as you want pointing to your main website address.