Domain Names

Finally it is now possible to register .UK domain names for periods other than 2 years.

Since it’s inception, Nominet (the UK domain registry) have only facilitated 2 year domain name registrations and domain name renewals. It was not possible to register or renew for any other period. Unlike pretty much all other domain extensions which have since the year dot had registration and renewal options starting from 1  to 10 years.

We now support .UK domain name registration periods from 1 year to 10 years. Renewal periods of the same value are now also offered at time of renewal. You can see the official Nominet news release under Nominet to roll out multi-year reigstration periods for UK domains.

To get the best value from your domain name registration or renewal, go for 10 years (or as long as you can afford) as the price is stepped down and discounted for longer term registrations and renewals. Prices drop to as low as £2.99 per year if you register or renew for the longer periods, these terms are set and forget, no need to remember to renew.

Automatically scheduled 10 year renewal orders

Domains can be renewed up to 180 days before the expiry date. However this poses another problem which Nominet are aware of. That is, let say you have 100 days left on your domain name and you want to renew, you choose the 10 year renewal. Sounds ok? Well this will be a big fail. This is because a .UK domain name cannot have more than 10 years remaining. So in this case, if the renewal worked, you would have 10 years and 100 days remaining. No possible, so we automatically schedule your renewal order to execute on the expiry date – this resolves the (annoying) problem of timing your renewal perfectly.

This is a Nominet accounting status code indicating the registration status of your domain name. Even though it says “Renewal request being processed.”, this also means your domain is fully renewed. Once 30 days has passed, the status will change to “Registered until renewal date”.

Nominet explain the (sometimes confusing) status as follows: “This status is used after first registration but before the initial registration fee has been received.  Please note that we (Nominet) issue monthly invoices, so it is possible that if this status is displayed your registrar has not yet been invoiced for the domain name.”.

For more information, see Renewal request being processed at Nominet.

This is a Nominet accounting status code indicating the registration status of your domain name. Even though it says “Registration request being processed.”, this also means your domain is fully registered. Once 30 days has passed, the status will change to “Registered until renewal date”.

Nominet explain the (sometimes confusing) status as follows: “This status is used after first registration but before the initial registration fee has been received.  Please note that we (Nominet) issue monthly invoices, so it is possible that if this status is displayed your registrar has not yet been invoiced for the domain name.”.

For more information, see Registration request being processed at Nominet.

This is a tough question if you are registering your first domain and you are also on a tight budget.

• As a minimum, you need to register the .co.uk if you are a UK based company and also the .com version if available.
• If your site is important,  consider registering as many extensions as possible to prevent others pretending to be you.
• While your business is new you can register the domains at cost. Once you are established, obtaining the domain names from a squatter is going to be expensive, if not impossible.
• Find a comfortable budget for your domain registrations. Annually the costs is much less than it used to be.
• You may need to consider registering misspellings if your brand name can easily be misspelt for additional protection.

The reason you need to register both the .co.uk and the .com becomes apparent once your site becomes successful. Do you really want someone to launch a site with your company brand and have them ride on your coat tails – or even bring your business in to disrepute? So, if you can, get both the .co.uk and the .com extensions.

So how about the rest of the extensions?

If you are serious about your business, you need to purchase as many extensions as your budget will afford. Domain registration is very cheap these days and there are no excuses for cutting corners. Once your business is successful it will be very difficult if not impossible to collect the extensions after they have been registered by other parties.

So I should register all of the extensions?

If you can, in this order, you should take the .co.uk, .com, .net, .biz, .info and .eu. As stated earlier, if you are serious about your business then register as many of the extensions as you can afford.