If you want to speak to someone on the phone, you dial their phone number. Phone numbers are not always easy to remember. Computers on the internet have an IP address which is made up from numbers - again not always easy to remember.

Domain names are more logical names that we use to remember where someone or a computer is, e.g. www.yourcompany.co.uk is much easier for your customers to remember than 207.36.141.15.

A huge benefit of domain names is that a change in your IP address, computer location or Internet service provider has no impact on your customers or associates. They still view your web site at your domain name (e.g. www.nameyourweb.co.uk) and they still send emails to the same place (e.g. support@nameyourweb.co.uk).

More than 1 line of business and more than one hobby are good reasons to have more than one site. Locating similar hobbies under one domain can sometimes work well, care needs to be taken though. Locating unrelated businesses under one site puts you at a disadvantage to your competition.

Use our domain name checker to make sure your chosen name or names are still available and then place your order on our secure shopping cart. We'll do the rest.

It is dependant on how you register it. Originally all domain names lasted for 2 years, but more recently market pressures have forced more flexibility. Most registrations last for a year or two.

Not if you want to keep it. In layman's terms when the name is up for renewal you get first choice. If you choose not to renew your registration, however, the name becomes available for someone else to register it.

Usually this is deemed to be unfortunate but don't feel as if there is nothing you can do. There are a number of cases where a company has been "held to ransom" for their domain name, but cyber-squatting is becoming increasingly frowned upon.
The law is changing to protect people and companies that are under attack from such practices. If you need assistance to sue for your rightful name, email support@nameyourweb.co.uk for a free appraisal of your position.

There are naming rules, the extent of them exceeds this page and as such the rules (and any workarounds) are detailed on our domain name naming rules page.

Many options. You can leave it in limbo if you choose. This is a good way of registering names that you know you will want in the future but are not yet ready to work on. Leaving the domain name in limbo is FREE for any number of domain names.

Read the questions below for other options.

Hosting is the act of placing your domain on a computer that is connected to the internet 24 hours per day 365 days per year. Small to medium sized businesses and personal web sites are usually developed on computers that are not on-line all of the time. The cheapest option for these sites is to "host" the site on someone else's well maintained and supported computers.

Parking is where someone owns a domain name but rather than building a website for it, they point it at a parking service's website. The parking service will present anyone who looks at the domain with some links/advertising. When the person looking at those links clicks one of them, the person who owns the domain name will get a credit of a few cents. Eventually, the domain name owner will earn enough credits that they can get a cash payment from the parking company. People with lots of domain names have a better chance of generating enough traffic to generate the cash payment.

Pointing is the act of having more than one domain name resolve to a single website. A wonderful solution for companies with both .com and .co.uk domain names registered for their business.

Forwarding is a cheap version of parking. It is not as good as parking because the "source code" of the web site is modified by the forwarding computer. First impressions are that all is okay but bare in mind that the source code being modified makes marketing the web site to search engines very difficult and one has to ask: What use is a web site if nobody can find it because it is badly marketed.

.co.uk domain names are widely recognised as being web sites in the UK. .com sites are ideal for companies aiming for multi-national sales or recognition. .co.uk names are ideal for companies aiming for sales and recognition in the UK. If your aim is national and international then you should really be aiming for capturing the .com of your site as well as the .co.uk.

Domain names are available from a variety of sources, the price can range from "nothing up front" to £99 per domain name. The £99 price is a bit excessive. The so called free domain name registration companies do not always offer the free lunch they make out. They usually manage to make their profits from hidden management and maintenance fees. Sometimes over £100 to move "supplier".

Click here for a detailed explanation of why nameyourweb.co.uk and dwgsoftware.com maintain a "no fees, ever" policy.