Reply to: Matching Company name and domain name

[WTFH]

If you do buy the url just remember to put your details private otherwise you get the whole of India offering you Web design/SEO, etc. for weeks afterwards.

Thanks to GDPR, that has happened automatically in most cases...
Using Nominet.uk to check a .co.uk :

Data validation:
Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 06-Mar-2013

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 25-Jun-2010
Expiry date: 25-Jun-2020
Last updated: 24-Jun-2018

Registration status:
Registered until expiry date.

Name servers:
ns1031.ui-dns.biz
ns1031.ui-dns.com
ns1031.ui-dns.de
ns1031.ui-dns.org


Using Who.Is to check a .com :

Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.1and1.com
Registrar URL: http://1and1.com
Updated Date: 2018-04-14T09:23:35.000Z
Creation Date: 2004-05-10T16:10:19.000Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2019-05-10T16:10:19.000Z
Registrar: 1&1 Internet SE
Registrar IANA ID: 83
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8774612631
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registrant Organization: 1&1 Internet Limited
Registrant State/Province: GLS
Registrant Country: GB
Registrant Email:
Nameserver: ns1056.ui-dns.de
Nameserver: ns1056.ui-dns.biz
Nameserver: ns1056.ui-dns.org
Nameserver: ns1056.ui-dns.com
DNSSEC: Unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/

[quackhandle]

When I rebranded my co last year I did check if the URL was available as it would have been tricky to use and not have the website to complement it.

Does it matter? I guess not, but to my OCD mind yes.

Look at B&Q (diy.com)

If you do buy the url just remember to put your details private otherwise you get the whole of India offering you Web design/SEO, etc. for weeks afterwards.

qh

[simes]

Yeh, I don't think it matters a whole pile any more to be honest.

The only one I am inclined to really avoid is .co because some novice business people might confuse it with .com and not even notice the subtle difference.

...Or Columbia.

[password]

Yeh, I don't think it matters a whole pile any more to be honest.

The web is awash with all sorts of extensions these days anyway.

FWIW I went with .net because the .com was taken, meh!

The only one I am inclined to really avoid is .co because some novice business people might confuse it with .com and not even notice the subtle difference.

[Spoiler]

The extension is pretty irrelevant - .co.uk, .com, .eu, .it, whatever. If you want a domain make sure the domain name matches the company.

One of the big advantages (in my opinion) of having your own domain(s) is that you can use multiple email addresses. Agents get one (that’s the one on the CV/LinkedIn/etc), end clients get a different one (and are told that the other one is frequently spammed). When signing up to mailing lists, etc, have another address, and finally have one for personal stuff - friends and family.
Then when one of them starts to get spammed, you can start to work out where they are getting it from.

^ This.

[WTFH]

The extension is pretty irrelevant - .co.uk, .com, .eu, .it, whatever. If you want a domain make sure the domain name matches the company.

One of the big advantages (in my opinion) of having your own domain(s) is that you can use multiple email addresses. Agents get one (that’s the one on the CV/LinkedIn/etc), end clients get a different one (and are told that the other one is frequently spammed). When signing up to mailing lists, etc, have another address, and finally have one for personal stuff - friends and family.
Then when one of them starts to get spammed, you can start to work out where they are getting it from.

[sir k]

Wow, quite a varied response... and there was me thinking having a domain was a given!

Thanks to all for giving me something(s) to think about. I was quite sure I'd use the domain for email but wasn't sure about an actual site. I just thought everyone naturally bought the domain after registering the company (for whatever reason) but I'm aware now that that's not necessarily the case.

I'll definitely get the domain to match the company name, without worrying too much about it being .co.uk vs .com, and then settle on the usages after.

Thanks again!

[sal]

And we wonder why HMRC wants to treat us like the disguised permies so many of us clearly are and not bona fide independent businesses.

Get a domain name at least (you don't necessarily need a website behind it, but it's trivial to get at least a single page website that at least mentions your company name, logo, what you do and contact details) so you at least look like a professional rather than some chancer / no-different-from-the-average-joe / local-plumber-who-still-claims-benefits etc with an @gmail, @outlook, @genericconsumeremailhost domain name.

Nonsense, having a website doesn't make you a "bona fide independent business", nor lacking one is making you a permie.

Private domain e-mail for sure, as this is the primary method of communication in this day and age. And using @gmail.com etc. is rather unprofessional, but if your business doesn't need a website, having one is absolutely pointless. If anything a "token" single page website is worse than not having one at all.

@OP I would suggest omitting industry in the YourCo name, although nothing is stopping you from using the company name for future business endeavours, if they are not IT related the Co name will be confusing. For domain name just append something neutral to the YourCo or use non .com domain.

[fidot]

The point about .Ltd.uk domains is that they are reserved for the UK company of that name so thete is no question of it being not available

[Glencky]

Interested to read this thread and all the replies.

Right from the start I only wanted to go for a name where the domain name was also free. Happily the first name I came up with, the domain names for .com and .co.uk WERE free.

I don't use a website at all for MyCo - I really can't see that it's likely to help me, although I know there are different schools of thought on this. However I like to future proof things where I can (never know what opportunities I may get or what direction I may head in future) and I have the domain names for:

MyCo.com
MyCo.co.uk
MyName.com
MyName.co.uk

… all registered. For the total price of less than £50 a year I know a) nobody else can register them annoyingly and b) if ever I want to do something with them, I can - you never know what's going to happen.

I was lucky in that I have a relatively unusual name that nobody had registered because it was only about 6 years ago I registered my name ones.

For me, it's worthwhile doing this just to preserve future options. I'd actually be less concerned if somebody already had one of the sites registered as a functioning site, e.g. if my name was, say, David Lloyd (you have no idea how long it took me to think of an appropriate example, ridiculous...) than if the page was available and hence open to have something dodgy put on it in the future.

So to the OP, personally the decision would partly rest on what's on the website for YourCo.com (as opposed to YourCoIT.com)

[Lance]

And we wonder why HMRC wants to treat us like the disguised permies so many of us clearly are and not bona fide independent businesses.

Get a domain name at least (you don't necessarily need a website behind it, but it's trivial to get at least a single page website that at least mentions your company name, logo, what you do and contact details) so you at least look like a professional rather than some chancer / no-different-from-the-average-joe / local-plumber-who-still-claims-benefits etc with an @gmail, @outlook, @genericconsumeremailhost domain name.

bulltulip

I had a website due to reasoning like this. I don't have one now as I didn't have a single visitor. Not one. And that's with it on my business cards.

On what basis does a website make you "bona fide"? Social networking is the new marketing space and I have LinkedIn and Twitter presence.

[billybiro]

Web sites are pretty useless for contractors. Very few of us have them so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. If you have aspirations above and beyond then I guess it might be an issue.

Some large companies have different Web addresses to their names. Charles thywitt is one I noticed today so not an issue really.

you're thinking is very 1990s

Nobody cares about domain names unless they're multinationals. And they just make names up (Google, Amazon, Ebay).
Almost everybody who emails is replying to an email or using a contact they've inputted so memorability isn't a concern.

And you're just a one man band. Plenty of contractors just use a gmail account.

I use a domain name that matches and has email, website, etc. but I work in infrastructure/cloud/security/messaging so use all the enterprise tools that are available as that's my trade. If you're a dev/PM/BA then don't bother.

And we wonder why HMRC wants to treat us like the disguised permies so many of us clearly are and not bona fide independent businesses.

Get a domain name at least (you don't necessarily need a website behind it, but it's trivial to get at least a single page website that at least mentions your company name, logo, what you do and contact details) so you at least look like a professional rather than some chancer / no-different-from-the-average-joe / local-plumber-who-still-claims-benefits etc with an @gmail, @outlook, @genericconsumeremailhost domain name.

[ladymuck]

I own a domain name that matches my company because I like to have [email protected] for my emails.

I agree a website is pretty pointless unless you have something worth showcasing (e.g if you're a creative rather than BoS contractor).

I had a Friday night brainstorm about company names and then checked which ones were available as domain names.

[Hobosapien]

You could use mycomp.ltd.uk

There's also .uk if the old adage 'must be .com or at least .co.uk' no longer matters.

https://www.nominet.uk/domains/our-domains/uk-domains/

It's down to personal preference as unless you market it far and wide there will only be yourself and a very limited audience ever trying to access it. Main thing is to avoid things like dashes or anything that makes it easy to mistype. Also check any almost identical domain names aren't dodgy.

[northernladuk]

How many contractors have you asked?

Plenty of threads on here in the past that have asked the question plus working in contractor heavy environments so quite a few.