How to choose a domain name for your small business

Your domain name goes on the van, the invoices, your email address and every search result that shows your business. Choosing a domain name for a small business takes ten minutes if you know what to check. The rule that matters most comes last, and it isn’t about the name at all: make sure it is registered in your name.

How to choose a domain name, in short

• Start with your business name, exactly as it is on the van.
• Choose a .co.uk if your customers are in the UK.
• Keep it short enough to say on the phone and easy to spell when someone hears it.
• Check it isn’t someone else’s: another business, a company name or a trade mark.
• Register it in your own name, as the registrant, whoever sets it up for you.

Start with your business name

The best domain name for most small businesses is the name customers already know: the one on your van, your card and your invoices. yourbusinessname.co.uk is easy to remember, because it is the business. Leave out “Ltd”, and drop words like “and” if the name still reads clearly without them.

When your name is taken

Add your town or your trade: yourbusinessname-ely.co.uk or yourbusinessnameheating.co.uk. Both still sound like you. Avoid adding random words or numbers just to find something free, because customers won’t remember them.

Trade-and-town names

Names like plumber-in-yourtown.co.uk can be easy to remember, but they don’t tell anyone who you are, and they look odd on a van. They are worth considering only if you trade under a generic name anyway. A domain name alone won’t lift you up Google: what is on the page does far more.

.co.uk, .uk or .com?

If your customers are in the UK, a .co.uk is the safe choice. It tells a customer at a glance that you are a UK business, and it is the ending most people type without thinking. A shorter .uk works too, but fewer people expect it.

A .com suits businesses that sell abroad or already trade under a well-known .com. For a local trade, it is worth having only if someone else could cause confusion with it. If you do register more than one, point the others at your main site rather than running two.

Seven rules for a good domain name

• Short enough to say on the phone. Read it out loud once. If you have to spell it, shorten it.
• Easy to spell when heard. Avoid words people spell different ways, and doubled letters where two words meet.
• No hyphens unless you need one to split words that run together badly.
• No numbers that could be words. “4” or “four”? Customers won’t know.
• Match what’s on the van, so the name people see is the name they type.
• Not someone else’s name or trade mark. More on that below.
• Check the social handles, so your Facebook and Instagram can use the same name.

Say it out loud: the phone, the van and the email test

Before you register anything, try the name the three ways customers will meet it.

• The phone test. Read the address out once to a friend, without spelling it, and ask them to type it. If they get it wrong, so will customers.
• The van test. Write it in big letters and look at it from across the road. Long names shrink to nothing on a van door or a shop sign.
• The email test. Put your first name in front: jo@yourbusinessname.co.uk. If that is awkward to say, or won’t fit on a business card, the name is too long.

A name that passes all three is a good name, whatever its length. An easy name of twenty letters beats a short one nobody can spell.

Check it isn’t someone else’s

A name that looks made up can belong to a real business. We learnt that ourselves: a name we had used for an invented example turned out to belong to a real trading company, and we changed it. Before you pick a name, check three places:

• Search for it on Google, with your trade and area. If another firm nearby trades under it, pick something else.
• Companies House: search the company register to see whether a limited company already uses the name.
• Trade marks: search the UK trade mark register on GOV.UK, especially if you plan to grow the brand.

A worked example

Say you trade as Yourname Plumbing & Heating and cover a market town and the villages around it.

1. Try the plain name first: yournameplumbing.co.uk. Leave out “& Heating” if the shorter version still says what you do.
2. If it’s taken, look at who has it. A parked page is one thing; another plumber is another. If it’s a trading business, don’t use a near copy of their name.
3. Try adding the town: yournameplumbing-yourtown.co.uk. It’s longer, so run the phone test again.
4. Check Companies House and the trade mark register for the name you’ve landed on.
5. Check Facebook and Instagram for the same name, so everything matches.
6. Register it in your name, and put the renewal date in your diary.

That’s it. You don’t need a name stuffed with search terms, or three spare domains, to get started.

Register it in your own name

Every .co.uk has a registrant: the legal owner, recorded by Nominet, the registry for .uk domains. That should be you or your business, not your web designer, their agency or the company that hosts your site. The admin and technical contacts can be someone else; the registrant should not.

If a web company registers the name for you in their own name, you are renting your own business name back from them. Here is how to check who owns your domain name, and what to do if your web designer has disappeared with it.

Mistakes to avoid

• Staying on a free sub-address for good, like yourname.somebuilder.com. It’s fine while you start, but it isn’t yours and it looks temporary.
• Putting your web designer’s or host’s name in it. You’ll outgrow them long before you outgrow your own name.
• Tying it to one village when you work across the county. Use your business name, and list your areas on the site instead.
• A clever spelling of an ordinary word. It’s easy to love and hard to say on the phone.
• Letting it lapse. After a few months, anyone can register it: see below.

What it costs to keep

A .co.uk is renewed every year or every few years, and the renewal is a small yearly cost. The bigger risk is forgetting. Nominet’s published process for a .uk domain that isn’t renewed is:

• For 30 days after it expires, it still works and can be renewed.
• From 30 to 90 days, your website and email on it stop working, but it can still be renewed.
• From 90 days, it can no longer be renewed, and a few days later it is released for anyone to register.

Source: Nominet, domain expiry process for .UK (page updated 11 August 2026, read 27 September 2026).

So make sure the renewal reminders reach you, not an old designer’s inbox. With 3 Wee Pages the renewal is part of the £49 a year from year two, and your .co.uk is included from the start.

Changing your domain name later

You can, after a rebrand for example. Register the new name, move the site to it, and keep the old one renewed and pointing at the new address for at least a year, so old links, printed cards and the side of the van still work. Then change the address everywhere it appears: your Google Business Profile, your social profiles, your invoices and your email signature. Here is why the same details everywhere matters for being found.

Picking yours with 3 Wee Pages

The designer’s “Your web address” step checks whether your name is free as a .co.uk and suggests close alternatives if it isn’t. Once you’ve paid, we register it with Nominet in your name, as the registrant. Connecting it to your site isn’t switched on yet, so for now your site shows at a 3weepages.co.uk address, like yourname.3weepages.co.uk; it’s the same site, and the .co.uk is still yours. Check your name is free and watch your site build as you answer, or see what your site would say for your kind of business. Still choosing who builds it? Here is how to choose a website designer.