How to find a good domain name

A good internet domain name makes a big difference to your online presence. Effective names are: Short, Relevant, Unique, Memorable, Dictionary words, Proper nouns, Available (i.e. not registered by anyone else),  and either a .com or for UK businesses .co.uk There’s a problem, names that meet those criteria are all gone! A name without a hyphen is usually considered more valuable (see below)

What about “bare .uk names” like example.uk? These were made available a few years ago and they are “legitimate” but largely useless, it just causes confusion. If you own example.co.uk you are strongly advised to hold example.uk too just to prevent someone else getting it and using it to your disadvantage (like operating a duplicate of your web site with a view to stealing some of your visitors).  One slight advantage is that it may allow you to get a 3 keystrokes shorter name.

I did some searches (in the .co.uk registry) for unlikely choices of domain name, at time of writing all these were gone :

• Gerund – a grammatical term
• Bigendian – a technical term used (rarely) by computer programmers
• Rumpelstiltskin – the “unguessable” name of a fairy tale character
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – a town in Wales
• pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – the longest English word

In addition all 3 letter names are gone as are many 4 letter names and most dictionary words and proper-nouns. The longer the name the more likely it is to be available. Made-up names can be short and unique like Google, Yahoo, Reddit, Tumblr. They are more likely to be Unique and Available but to make them Relevant and Memorable needs compelling web site content and an effective promotional campaign.

I have some domain names which are available for sale (some are in use but can be released).

Short names are very scarce but I have a few

8tt.uk
b0b.co.uk
b0b.uk
be9.uk
h8s.uk
r08.co.uk
r0b.uk
sg0.uk

Longer names

cavingbooks.co.uk
chatsworthgallery.co.uk
chatsworthgallery.uk
destinationsheffield.uk
grishina.uk
internetholdings.co.uk
internet-holdings.co.uk
internetholdings.uk
internet-holdings.uk
laserscapes.co.uk
madeinsheffield.uk
made-in-sheffield.uk
midland-bank.uk
midland-bank.co.uk
peakparkwalks.co.uk
peakwalkers.uk
saynoto.uk
sheffieldmade.uk
sheffieldunited.uk
sheffieldwork.co.uk
sheffieldwork.com
the-peak.co.uk
the-peak.uk

The next issue is cost. That’s up to you, make me an offer.  I value none at less than £1000, the better a name fits the criteria: Short, Relevant, Unique, Memorable, Dictionary words, Proper nouns, Available, no-hyphens the greater the price.

Premium names are a special case.  Sale prices are often kept confidential but widely quoted examples include:

• Insure.com USD16M in 2009
• Insurance.com USD35.6M in 2010
• gold.co.uk GBP600K
• Cruises.co.uk GBP560K
• Liverpool.co.uk was being advertised for sale at GBP225K when I last checked

I regard sheffield.co.uk to be comparable in value to Liverpool.co.uk and I expect offers over GBP100,000 and have rejected some coming near that figure.

Hyphenated names are usually considered less valuable but sometimes the hyphen is useful to highlight the word-split so madeinsheffield.uk would be better than made-in-sheffield.uk (but both is ideal). The un-hyphenated version can me made easier too understand in print by using capitals MadeInSheffield.uk