The domain name is key to any website and choosing the best name to suit your website is not always an easy choice. A useful guide, written by Christopher Heng, can be found at thesitewizard.com.
.com versus .co.uk
Both .com and .co.uk are good choices and have a similar yearly cost, although .co.uk requires a minimum two-year commitment rather than the 1 year for a .com. The choice is a matter of the target audience for your website. Picking a .com is advantageous when targeting an international audience, especially if your site sells good or services. .com also has the advantage of being shorter and helps a website name to be more memorable.
On the other hand, UK web surfers prefer .co.uk names. If your target audience is the UK, stick with a .co.uk domain. Britons feel the same way about .co.uk as Americans do about .com. Of course, you may be stuck with a .co.uk anyway if the .com name you want is already taken.
Multiple Domains Names
It is common for people to secure their website name by purchasing their name with different extensions such as yourcompany.com, yourcompany.co.uk and yourcompany.net. The .com and .co.uk extensions also help to bring in UK and US (as well as international) visitors.
It is also possible to purchase multiple different domains; if your company sold computer components you may buy names such as yourcompany.com, computer-parts.com and computer-components.com.
A short guide to the advantages of using multiple different domain names is given at active-domain.com.
