Domain names. They are something we come across everyday when surfing the web. But when asked about what they are, we generally give an eye brow raising gesture.
So to better understand what a domain is and the .uk domain extensions/ suffixes available. Here is a guide to better understand these widely used and widely unknown entities. Lets begin!
List Of .uk Domain Extensions (Plus What Each One Is For)
UK Domain Extensions
When choosing a .uk domain name, a business is demonstrating its commitment to its origin/operating country, which develops more rapport with customers seeking trusted local offerings.
Businesses and individuals that can acquire a .uk domain name are those who are registered to conduct business or can prove their residential standing in the following locations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, as well as the two islands, Rockall and Shetland Islands.
As the ccTLD for the United Kingdom, there was over 10 million registration with .uk as the extension in 2016. Since then, it has been growing with new registrations being created with all of the different variations of the second level extensions.
The following extensions are the most widely used .uk domain extensions available to use. Below is also a brief explanation of what the specific .uk domain extensions are used for.
Active Status .uk Domain Extensions
.co.uk: Used for commercial and business websites most commonly, though open for free use.
.gov.uk: Central, developed and local government restricted usage.
.me.uk: Personal and more individual free use, such as a portfolio, or personal blog.
.ac.uk: Academic societies, colleges, establishments for research, education, and community.
.org.uk: Most often non-profit organisations, though open for free use.
.Itd.uk: UK Limited companies.
.mod.uk & .mil.uk: Military establishments, systems, and organisations.
.net.uk: Only for ISP and network companies. Not for open usage.
.nic.uk: Network Nominet usage only.
.nhs.uk: Organisations and trusts of NHS.
.pic.uk: Public limited UK companies.
.sch.uk: Community local education for primary and secondary organisations and authorities.
.parliament.uk: The official United Kingdom Parliament, as well as developed national parliaments and assemblies.
Inactive Status .uk Domain Extensions
.mil.uk: For the external domain, mod.uk has been used by the UK Military of Defence, though mil.uk is used on their private network.
.lea.uk: This was once used by local education authorities.
.govt.uk: Formally, this was used for government domains, though has now been replaced with the .gov.uk extension.
.orgn.uk: Formally, this was used for all non-profit organisations, but has now been replaced with the .org.uk extension.
If you are after a domain name for your new business, website or venture. Check out my top UK domain registrars to secure your online realestate! Also, if your still torn about what domain suffix is right for you, you can also see my guide about that here!
Proposed and Ultimately Rejected .uk Domain Extensions
.soc.uk: This was a domain extension proposed for social and society organisation usage.
.scot.uk: Rejected by Nominet as an extension for Scotland, with the country instead of being delegated the top-level domain root of .scot (without the .uk extension).
.cym.uk: Proposed as a second-level domain for the use of Wales, with the top-level domain option of .cym also being proposed and rejected. Later, the top-level domain extensions .cymru and .wales were accepted for usage.
What is a Domain Name?
Before we go into the different UK Domain Extensions available, let’s get clear on what a domain is, and why there are different types of domain extensions.
Think of a domain name as like a virtual equivalent to a physical address. In our web browsing system, a domain name is needed for the browser to direct us to a site, similar to the address that a satellite navigation system (GPS) needs to land you to the right place.
Domain names consist of two elements, one is the name of the website (which is unique to the company/business/host) and the second element is the domain extension. They can then be a top-level domain extension (TLD), or they can also feature a second-level domain extension.
A TDL is the most widely used domain format that comes after the website name, for example, .UK. The second level domain format is what comes before the .uk, which are the extensions that we are talking about in the list below of the top UK domain extensions.
There are common TDLs that are globally recognised and used for different types of businesses and organisations that the websites refer to. For example, Country Code Domain extensions (ccTLDs) are most often used when referring to websites hosted in specific regions.
Not all regions will use these ccTDLs as their domain name, however. There will still be many UK based websites that aren’t using the .uk as their extension. For the sake of this article, we share the different .uk TDLs that are being used.
Why are there different domain extensions?
A TLD expresses information about your website’s function and offering, for example, it can reveal whether it is an official ‘government’ site, a personal site, and more.
Additional to this, there are so many websites online that there needs to be different options available as chances are there will be many domains that you may wish to have, already taken. Unique domains that aren’t as well known as things like .com and .net, are beneficial for people to use when they want a very specific name for their site.
Here are some examples of the most common domain extensions:
.com
Originally created for commercial businesses to use, .com is now free for anyone to have as their extension.
.biz
This is more for people with a business website and is a reputable extension that shows that the company is ‘serious’ about their business.
.org
This domain extension was first created for non-profit organisations, but has expanded to be open for any type of website.
.net
Originally intended for use as maintaining network infrastructure, it’s now a TLD used for all websites.
.gov
This domain is actually still restricted to only allow government organisation to use it.
.uk (or other country-specific domains)
These can only be registered by a company/organisation that proves that their business is in that country. If you are ready to secure your own domain name, I’ve written a guide on how you can lock up a free domain name here and also how to get a top web hosting providers for your UK website or blog!