On June 25th 06:00 BST, .uk domain extensions will become available to the public for the first time since being created in 2014.
For the past 5 years, only those who had already owned a .co.uk domain got exclusive access to .uk extensions. Primarily to prevent infringement on their brands and website properties.
But now that this reservation period is about to expire. Tt provides a great opportunity for those looking to get an exclusive domain name for their new business or website.
It is also a final opportunity for those who already own a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk domain to registrar the .uk version of their website. By doing so, this prevents copycat websites or businesses operating under a similar name.
To registrar a .UK domain, there are many UK providers such as CrazyDomains, GoDaddy and HostPapa which provide moderate pricing. To learn more, you can also see my best UK domain registrars post where I cover these provider and more in detail.
Why Are .UK Extensions Being Introduced?
It all comes down to scarcity. Since .co.uk domains became available in 1994, they have now become the fifth most popular TLD behind .com, .cn, .de and .net.
Since its creation, the .co.uk extension now has over 10 million registrations and counting. This has made it increasingly difficult for new small business owners to secure a good online property web address.
While there are alternatives such as .org.uk and .me.uk. these are typically reserved for non-profit originations and personal websites.
So to even the playing field, the .uk suffix was born to provider an abundance of options for new website owners in the UK.
Moving ahead into the future, this will likely greatly change the face of Google search results as thousands of new website makes will now have access to these extensions.
Will .uk Domain Extensions Be Treated Differently On Google Search Results?
While it hasn’t been confirmed, there are several reports stating that their will be no difference in how .co.uk and .uk domains will be ranked by Google for SEO purposes.
However, there is the notion that .uk domains are not widely yet known to the public and there is a trust factor in the favour of .co.uk domains.
This recognition and sentiment is likely to change in the coming years as internet searchers will be bombarded with this new domain. To get more information, this is a handy guide to get more up to speed.