Domain registration tips

The domain name is basically the business card of every website. The name and the chosen top-level domain essentially create the first impression of a company or a blog even before a single page has been clicked on. The challenge surrounding a domain choice: The name should be concise and appealing for potential visitors as well as search engines. Additionally there are several formal and legal guidelines that you should follow. We have summarised the most important tips for domain registration.

Whether it is an online shop, blog or a private website, every web project begins with an appropriate domain name. This name consists of a top-level domain (TLD), which ends in .co.uk or .com, and a second-level domain, which is the name part of the domain. The desired name can be found quickly and it barely takes any time to check with the provider whether the desired name is still available.

The provider then takes over the registration with the relevant domain registry. There are certain organisations responsible for taking care of the registration for every TLD. The providers work together with these positions as a registry. If you want to register a domain under five different TLDs, then you theoretically have to contact five different domain registries. Registries such as IONOS take over the communication.

Before registering a domain, every user should ensure that using the desired domain name does not infringe on any existing trademark laws. Domain copyright infringement is one of the most commonly made domain registration mistakes.

In the UK you have relatively free rein when creating a domain name. Some technical requirements must, however, be met: You can use letters from A to Z, numbers from 0 to 9 as well as hyphens, although the hyphen cannot be placed at the beginning of the second level domain. Other symbols such as periods, slashes or question marks are not permitted. A domain name is generally expected to consist of up to 63 characters.

It could also be the case that some domain names, which could not be registered several years ago, are now possible to adopt. An example is a domain name with two characters such as www.hi.com.

Choose a name consistent with your website or business name and be aware that the domain name is not case sensitive. Avoid using two names together without a connector like “-“, otherwise you will risk your readability:

Niceshoes.online vs. nice-shoes.online

The top-level domain forms the highest level of the name resolution and the last section of the domain to the right of the dot. Currently the most commonly used endings are .com, .net, .org and the country-specific suffixes such as .de, .es and .us. But since march 2013 new top level domain endings have been popular on the market  such as .online, .club, .business, .top, .expert and so on. They generally vary between:

• generic TLDs: generic top-level domains hint about the type of website on offer. Therefore you would expect a commercial website from .com, whereas .org as a TLD would result in an organisation.

• country-specific TLDs: these country-specific TLDs give information about a website’s origin. Usually two letters are used when referring to a country, for example, .de for Germany, .hu for Hungary and .es for Spain.
  
  
• New generic top-level domains: thereby making it possible to create very specific domain names and, thanks to the top-level domain, give the user a hint of the type of website they are about to access. Commercial terms such as .online, and .business are also possible, as are terms that identify the location within a country such as .miami, .nyc, .vegas, .london and .wales. There should be 700 nTLDs in the registration process. At IONOS you can even pre-register, or rather, pre-order new top-level domains before the official market launch. The new TLDs are a good alternative for when your desired name has already been allocated to a current top-level domain, and still wish to hold on to your selected name.

A further tip for domain registration: It is wise to secure several domain endings and name variations to be used as a redirect to your official website. Providers often offer cheap packages so it is therefore worthwhile to register your desired name with numerous TLDs. The searchability of a website then increases and all the important domain variations are secured, and, as a result, are not available to third parties.

While .co.uk is for commercial entities, the .uk domain can be used by anybody. If you own a .co.uk, .me.uk, or .org.uk, the .uk domain will automatically be reserved for you until 2019, provided that you keep the original domain. If you’re looking for a .uk domain as your first website, it could prove difficult to find your desired option because of this, even if the option is shown as available when you search for the domain.

If you register a domain you are only renting it for a certain time period; talk of buying a domain is therefore technically incorrect. If the contract is not renewed after the agreed time period, then the domain name will become available again and can be rented by anyone. Regarding the sale of a domain name there is no actual transfer of virtual ownership from person A to person B, but simply a registration takeover.

A form to protect the domain ownership is multi year registration (IONOS offers the possibility of 1,2, 3 and 5 year registration time), enable auto renewal.

Multi year registration is also secured in the price, since you pay for the full period, so you will be protected in case a price increase takes place in the next few years.

You should have no problems if you change your provider (registrar), but want to keep your registered domain. You simply need the authorisation code for your domain, which you can request from your original provider. If, for example, you plan to transfer from one provider to IONOS, you will need to fill out a special domain-transfer form to confirm the transfer. All further steps will then be carried out. As mentioned previously, the provider’s task is to then contact the appropriate domain registry.

Keep in mind that you can change your provider only after minimum 6 months after your domain was registered.

How long the domain move takes depends on the particular domain registrar’s rules of procedure. Five to six working days is to be expected with generic TLDs and nTLDs and the subsequent DNS update requires a further 24 to 48 hours.

It is advisable to apply for the domain transfer at least one month before the contract with the old provider expires. If the request arrives too late, you could find that the service period of the respective domain has to be renewed by the current provider before a transfer over to the new provider can take place.

The trademark law of a domain refers to commercial website subjects. Private websites without commercial use are excluded from the rules. If you want to make money from your website, even if it is just with a single banner ad, your domain should be chosen in strict compliance with trademark laws. The names and terminologies, which fall within the scope of trademark laws, can be found at appropriate trademark and patent offices. It is easy and free to verify using respective sites. The following sites are suitable for quick research:

• International Markets: WIPO International

Using these research tools you can check whether the term you want in your domain has already been trademark registered. Similar sounding word marks or similar logos with existing graphic trademarks are a violation of trademark laws.

Checking for similarities cannot be done on the above sites, therefore a specialised lawyer should be contacted. This article does not constitute as any legal advice and is not intended to replace any advice from a knowledgeable lawyer.