Histon & Impington On-Line

Domain Names

This is some purely personal advice on the issue of domain names. For Parish Councils, it also includes some comments on the .gov.uk domain.

What's in a name?

A lot of weight can be put on a domain suffix, be it .co.uk, .org.uk or the US versions - .com, .org, .net. If, and only if, a site is supported by a Local Council (Town or Parish), there is also the .gov.uk extension.

From time to time, of course, there are further suffices released onto the market - so, does it matter, and what is right for you?

The simple answer is probably not a lot! Very few of the suffices have any form of checking that you are authorised. Therefore you find UK sites with .com, .net extensions (as this site www.hisimp.net).

What is right for you is, of course, a personal choice. What feels right may be important, what what is memorable is more so! Just by having a site will not get people to visit it - it needs advertising (newsletters, car stickers etc); it needs to be covered by the various search engines; and it needs to be linked from as many places as is sensible!

For links, search engines, favourites it doesn't matter what the name is - just that first visit matters! And it is for that reason that some webmasters purchase multiple names, so that the several alternatives that people might use (eg .co.uk, .org.uk) may be pointed to you site.

.gov.uk

The .gov.uk suffix is reserved solely for Central and Local Government use. Since it is reserved, many of the major sellers of names (eg ukreg, 123reg) don't deal in it. These organisations are great if you want a .co.uk, or even a .net but not if you want a .gov.uk

To purchase a .gov.uk name you need to approach one of a limited number of approved ISPs. The following is not an exhaustive list:

• Kantara
• Micronicos

However, you will find that this route is significantly more expensive than a normal .co.uk suffix. Whilst the latter may be had for pence per year, certainly less than £10; a .gov.uk suffix will cost £40 per year, with a minimum of 2 years. On top of that there may be some additional costs, and at least one of the above ISPs (at the time of writing, March 2002) will charge £150 for a .gov.uk name.

If you are a Local Council it is important to note that you don't have to decide now. There is no reason why you should not start with a .org.uk (or other) name and decide later about that .gov.uk one. Unlike the .org.uk names, if you have an unique Council name, then no-one else should be able to get it with a .gov.uk extension.

Note also that you'd be among a growing number of other Councils not using a .gov.uk suffix. Locally, for example:

• the Cambridgeshire Community Network will have a portal into Council services etc at www.cambridgeshire.net
• the Hertfordshire County Council site (in 2002 one of the top 20 of Council websites) is at www.hertsdirect.org
• of the 130 or so community and Local Council sites listed on this site only one has a .gov.uk name (March 2002)

Further help or advice

Please feel free to - if I can't help I'll say so quickly - and try to pass you on to someone who can.