5 REASON'S TO ACT BEFORE THE 25TH JUNE DEADLINE
Five years ago, Nominet announced the release of a new domain ending .uk.
Simultaneously, they announced that, for owners of existing .co.uk websites (or any other .uk subsidiary, such as .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .plc.uk, or ltd.uk), a five year grace period would be implemented, during which time these site owners would have the “right to reserve” their .uk domain counterpart.
With the deadline currently set for the 25th June 2019, Nominet have done very little, to notify people.
Are you one of the 3.2 million website owners who have not yet exercised their “right to reserve”?
HOW TO CHECK IF YOU HAVE THE “RIGHT TO RESERVE”?
The quickest and easiest way to check whether or not you have the right to reserve a .uk site is to use this online checker. Simply enter your existing site’s address and you will instantly be told if the .uk address has already been registered or not.
Once you have confirmed that you have the “Right to Reserve”, you can begin the process of registering your .uk domain. If you are unsure how to do this contact me at Bluemotion Digital.
Alternatively, if you have your eyes on a domain for which the .co.uk site is already owned by another party, you can use this checker to find out whether or not the .uk counterpart has been reserved or not.
5 reasons to register your .uk domain
There are many benefits to reserving your .uk domain, below are the top 5 reasons;
- By reserving your .uk domain you are preventing your competitors from picking it up once it’s publicly available, which would be a regrettable situation.
- Protecting your brand name and reducing the risk of fraudulent website impersonators.
- Protect your customers against spoofing and phishing scams, which could pose a serious security risk – especially if your website collects sensitive information.
- Ensure that when people mistakenly try to access your existing site by using a .uk URL, they will still reach your site by automatically re-routing the traffic to the correct site.
- If you are looking to focus on a UK audience and don’t currently have a .co.uk (or subsidiary) website, acquiring a .uk domain will increase your search engine visibility in the UK.
I’ll do it later….
Once the deadline passes on the 25th June, site owners will no longer have first refusal on their website’s .uk counterpart.
All unclaimed .uk domains will become available to the general public from July 1st, 2019.
So if you own a .co.uk website and haven’t yet registered your .uk domain, the sooner you take action, the better.
On the other hand, if you are looking to snap up an unclaimed .uk domain once the five year grace period comes to an end, your time is fast approaching.
Time to take action NOW!
The crux of the matter is that, if you own a .co.uk website, the process of reserving your .uk counterpart will be cheap and easy, and will safeguard your business against a myriad of potential risks.
Your first step should be to get in touch with your registrar and discuss the routes available to you, including pricing options and timings. Alternatively contact Bluemotion Digital today and we will help you out.
If you are concerned or would like to discuss this situation further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by calling Chesterfield 01246 541906 or emailing [email protected]