{"id":14760,"date":"2019-06-12T15:20:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T14:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.names.co.uk\/blog\/?p=14760"},"modified":"2019-06-20T16:24:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:24:47","slug":"uk-domain-names-what-you-need-to-do-before-25th-june-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.names.co.uk\/blog\/uk-domain-names-what-you-need-to-do-before-25th-june-2019\/","title":{"rendered":".uk domain names \u2013 what you need to do before 25th June 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The .UK extension launched in 2014,\njoining .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk as part of the UK domain family. At that\ntime, Nominet (the Registry for the UK domain family), reserved the matching .uk\nfor registrants of existing .co.uk domains\nregistered before 28th<\/sup> October 2013<\/strong>. For example, as we\u2019d\nregistered \u201cnames.co.uk\u201d before that date, the matching domain \u2018names.uk\u2019 was\nreserved for us for 5 years. Now, that five years is nearly up! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping you claim your .uk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few years, we\u2019ve actively encouraged\nall of our customers to register their matching .uk domains. In September 2017\nwe gave all of our customers the best chance to get their .uk for FREE<\/a>,\nmore recently in March 2019, we checked for any new customers that had\ntransferred to us and also gave them the same chance to get their .uk for FREE.\nWe even sent those of you that had opted out a reminder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where possible, we redirected the newly\nregistered .uk domains to their equivalent .co.uk website, taking the hard work\nout of managing the newly added domain(s). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do all this?<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For two reasons \u2013 firstly to help protect our customers against fraudsters and cybersquatters who may use the matching .uk as an opportunity to strike. \u00a0And secondly, it\u2019s super important to us that our customers get the most out of their online presence, so if a customer typed the .uk by accident we want to make sure you don\u2019t miss out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what happens now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you still have a .co.uk domain registered\nbefore 28th<\/sup> October 2013, you have until the 25th<\/sup> June 2019 to register your reserved, matching .uk. <\/strong> After this, any remaining reserved .uk domains\nwill be released to the open market in a phased process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting from 1st<\/sup> July\n2019,  any .uk domains that haven\u2019t been\nsnapped up will be published in a list by Nominet and released in batches.\nThese can be registered by anyone, on a first come, first served basis. Only a\nfew registrars are involved in this release process. We\u2019re not taking part as\nwe\u2019re confident we\u2019ve done all we can to help our customers, who have the right\nof registration, to secure their matching .uk domain.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 12th<\/sup> July 2019, all remaining .uk domains will be on the open market without restrictions – you can grab any .uk you want. But why wait? If the .uk domain you have your eye on is available, snap it up now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find out more and register yours here <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are\nthe benefits of .uk?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re in the UK or looking to target the UK market, .uk is the perfect domain. It\u2019s easy to remember and is a great way to establish your business online. If you already own another .uk domain, such as .co.uk, .org.uk etc, it\u2019s also a great way of protecting your brand to prevent any competitors or cybersquatters getting hold of your brand name – here’s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n