What is a domain name?

A domain name is a unique address on the Internet which holds information and services, for example penguin-uk.com and google.com. It can be thought of as your personal address on the Internet.

What would a domain name provide me?

A domain name would provide you or your business lots of facilities. It can give you personalized email addresses, a personal Web site (allowing you to take advantage of all the Web has to offer, including e-commerce, advertising, global sales etc), and lots more.

How can I buy a domain name?

You cannot actually buy a domain name - you can only register a domain name. A few authorized companies around the world have taken the job of delegating domains names for use. The process of acquiring the use of a domain name is called ‘registering’ a domain.

What are the different types of domains for?

UK domain names: any name ending with .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .plc.uk and .ltd.uk (e.g. www.domainname.co.uk)

US domain names: any name ending with .com, .org and .net (e.g. www.domainname.com). These are also known as gTLD's or global top level domains.

UK and US domain names have the same standing. US domain names used to be perceived as the ‘standard’, but UK domain names are now held with the same regard.

Many domain types originally had specific intended uses, for example .org and .org.uk for organisations, .me.uk for personal domains, .com for companies, etc. This is not always adhered to now and is not enforced in any way and so you may generally choose a domain name for any purpose that you wish.

How do I choose my domain name?

First of all you will need to decide what you need the domain name for, and then choose a relevant name. (e.g. companyname.com). PCS recommend that you register both the UK and US version of your domain name, if available. This will prevent visitors of your domain name confusing you with another company, who may later purchase a similar version of your domain name.

You may also want to consider registering other variants of your domain name, including hyphens, abbreviations etc. (e.g. company-name.co.uk). This will help in promoting your Internet presence.

Once you have decided upon a domain name, you should perform a ‘lookup’ on the name. A ‘lookup’ tells you whether the domain name is free for registration. If the domain is already registered, then you will not be able to use us to register it.

Where can I perform a 'domain lookup'?

For all of the domain name types that we register, you can perform a lookup on the domains page of our website.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us and we'll do our best to answer your questions.