How to choose a domain name that works

Your domain name is the one piece of your online presence that’s genuinely hard to change later. You can redesign a website in a weekend; changing a domain means updating every business card, every listing, every customer who bookmarked you — and hoping search engines forgive you. So it’s worth getting right the first time. The good news is that a strong name comes down to a handful of rules, not a stroke of genius.

1. Make it easy to say out loud

The real test of a domain is the “radio test”: if you said it to someone in a noisy room, could they type it correctly? Names that fail this are full of things that don’t survive speech — silent letters, numbers that could be digits or words (“4” or “four”?), hyphens nobody hears, and clever misspellings that send people to a competitor. If you have to spell it out every time, it’s costing you visitors.

2. Shorter is stronger — but meaning beats length

Short names are easier to remember, type and fit on a sign, so trim where you can. But don’t mangle a clear name just to save two characters. “brightleafbakery” is better than a cryptic “brtlf”. Aim for something a stranger could guess the business from, and that you won’t be embarrassed to read down the phone in five years.

3. Pick the right ending (TLD)

.com is still the default people type and trust, so it’s usually worth having if it’s available. If you trade mainly in Britain, .co.uk and .uk signal that clearly and are often available when the .com isn’t. Newer endings like .shop, .studio or .online can be a smart, memorable fit for the right business — just be aware some customers still assume “.com” by habit, so if you can, hold the matching .com too and point it at the same place.

4. Check it’s genuinely free — and clear of trademarks

“Available to register” isn’t the whole story. Before you commit, do a quick search for the name as a business and on the main social platforms, and check it isn’t an obvious trademark in your field. You want the name, the matching handles, and no risk of a letter from someone’s lawyers down the line.

5. Avoid hyphens and doubled letters where you can

Hyphenated domains (“the-blue-door”) are forgettable and easy to mistype, and doubled letters at word joins (“jewelleryyard”) trip people up. If the clean version is taken, that’s often a sign to try a different word rather than patch the same one with punctuation.

6. Leave room to grow

Naming yourself after one product or one town feels precise now, but it can box you in. “SW1 Plumbing” is awkward once you cover the whole city. Pick something that still fits when you add a second service or move premises.

A quick way to find one

If you’re stuck, brainstorming against these rules is faster with a tool. Our free business name generator suggests ideas and hides the ones already taken, and the domain name generator turns a keyword into available options you can register in a couple of clicks. When you’ve found the one, you can check and register it here.