.co.uk vs .uk

👤 Diwas Poudel 🕒 04 Feb 2022 📁 TECH

Suppose you have a domain name suitable for your business or organization or for yourselves and wants a domain extension then you will find many domain extension. If you are targeting UK citizens then .co.uk and .uk extension are best for you.There are few difference between .co.uk and .uk domain extension.But before their difference lets discuss .co.uk and .uk in short.

.co.uk

.co is a second-level domain extension(SLD or 2LD) or secondary domain of the UK top-level domain for the United Kingdom. It is best for targeting UK citizens. It is generally used for commercial purposes as 'co' in 'co.uk' stands for commercial.Similarly other UK second-level domain are .gov.uk, .mod.uk , .net.uk.[name].uk was first registered in July 1985 where [name] can be .gov, .mod, .net, .co etc. and was launched by Nominet after 7 months of TLDs like .com was registered. From 1985 - 2014 there is only a second-level domain extension for the UK.

The second Level Domain is a domain that is just below the top-level domain(TLD).

Because of its popularity, some of the popular eCommerce sites like amazon have a .co.uk domain along with other different subdomains including the .com domain. They have done this is for target the citizen of the UK.

Also if you are targeting UK citizens then '.co.Uk' is best for you also it's better to host your sites in the hosting company whose server is located in the UK.So, when uk citizens search in web browser then it has more chance to get '.co.uk' websites on the top for any result set.

Who can register .co.uk domain?

Ans: You don't have to live in Uk to buy the .co.uk domain . There is no restriction..co.uk is best for non-profit organizations, companies, and individuals, to everyone.

.uk

.uk is a top-level domain extension launched on 10th June 2014. It was also launched by Nominet Uk. At the time of release, there was one main restriction and it was good for those who already have co.uk sites. Suppose a company/individual has .co.uk website registered then your domain with .uk is also reserved till 2019 and if they bought it then ok else after that reserved date it is opened to everyone to buy the same domain with .uk extension.

Who can register .uk domain?

Ans: Anyone can register .uk extension.

Which to Choose .uk or .co.uk domain ?

Ans: If I own .co.uk domain then I will better own .uk with same name and it full proof your existence on web. If your business is located outside uk then you can go with .com domain extension as well. It's only 15 dollars so do not risk your business. Just get it.

Why UK based websites has .co.uk instead of .com ?

Ans: US has introduced domain extension and they already reserve or locked .com , .net , .edu, .org, and other domains extension.UK started to implements it in own
way like .co.uk instead of .com , .net.uk instead of .net and soon.

Try Out Bluehost for .uk and co. uk domain and hosting.

What are the benefits of .uk domain extension?

There are lots of benefits of UK domain extension. So of them are :

.uk is TLDs whereas .co.uk is second domain name
.uk is short and sweet.
.uk is easy to remember
.uk is easy to type
.uk is easy for marketing

What are the Drawbacks of .uk domain extension?

Ans: As .uk is newer than .co.uk and people might think .uk as fraud.Buying .uk if you already have same domain for .co.uk.Then cost increase.

Difference between .uk vs .co.uk

Some of the noticeable differences between .co.uk and .uk are as follows.

.co.uk	.uk
It is a second-level domain extension. Here, .co is the second-level domain of the country UK, where the .uk is the country code top-level domain of the United Kingdom.	It is a top-level domain extension.
It is shorter.	Comparatively, it is longer.
It was introduced in 1985.	It was introduced in 2014
It is already popular and its popularity is increasing as well.	Its popularity is increasing nowadays.
Getting .co.uk based domain name is comparatively difficult.	Comparatively, it is easier because it is the new extension and most people don't know about it.

Restrictions for getting .co.uk and .uk domain

The domain name does support non-ASCII characters as well.
Domain name character length should be between 3 to 37

Conclusion

Both .co.uk and .uk are domain extension targeting UK webspace.So, from my perspective buy both for the same domain name so that no one can enjoy your environment.