A small decision that people overthink. Here's what actually matters.
What a web address is
The bit people type to get to your site — swiftelectrical.co.uk, hartleyplumbing.com, whatever it ends up being. You rent it for a year at a time, usually £10–£15. Yours for as long as you keep paying.
.co.uk and .uk — both work
For a UK trade business serving UK customers, either .co.uk or .uk is the right choice. Both signal “British business” instantly — to customers and to Google. .co.uk is the older and more familiar version; .uk is its shorter sibling, launched in 2014, and is increasingly common for newer businesses that want a cleaner, shorter address.
There's no real difference in how Google treats them, and customers recognise both. Pick whichever sounds better when you read your business name out loud. If your preferred name is taken on .co.uk but free on .uk (or the other way round), grab whichever is available — it's a tiny detail, not a deal-breaker.
.com is fine too — it doesn't hurt you — but it doesn't give you the small local credibility boost that a UK ending does.
The other endings
You'll see endings like .london, .plumbing, .biz, .net, .co. These are different from .uk — they're not official UK addresses. They're cheap to buy but they look slightly off to customers, and that “slightly off” feeling can cost you enquiries. Stick with .co.uk, .uk, or .com.
What about the business name in the address?
A few principles that hold up well:
- Short beats clever. swiftelectrical.co.uk is easier to say on the phone than swift-electrical-services-swindon.co.uk.
- Match your trading name. If your van says “Hartley Plumbing,” the web address should be hartleyplumbing.co.uk, not hpsplumbingservices.co.uk.
- No hyphens if you can help it. They're hard to say out loud — “h, hyphen, p” is a recipe for getting it wrong.
- No numbers if you can help it. “Plumber247” sounds like a directory, not a business.
What if my preferred name's already taken?
Usually means someone else registered it years ago and hasn't done anything with it. Three good ways round it:
- Add your town: hartleyplumbingmarlborough.co.uk — Google likes it too.
- Add the trade: hartleyplumbingandheating.co.uk.
- Use a slightly different version: hartley-plumbing.co.uk (acceptable if it's the only way to get the name).
Who looks after it?
When I build a site, I either buy the web address for you (included in the £9.99/mo) or use one you already own. Either way, it's yours — registered in your name, not mine. If you ever stop working with me, the address goes with you.
That's not always how trade web builders do it. Some register the address in their own name, which means if you leave, the address stays with them. Always worth checking.
Last updated: May 2026 · If anything in this guide is out of date or unclear, drop me an email — I'll fix it. nick@neobookworm.uk
If you tell me your business name and town, I’ll suggest a few options and check what’s available.