{"id":4829,"date":"2020-03-04T10:50:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T10:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2021-05-18T11:57:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T10:57:02","slug":"the-lowdown-on-uk-domains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/","title":{"rendered":"The lowdown on renewing your FREE .UK domain&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>We\u2019ve been talking for a while about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\">.uk domains<\/a> and why they\u2019re so important to register alongside any .co.uk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/domain-names\">domains<\/a> that you might own.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In fact, it was so important to us that our customers have their matching .uk that we offered them for free (for 1 year) back in December 2018, and then again in March 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Those FREE domains gifted in March 2019 are now coming up to their expiry date. So it&#8217;s a good time to provide a lowdown on the .uk situation and why we think they are well worth paying for to keep them under your control\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>History of .uk<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As you may be aware, anyone who owned a .co.uk domain (registered before October 28th 2013) had the matching .uk extension reserved for them by the .uk registry \u2013 Nominet &#8211; for a period of 5 years. This was because .uk was a new extension onto the market and it was only fair that those with an existing .co.uk had first refusal (that lasted a generous 5 years!) on the new matching extension.<\/p>\n<p>We decided, part way through that 5-year window, to offer our customers their matching .uk domain for FREE. Some customers were offered their FREE .uk in December 2018, and others in March 2019. We want our customers to succeed online so gifting the matching .uk was our way of helping with that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>FREE .uk &#8211; due for renewal soon<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Customers that received their FREE .uk in March 2019 will have already received emails from us about renewing their .uk before it expires. There is absolutely no obligation to renew it, but we do advise it is a wise move to protect your brand name and stop competitors using it.<\/p>\n<p>If you choose not to renew, the .uk will simply drop off your account and join the open market. If you choose to renew, it will remain safely in your account and your brand name will be protected.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>FREE .uk \u2013 declined offer <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If you declined our offer of having your matching .uk domain registered in your name for 1 year, and you have not subsequently registered it yourself, it will have been added to the open market as of July 2019 (when the 5 year window ended). It could still be available to register, or it may have been snapped up by someone else. You can check with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/domain-names\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Domain Search Tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>So that\u2019s the story of .uk<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>They\u2019re a very handy extension to hold indeed \u2013 you can use them to gain extra traffic online, they\u2019re shorter and easier to remember and they put more emphasis on your business name. Plus, if you\u2019ve got it registered, no one else can! And finally, have a read here to find out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/10-things-registering-domain-name\/\">10 things to do when you&#8217;ve Registered your Domain Name<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Still have questions?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Still have questions? No problem at all \u2013 give us a call on <strong><span class=\"branded\">0345 363 3637<\/span><\/strong> and we\u2019ll be happy to talk you through it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve been talking for a while about .uk domains and why they\u2019re so important to register alongside any .co.uk domains that you might own. In fact, it was so important&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":4696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-domains","category-your-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The lowdown on renewing your FREE .UK domain... - LCN.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The lowdown on renewing your FREE .UK domain... - LCN.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We\u2019ve been talking for a while about .uk domains and why they\u2019re so important to register alongside any .co.uk domains that you might own. In fact, it was so important... Read more &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grow a successful website with the LCN Business Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lcndotcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-04T10:50:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-18T10:57:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/uk-domains.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"263\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan Preedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lcndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lcndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathan Preedy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathan Preedy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e6493782266f4474f2c90dc96682d069\"},\"headline\":\"The lowdown on renewing your FREE .UK domain&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-04T10:50:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-18T10:57:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/uk-domains.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Domains\",\"Your business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/blog\/the-lowdown-on-uk-domains\/\",\"name\":\"The lowdown on renewing your FREE .UK domain... - 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