Domainbox Industry News

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nominet Change Registration Length - How Will It Affect Your Storefront Website?

Nominet, the UK registry, have important news that may affect domain resellers during a time when domain industry news is dominated by new TLD launches.This news may affect how your customers engage with your storefront website in terms of the length of the registration of their preferred domains.

The registry, who previously only allowed customers to register .UK domains for two years maximum, have announced that as of the first of May 2012 they will be giving registrants greater choice and allowing them to register their preferred domains for longer time periods. It will allow registrants to add a one or two year registration to their current purchase, meaning the length of ownership on their domains will be able to be extended.

This is due to a study conducted by Nominet where they asked their consumers whether they felt that longer domain name registrations would be beneficial to their brands and websites on the Internet. The response was approving, and the registry has decided to therefore go ahead with this change, meaning that in six months’ time you will have more control over how long you can register a .UK name for.

The majority of people asked specified that they though the introduction of registrations of these names between one and ten years was the most beneficial to .UK domain name owners, as this would bring the .UK registry in line with the majority of other registries, removing consumer confusion when it came to this specific extension. On the whole most people asked felt that the change of the registration period for this domain would have no effect on the amount of demand for the name and would simply make it easier for the consumer to register and manage their chosen domain name. People felt that the domain names were already highly sought after due to their competitive price and popularity across the internet.

Critics of the new rules feel that it may make ‘premium’ and sought after .UK domain names less available, as they are more likely to lay dormant for a longer period if they are registered for the greater amount of time.

What a fantastic change to the way that Nominet allow you to register your .UK domains!