Some timely tips to help you when choosing a domain name (in the UK). My favourite tip is “If you use more than one word, do not end and start words with the same character”.

Technical Constraints:

• Do not use an ampersand ‘&’. Technically, it is illegal, so you should also avoid ‘and’.
• Do not use apostrophes. Technically, it is illegal and therefore the use of an apostrophe is not permitted.
• Do not start or end with a hyphen (-).
• The permitted characters are: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789-
• All characters are lower case.

Do Not:

• Do not panic!
• If possible, do not use hyphens.
• If possible, do not use numerical characters.
• If possible, do not use mobile phone text message abbreviations.
• If possible, do not use ’2′ for ‘to’, ’4′ for ‘for’, ‘u’ for ‘you’ and ‘ur’ for ‘your’.
• Do not try to be too cool by using deliberate spelling mistakes. It’s just not kool!
• If possible, do not pad your domain name with unnecessary words like ‘the’, ‘ltd’ and ‘company’.
• Do not use brand names or trade marks which belong to other companies.
• Do not use a limited (incorporated) company name which belongs to another company.
• If in doubt, check out the Companies House website, perform a name check free of charge and check the directory of UK Limited Companies.
• If relevant to your business, also consult a Company Formation agent.
• If you use more than one word, do not end and start words with the same character. For example, www.intelligenttelephones.com is not good, whereas www.businesstelephones.com is good.