How to claim your free domain name

We’ve partnered with Names.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading domain name providers, to offer our company formation customers a free .com or .co.uk domain name for one year, to help you establish an online presence for your new business.

In this blog, we’re going to tell you how to claim your free domain name, once your company has been formed.

Check your emails after your company has been registered

We will send you an order fulfillment email as soon as your company has been registered at Companies House (company formations typically take up to 24 hours).

This email will include – amongst other information relating to your company formation – your voucher code to redeem your free domain name (made up of 8 random letters) as well as a dedicated link to our partners, Names.co.uk.

This code will expire in 30 days so take advantage of the offer and get your free domain name now. Use the link provided and apply your voucher code at checkout.

• Our All Inclusive Package - the perfect way to form a limited company
• How to create a website for a new business

If you haven’t received your email, please be sure to check your junk mail and spam folder. To confirm, this is sent as soon as your company has been registered at Companies House, not when you complete the company formation process.

If you still cannot locate the email after checking your junk/spam or contact us to ask us to resend it.

Step-by-step guide

1. Select a domain name

Click the link in your order fulfillment email. You will be taken to the 1st Formations’ branded Names.co.uk webpage. Enter the domain name and preferred domain extension (.com or .co.uk) that you would like to use for your company’s website via the ‘enter domain name’ search tool. You may find this post by Names.co.uk useful: How to choose a good domain name).

If your chosen domain name is available, it will immediately be added to your basket.

If it is unavailable, you will see this note: ‘We’re sorry,  exampledomainname.co.uk is not available’; however, you will be offered similar alternatives. If you are not happy with one of these, you will need to search again until you find an appropriate and available domain name.

Once you have found a suitable domain name, you will be presented with a list of your chosen domain name with other domain extensions that you may also be interested in (for example, .net and .online) for the purpose of protecting your brand. Select ‘Add’ next to any that you want to pick up, then select ‘Proceed to Basket‘:

2. Add optional extras

Add any extras that you want – such as the Names.co.uk website builder – as you work your way through the process, and continue to select ‘Proceed to Basket’:

3. Apply your voucher code and confirm your order

On the ‘Basket Summary’ page, review your order and enter your voucher code (see below), then select ‘Confirm’:

There will now be no charge for your .com or .co.uk domain name in your basket. Please note, this offer only applies to the .com  / .co.uk domain name, not to any additional domain extensions or extras you have added.

4. Create a Names.co.uk account

Finally, simply create a Names.co.uk account (or log in if you already have an account) and finalise your order. Once complete, Names.co.uk will email you to confirm that your domain name has been registered.

Thanks for reading

Registering a domain name is the first step in getting your new company online.

However, even if you’re not currently interested in trading online, you should still register a domain to protect your brand (by stopping anyone else from using your company name as part of a domain name).

We hope you have found this post helpful.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions about redeeming your free domain name, or anything else related to our company formation packages and setting up a company in general.