The value of a name

A name that works every hour of every day.

A descriptive domain name tells a stranger what you do before they read a word, and it keeps doing that for as long as you hold it. This page explains what makes a name valuable, how names are priced and when leasing beats buying.

Browse the names How leasing works

The short answer

What a domain name is worth, in two paragraphs.

A domain name is worth what the market it serves will pay for it. Registration costs around £5 to £15 a year, but a clear name in a large market can be worth tens of thousands of pounds, because it is the one asset that every customer, search engine and AI assistant meets first.

A descriptive name does four jobs. It earns trust, it is remembered and typed without a search, it lowers the cost of marketing, and it signals the size of the business behind it. It does not, on its own, make a site rank higher. Google has said a keyword domain name gives no recognisable SEO advantage, so the value lies in how people respond to the name, not in a ranking trick.

£300,000reported for Tyres.co.uk in 2025, the largest UK sale of the year

£501,000reported for Furniture.co.uk in 2016, bought by a furniture business owner

£5 to £15typical yearly UK renewal fee once a name is registered

Sale figures are reported prices from the Brandwise UK domain sales record, last updated in January 2026. Many sales are never reported, and past prices are no promise of future ones.

Why it matters

Six reasons a descriptive name pays its way.

Registering a name costs very little. What a good one does for a business is another matter.

It is the brand online

A small business with a strong name competes with larger ones on equal terms in a single line of text.

It earns trust

People assume a clear, exact name belongs to an established business, and they act on that before they know anything else.

It is easy to remember

A name that says what you do is recalled and typed without a search, so customers return without comparing you again.

It lowers marketing spend

Vans, print and word of mouth all work harder when the name is short, plain and says the service aloud.

It signals authority

The broader the name, the bigger the business it suggests. A category name positions the holder as a major player.

It is an asset

A name is held, not spent. As more commerce moves online, a good one tends to become harder to find, not easier.

Names and search

What a clear name does for search and AI assistants.

The honest position: a name is not a ranking switch, but it shapes how people and machines read you.

Search engines no longer rank a site higher just because the words in its address match the query. What a clear name does change is behaviour. People click a result whose address matches their need, remember it, and type it directly, and AI assistants use the name as an early signal of what a site covers. A name that says one thing plainly is easy to describe and easy to cite.

That is why we pair every name with real content. YourElectrician.co.uk and YourDentist.co.uk answer a search before the visitor has read a page, and so do YourMortgages.co.uk and YourInsuranceCompany.co.uk in finance. In regulated areas such as health and medical or insurance and pensions, a clear name also tells the visitor what to expect before they share any detail.

In travel the name is the destination itself. VisitFlorida.co.uk and StLucia.co.uk are what a traveller types once they have chosen where to go, and VisitMalta.co.uk shows what one of those names becomes when it is built with partners. The full set sits in our Visit and destination names.

A worked example

According to Google's Gemini: what DrivingInstructor.co.uk does for a business.

We asked Google's Gemini AI assistant about the value of a category name such as DrivingInstructor.co.uk. This is what it said.

Click through rate: +15% to +35%

Gemini says a category name lifts click through across search ads, organic results and social feeds, because when a user searches for an instructor and sees DrivingInstructor.co.uk as the address, relevance is clear before they read the ad copy.

Cost per click: 15% to 40% lower

Gemini says Google Ads Quality Score rests heavily on expected click through rate and ad relevance, and that a rise from 5 or 6 to 8 to 10 means the advertiser pays noticeably less per click to win the same position.

Natural anchor text

Gemini says when directories, bloggers and partners link to the business, the link text is naturally the name itself, which gives keyword rich anchor text that does not look manipulated.

UK relevance

Gemini says a country code ending such as .co.uk is the strongest technical geotargeting signal, so a UK service noun on a UK extension anchors national relevance straight away.

Recall without spelling

Gemini says a descriptive name passes the radio and billboard test: no spelling out, no hyphen explanations, and it sticks in memory.

Type in traffic and asset value

Gemini says top category names capture people typing the category straight into the address bar, creating repeat leads with no acquisition cost, and that the name is an asset that holds value when ad spend stops.

Source: Google Gemini AI assistant, response to a question about category defining domain names, October 2026. The figures are Gemini's own estimates, not published Google research, and results vary by campaign. Search engines do not rank a site higher for its address alone, so the name needs real content behind it.

What sets the price

How a domain name is valued.

Value is set by the market a name serves, not by what it cost to register. The best names were often registered long ago.

One word

£3,000 to £300,000 and more

For example Casino.co.uk

One word place name

£300 to £300,000 and more

For example London.co.uk

Two words

£300 to £10,000 and more

For example LondonCasino.co.uk

Three or more words

£10 to £3,000 and more

For example LondonCasinoGuide.co.uk

The main factors are the size of the market, how commercially useful the words are, how easily the name is remembered and spelled when heard aloud, how much the service is worth, and for places, how many people visit. Bands are a rough guide from the Brandwise UK domain name price guide for .co.uk names bought on the aftermarket.

Reported UK sales

What descriptive names in our markets have sold for.

A few reported sales for the kinds of names we hold. They show the value placed on a clear name, not the price of any name in this portfolio.

2012

Doctor.co.uk

£24,999

Health

2019

Holiday.co.uk

£27,850

Travel

2019

Remortgage.uk

£17,000

Mortgages

2018

Injury.co.uk

£10,399

Legal

2018

Employment.co.uk

£10,425

Jobs

2020

VanInsurance.co.uk

£85,000

Insurance

2024

Teeth.co.uk

£10,000

Dental

2025

Tyres.co.uk

£300,000

Motoring

Lease or buy

Use a name without paying six figures for it.

Most businesses do not need to own a premium name. They need to use one.

Lease

A daily rate for a fixed term, with a free 10 page website and an AI assistant included, so the name is an operating cost and not a capital outlay.

How leasing works

Joint venture

We build and run the AI powered site with you on the name and share the result.

How a joint venture works

Build and manage

We build the platform on the name and run it for you, so you can focus on customers.

Build and manage

Every name in the portfolio has its own page with an indicative daily rate, the AI agents it could run and the names that sit beside it, from trades and home to finance and credit. If you want to take a name, or several in the same sector, contact us and we will agree the term in writing.

Questions

Domain name value, answered.

How much is a domain name worth?

A domain name is worth what the market it serves will pay for it, not what it cost to register. Registration is typically £5 to £15 a year, yet reported UK sales of descriptive names run from about £10,000 for Teeth.co.uk to £300,000 for Tyres.co.uk. Value rises with the size of the market, how commercially useful the words are and how easily the name is remembered and spelled when heard aloud.

Does a keyword domain name help SEO?

Not directly. Google's John Mueller has said a keyword domain name gives no recognisable SEO advantage. The benefit is indirect: a clear name earns trust and clicks, is remembered and typed straight into the browser, and gives visitors and AI assistants an immediate signal of what the business does. It works as a brand and a shop window, not as a ranking trick.

What makes a domain name premium?

A premium name is short, made of real words, easy to say and spell, and matches something people already want, such as a service, a place or a product. Names on the .co.uk extension also carry strong UK trust. Scarcity matters too, because only one business can hold each name.

Should I lease a domain name or buy it?

Leasing suits most businesses because it turns a large one off cost into a predictable daily rate and lets you test a name in the market. Buying suits a business that is certain the name is central to its brand for many years. Either way the agreement should be in writing, with the term and what happens at the end set out clearly.

What does a domain lease from Your Publishing Corporation include?

You get the right to use a descriptive name for a fixed term at an agreed daily rate, with a free 10 page website and an AI assistant included, and we can also build and run a larger AI powered site on it with you, either as a joint venture or as a managed service. Each name page shows an indicative rate. Final terms are agreed individually in writing.

Can I see what a name could become before I commit?

Yes. Every name in the portfolio has its own page describing the market it serves and the AI agents it could run. For an example of a name that has moved on to a partner build, see VisitMalta.co.uk.

Sources: Brandwise UK domain sales record and price guide (January 2026); Search Engine Journal, "John Mueller on keyword domain names and branding for SEO" (December 2023).