How to choose a domain name: .com, .eu or a country domain?
Published on 3 October 2026 Updated on 9 October 2026
A good domain name is short, easy to say and type, and doesn’t clash with someone else’s trademark. Pick .com for a worldwide audience, .eu if you’re aiming at Europe, or a country domain such as .nl or .be if your visitors are mostly in one country. And always register it in your own name. Below you’ll learn how to come up with a name, which rules apply per extension and how registering and transferring work.
What makes a good domain name?
- Short. The shorter it is, the easier to remember and the smaller the chance of typos. That goes for your email address too, which will use the same name.
- The radio test. Say the name out loud to someone. Can they write it down correctly in one go? Then you’re fine. Any doubt between 4 and four, or between two spellings of a word, will cost you visitors.
- Few hyphens. One hyphen can keep words readable, but with two or three things go wrong as soon as someone passes the name on.
- Room to grow. Don’t name your site after a single product or year if you might branch out later.
- No one else’s trademark. A domain containing an existing brand name can land you a claim. Search a trademark database first, such as TMview, which covers the EU trademark office and many national offices.
Which extension should you choose?
The extension is the bit after the dot. Each one is run by its own registry, with its own rules:
| Extension | Suits | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| .com | A worldwide audience | Known everywhere, which is why so many names are already taken |
| .eu | Visitors across Europe | Only for citizens and residents of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and for businesses and organisations established there |
| .nl | Visitors in the Netherlands | 2 to 63 characters; only letters, digits and hyphens, no accents; a hyphen always sits between two letters or digits |
| .be | Visitors in Belgium | 2 to 63 characters; accented letters are allowed, as in belgië.be; no hyphen at the start or end |
Torn between a country domain and .com? Choose the extension that matches where your visitors are. For a bakery round the corner in Utrecht, .nl is the natural choice; for a site with readers all over the world, .com. You can also register both and forward the second to the first, which catches typos at the same time.
How do you check if a name is still free?
Check it with our domain name checker: you see for each extension whether it is available, with the price per year. You can also look it up in the registry’s Whois: SIDN for .nl, DNS Belgium for .be and EURid for .eu. If it’s taken, see whether another extension is free or come up with a variation. Don’t pick a name that looks like a well-known site in the hope of catching its typos. Sooner or later that leads to trouble.
How do you register a domain name?
You don’t register a domain name with the registry itself, but through a registrar: a company that registers domains on your behalf. You pay per year and you are the registrant. Make sure the name is registered to you, not to your web designer or hosting company. For .nl that has been the rule since 1 October 2023, when SIDN banned intermediaries from registering a domain in their own name on someone else’s behalf. Your privacy is still protected: SIDN doesn’t show the names of private individuals in its Whois.
Make sure you renew in time and that your email address at the registrar is up to date. Many registrars can renew automatically; at CakeHosting you receive a renewal invoice about 30 days before the expiry date and we renew as soon as it has been paid. If you forget to renew, your domain is cancelled. A cancelled .nl domain goes into quarantine for 40 days, during which only the last registrant can get it back. After that, anyone can register it.
Domain names at CakeHosting: register .com, .eu, .nl, .be and more in your own name, and combine it with web hosting that comes with DDoS protection through RoyaleHosting, with more than 6 Tbps of capacity. View the extensions.
How do you make your domain work?
A domain only does something once its DNS records are right. The main ones:
- A record and AAAA record: your website’s IP address, for IPv4 and IPv6.
- CNAME record: a pointer to another name, from www to your main domain for example.
- MX record: where your email should go.
- SRV record: for services on their own port, such as a Minecraft server. Players then connect to play.yourname.com without a port number. There’s more about that on our Minecraft server page.
How do you transfer a domain to another registrar?
A transfer works with a code that proves you’re the registrant. Each extension does it slightly differently:
- .com and other generic extensions: you need an auth code, which your registrar has to give you within five days of asking. Shortly after a registration or a previous transfer, a transfer may be refused for a while.
- .nl: ask your current registrar for the token. They have to provide it within five days, and your new registrar then arranges the transfer with SIDN.
- .be: request a transfer code. DNS Belgium emails it to the registrant’s email address, and it’s valid for seven days. If that address is out of date, update it first.
Moving both your domain and your website? Do them one after the other. How to move your website to a new host explains how to move a site without downtime.
Which mistakes should you avoid?
- Letting your web designer register the domain in their name.
- An email address at the registrar that you no longer read, so renewal reminders and transfer codes never reach you.
- Choosing a name without a trademark check.
- Forgetting to renew: turn on automatic renewal if your registrar offers it, or pay the renewal invoice in time.
A good domain name is like the name of a cake on the menu: short, tempting, and you know straight away what you’re getting.
