Back in 2014 when the .scot TLD went live not all domains were created equally. The DotScot registry reserved a selection of names so that they weren’t publicly available for registration. Those included some premium keywords and all town, city, region and island names known as ‘locality’ domains. Initially the placenames were only made available to community councils or similar organisations where the domains would be used for a community purpose.

Fast forward to 2020 and those locality and premium names are now available for public registration. The locality names come in with a premium price tag of £199 + VAT for the first year, but after that they revert to the usual .scot renewal price of £40. On our dedicated .scot registration website you can search to check the availability of names and proceed with an order if you find a name you’d like to register. We’ve found that there are lots of smaller village and area names fall under the general availability level and you can secure them at £40 for the first year!

So who would want to use a placename or locality .scot domain name?  We can think of lots of potential uses….

Community Councils – a great way to put the spotlight on your location, have a website detailing the council members, the work being done, having an archive of minutes of meetings, and email accounts for all of your counsellors.

Business Improvement Districts – are you trying to raise the profile of small businesses in your area? You could use a placename.scot name to have a business directory website, news about small businesses, videos of your area and local attractions, and again email addresses for your team members.

Tourism Businesses – do you run a hotel, guest house, pub or other tourism sector business and you’d like to use your location name as a draw to bring people to your website? A placename.scot domain could direct into your website, or perhaps a community of linked tourism businesses within a town or city. At a time when staycations are all the fashion, then let people know that Scotland is open for business. Perhaps you’re on the North Coast 500 route, or near a fantastic coastal beach? Or maybe you’re in a location where people can explore the rural landscapes, head out on outdoor pursuits, using your establishment as a base? Highlight your location with that all important .scot web address.

Village Champions – perhaps you just want to shout about what a great place you live in? Or perhaps you’d like to make available an email service for all the people who live in your area. Domain names can be tied to an email service so you can have [email protected]. Why not be [email protected] or [email protected].

The possiblities are endless – but the domains are not! Grab the name you want now, before someone else does!

Once you’ve chosen a name, our team here at Calico can assist with linking that up to a variety of website options (eg WordPress hosting, Spanglefish or another website builder such as Wix or Squarespace), we can forward to an existing website or social media profile, and of course we can create any number of email addresses or mail forwarders to suit your requirements.

Not sure what you want to do with the name just now? That’s fine too, we can just secure it and park it until you’re ready to create a website in the future.

So the next step? Head over to our dedicated .scot website calico.scot and search for a name that would suit you.

If you have any questions at all, then our team members are on hand to speak to you. Either call our helpdesk on 01381 600580 or email us at [email protected].