This article was written by Phil Hulme at WebHealer
Most UK based therapists use the .UK suffix for their website addresses as opposed to other “top level” endings like .com or .org. Although there are different .uk options, like .org.uk or .ltd.uk, the most popular and well recognised by far is .co.uk. This may very well change over the coming months and years.
Introducing .UK
The UK now has a simplified shorter version of its .uk ending without the .co or .ltd or .org prefix. Simply .uk. so whereas before you might have had a website address like www.mywebsite.co.uk you can now have the address www.mywebsite.uk.
WebHealer believes that in time the new .uk ending will become the most familiar and popular.
How do I get a .UK address?
Website addresses with the new ending can be registered in the same way as any other .uk with one exception. If someone else has already registered the address as a .co.uk (or.org.uk etc) then they have the exclusive right to register the accompanying .uk address, however this right expires on June 25th 2019.

Deadline to secure your .uk address is June 25th 2019

In practice most appealing and desirable website addresses ending .uk have already been registered as .co.uk so it will be very interesting when June 25th comes around to see how many of the equivalent .uk addresses are unclaimed. After that date it is first-come-first-served on these addresses.
Do I really need to register the .uk address?
Not every owner of a .co.uk website need bother getting the .uk address to go with it, but here are WebHealer’s top 3 reasons why you might want to:

  1. Distinctiveness If you have a distinctive address like www.happyfeet.co.uk and have invested in its branding then you’re likely to want to avoid the potential loss of business from people trying www.happyfeet.uk and going elsewhere
  2. Default As .uk becomes more popular people will start to try visiting .uk addresses first and fail to find your website
  3. Future Insurance At some point in the future you may wish to switch to .uk, so you may wish to secure it as an insurance policy against someone taking that option away from you

In contrast, if you have a website address like www.angelacrowhurstreiki.co.uk then your risk of losing business to another Angela Crowhurst who sets up a competitive Reiki practice to you is quite low. You may well decide not to bother getting the .uk address in this case.
Summary
You still have another few weeks, but WebHealer advises giving consideration now to whether it would be prudent to secure the .uk address to go with your .co.uk address. If you do choose to go ahead then it is easiest to register it through the same people who run your .co.uk address because Nominet, who oversee these matters, are making special checks at the moment to ensure exactly matching ownership details, and even a single letter difference can cause complications.
WebHealer is a specialist provider of websites to private practice therapists and is  preferred supplier to members of leading therapy associations.