The domain industry is always evolving so naturally, people wonder what the domain name rules are as far as what’s allowed in domain registrations. We’re here to break down what elements you can and cannot have in your domain names.
Numbers
The 2nd level domain can be entirely composed of numbers, for example, 101.com. This is very popular in China where numbers pronounced in Mandarin translate to meaningful rhymes and phrases because of the similarity in sounds.
0: 赢 (Win)
1: 医 (Medical)
2: 饿 (Hungry)
3: 山 (Mountain)
4: 试 (Try)
5: 武 (Force)
6: 遛 (Stroll)
7: 企 (Enterprise)
8: 吧 (Bar)
9: 酒 (Wine)
You can check out the complete guide from numbers 0-99 here.
Underscores/Spaces
All domain name rules include that you cannot have underscores or spaces in a domain name.
Capital Letters
If you search for a domain name with capital letters you’ll notice that it automatically defaults to all lowercase letters in the search results. Similarly, it doesn’t make a difference if you type capital letters into a web browser – it will change to lowercase and bring up the website regardless.
Hyphens/Dashes
You can have hyphens and dashes in domain names but we wouldn’t advise this. Domain names with hyphens and dashes are undesirable because they cannot be easily recalled. Most people will forget to type in the hyphen when they search for your website and end up on your competitor’s site.
Periods
Periods cannot be registered under domain name rules. When you see periods in a URL it is referred to as a subdomain. Subdomains are intended to be used to host different content than what is found in the main domain and as an alternative to having to register a bunch of individual domain names. An example of a subdomain is maps.google.com, which hosts Google Maps and doesn’t take away from the main domain and search result form found at google.com. maps.google.com is a subdomain of google.com but cannot be registered as maps.google.com.
Symbols
You cannot have special characters like “! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )” or others in a domain name.
Emojis
The rumors are true, domain emojis are real! Currently, you can only register for an emoji domain name under the .ws domain. Register your favorite emoji or any combination and create words and phrases with the universal language of the world. Here is a great example of how Coca-Cola is spreading happiness with emoji domains!