Renew your UK website or lose it

UK website owners could see their treasured site disappear if they don't renew it every two years.

Nominet, the national registry for UK domain names, has announced that from November .uk domain names will have to be renewed every two years.

It warns site owners that if they do not renew their site's name by the due date, the name will be suspended for 60 days, then cancelled.

Lesley Cowley, managing director of Nominet UK, said: "These changes are designed to release .uk domain names that are no longer wanted as quickly as possible."

Website owners will receive a reminder, but if they don't pay the renewal within 30 days, the site will be suspended and email addresses associated with the domain name will no longer work.

According to Nominet, there are currently almost four million domain names ending in .co.uk, most of which are registered via registration agents or ISPs.

Nominet advises website owners to renew their domain name through their existing registration agent andt o check the status of their registration using the WHOIS search at the Nominet website.