Generic domain names are "hugely important" to online business according to industry experts.

Financial Services Net has advised that domain names such as mortgages.co.uk are vital to his firm, which runs a number of internet sites with generic names, because they are likely to feature high in search engine results and are more memorable.

Barry Summers, managing director of Financial Services Net, said: "[Domain names are] hugely important, because the internet is about gaining traffic to your site."

He also advised that the marketing of a business will be much easier if people can instantly tell what it does.

"If you're following a bus and an advert says Charcol Online, for example, and another says mortgages.co.uk, and you're looking for a mortgage, which one are you going to remember when you get home?" he explained.

Recycle.co.uk recently became the most expensive .co.uk internet domain name when it was sold for £150,000, surpassing the £110,000 paid by Sainsbury's for taste.co.uk in 1997.

ASAP Ventures, the venture capital company which bought the domain name, intends to use it to provide a website with recycling advice.

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