Guide
Check a company by its website address, not its name
To check a company by website, start from the domain rather than the brand: the name on the site is a trading name, and the register does not record trading names. The domain leads to the company number on the site, the domain’s registration date, its archive history and the Google Business profile that links to it — together they identify the legal entity and show whether the website’s story matches the record.
Key facts
- Companies House records company names, not trading names, websites or domains. Nothing on the register links a website to a company except the number the site itself displays.
- A UK company must show its registered name and number on its website (Companies Act 2006, s.82). Many small firms don’t; a missing number is a question, a wrong number is a warning.
- Domain registration data (Nominet for .uk, RDAP for other domains) is public and shows when a domain was created and last changed hands.
- The Internet Archive keeps copies of most websites; the first capture date is the best free evidence of how long a business has traded online.
- A Google Business profile that links to the domain is the business’s own listing; its display name is often the legal name the website never mentions.
Why the name on the website misleads
A brand is a label anyone can put on a website. “Aurelia Kitchens” is not a legal person; AK Fitting Services Ltd is. The contract, the invoice and any claim you ever make are against the company, and the register has never heard of the brand. Three things follow:
Several companies can share a brand
A showroom, a fitting company and a holding company may all trade as one name. Which one you are paying decides whose assets stand behind your deposit.
A brand can outlive its company
A liquidated company’s name and website can reappear the next month under a new number — the phoenix pattern. Search by brand and you find the shiny new page; search from the domain and you find that the archive goes back years, the registration changed hands, and the old company is in liquidation.
A brand can be borrowed
Cloned websites copy a real firm’s text, photos and sometimes its company number. Searching the name finds the real company and reassures you; the domain — registered six weeks ago, no archive, no profile — tells the truth.
Four things the domain tells you that the name cannot
| Signal | Where it comes from | What it shows | Reassuring | Worth asking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domain age | Nominet / RDAP | When the address was registered | Older than the company, or years old | Weeks old; or registered long after the “established” date claimed |
| Ownership change | RDAP + archive gap | Whether the domain was re-registered | Continuous history | Archive from 2013, registration from 2021 — a different owner now uses an old name |
| Archive history | Internet Archive | How long the site has existed and what it said before | Captured for years, same business throughout | No captures; or captures show a different business at this address |
| Linked Google profile | Google Business | The business’s own listing, reviews, address, often the legal name | Profile links to this domain; reviews go back years | No profile; or the profile links to a different site |
How to match a website to a company, step by step
- Read the site for the company number. Footer, terms, privacy page, invoice. If present, look it up: the company’s name and trade should fit the website, and its registered office should be within reach of the postcode on the site.
- If no number, read the site for a postcode and a legal-looking name (“… Ltd” in the small print, in a PDF brochure, in the email signature).
- Search Companies House by the brand and by each word in the domain. “completestairsystems.co.uk” with no spaces is Complete Stair Systems Ltd; the register search does not know that, you have to.
- Confirm with the postcode. A candidate whose registered office shares the site’s postcode district is almost certainly the right one; a candidate 200 miles away is almost certainly not.
- Check the Google Business profile. Search the brand and town; open the profile; if the website field is this domain, the profile name is the business’s own name for itself — frequently the legal one.
- Then read the record as in the Companies House guide: status, accounts, age, address, officers.
This is exactly the sequence a free company check runs from the address you paste, including the postcode and Google matching, and it says when the match is uncertain rather than guessing.
The site called itself “Spiral Staircases UK”; the company is something else
No company number on the site, and “Spiral Staircases UK” matches nothing on the register. The domain, completestairsystems.co.uk, does: Complete Stair Systems Ltd, incorporated 2005, registered office in the same Romsey postcode as the site. The Google profile linked to the domain used the legal name. Twenty-one years on the register, 23 reviews since 2021, net assets £93,000, no claim on the site contradicted the record. Searching the brand alone would have found nothing.
Enter a website address, e.g. aurelia-kitchens.co.uk
When the domain itself is the warning
Four patterns where the address, not the content, gives the game away.
New domain, old claims
“Established 1998” on a domain registered in March. Genuine firms rebrand, but they keep the old address live or say so; a fresh domain with a long history and no archive is the commonest sign of a clone or a phoenix.
Re-registered domain
The archive shows a decorating firm in 2013; the domain was registered again in 2021; the current site is a different decorating firm. The name and the reviews attached to it may belong to the previous owner.
Look-alike address
aurelia-kitchens-uk.com next to aurelia-kitchens.co.uk; the real firm’s text and photos on the wrong domain. Check which domain the Google profile links to.
Nothing links anywhere
A months-old domain, no archive, no Google profile, no postcode, no company number — and a request for a deposit. There is nothing to verify, which is itself the answer: do not pay a deposit until they give you a company number and an address you can check.
A second example: the domain that gave the context
Decorating firm, five years on the register, domain with two histories
The archive of the domain goes back to 2013; its registration dates from 2021. The company was incorporated in 2020. So the business is five years old and using an address that once belonged to someone else — the older reviews attached to the name may not be theirs. Mobile number only, and one director with a previous dissolved company. Nothing here is a warning on its own; together they leave three questions, which is what amber means. Score 66.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out which company owns a website in the UK?
Look for the company number on the site (footer, terms, invoice) and check it on Companies House. If there is none, match the brand and the site’s postcode against the register, and check which website the business’s Google profile links to. Domain registration data shows the registrant only for organisations, not individuals.
Can I check who registered a domain?
Partly. Nominet (.uk) and RDAP (.com and others) show when a domain was registered and last updated, and the registrant name where it is an organisation. Individuals’ details are redacted. The date is the useful part.
Does a website have to show the company number?
Yes, if the business is a limited company: the Companies Act 2006 requires the registered name, number and office on the website, emails and letters. Sole traders have no number to show.
What if the website’s company number belongs to a different company?
Treat it as a serious warning. Either the site has copied another firm’s number, or the number is a typo — ask, and check the company the number actually leads to. Do not pay until it is resolved.
Is a new domain always a bad sign?
No. Every business has a new domain once. It becomes a warning when the website claims a long history the domain cannot support, or when there is nothing else — no company, no profile, no address — to verify.
Why does the Google Business profile matter?
Because it is the business’s own listing, tied to a verified postcard or phone check, with a website field. If it links to the domain you are checking, its name, address and reviews belong to this business — and the name is often the legal one.