I am developing a site for a close friend. The business will be located in the UK and provide an online shopping facility in the UK. We have 3 names registered thename.co.uk, the-name.co.uk, the-name.com. (thename being used instead of the actual name to illustrate the problem)
thename.com is owned by another company doing similar business but not identical in the USA and is registered until 2009.
Our dilemna is which of our 3 registered names to use? Some people have said hyphenated sites(the-business) are at a disadvantage for SEO optimization and not user friendly. However, if we use the thename.com it could be confused with the US company.
Please give us your ideas and suggestions.