Domain with dash

[Maia Forbes]

I would like your thoughts on the following dilemna. I am developing a site for a friend who has registered 3 versions of a name. thename.com is already taken by another individual selling similar but not identical products in the USA. It has not been registered as a company or copyrighted.

Our site will have a shopping cart and supply the UK only. We have registered:
the-name.co.uk, the-name.com, thename.co.uk (thename not being the real name)
Which name should we consider using? We are reluctant to use another name, as it does reflect the product and my friend has used it for some years to mail out goods in the UK.
Your thoughts and ideas would be appreciated
Maia

[bhartzer]

Since you're only going to be selling to UK customers, I would go with a .co.uk domain name.

If your name includes keywords that you might be targeting, then the hyphenated version is preferred. However, if it doesn't, then the non-hyphenated version is preferred.

[xmx]

In my opinion in this case you should use
thename.co.uk as main domain name, and the
other 2 version as redirections to the main
site.

Also it would be too complex to have each
domain name active providing the same content.


Best wishes

xmx

[bobbys56]

I would go for thename.com since it should be as easy as possible for people to remember and then you are not limited to UK if you change your mind about selling somewhere else.

Regards
Bobby

[edwinj]

My advice:
Get thename.co.uk.

And as xmx suggested, you might want to consider using the other 2 to redirect to your main site.

All the best.

Edwin.

[keywordguy]

To echo several other posts... go with the .co.uk domain name. As you noted, your only market will be the UK.

I would then set up the other two domains as redirects to your primary.

Best of luck with your endeavors.

[TLDTrader.com]

Unanimous decision, "thename.co.uk" :)

Sorry, I hate hyphenated domains. But that's just me.

[AlexDP]

I would go with thename.co.uk as it is much easier to use in offline marketing. Saying to someone, "the hyphen name dot co dot UK" is not easy! (See my name!). I like .co.uk names for UK sites but thats just me.

Alex

[webiff]

Me also go with thename.co.uk

and others redirect them to main site.

Regards,
Furqan Durvesh