Domain name question

[YMW]

Hi, we am setting up a new business. We have been brainstorming for 4 days for a new name.
We have a shortlist of names. The main contender (which we both really like the sound of) is a short phrase of 4 words. It has the perfect image, sound, relevence etc to our business and the .co.uk is available for domain name. It is not already registered as a business name, LTD company etc or trademarked :D

However-when it is written as a domain name it doesn't look good without punctuation. :roll:
Should I not consider it for that reason?
What about the use of hyphens? I thought of buying the non hyphenated name as well as with hyphens?
And the .com is taken but the .co.uk is available.

I know, it sounds bad doesn t but I *really* like it as a buisness name/brand/logo.

And most of our advertising and marketing will be done online, thru banners, links and search engines so people won't have to type the url in to the browser. If they see it in a mag they will have the url in front of them.

And the .com for a lot of names we have come up with are taken, many of them just parked and have been for the past 2 years-whats that all about???


What do you think?? SHould we go for it or is there too much against it?

Thanks so much

YMW

[Coding Monkey]

I think regardless of what you decide, you should buy it RIGHT now. It'll cost you £3 a year. Just buy it, as someone will soon enough.

Also, remember how you read domain names.

penisland.net for example. It can play to your benefit, or just be outright useless as a brand name, like therapistfinder.com

[JustOneUK]

If you want, you can PM me the domain name you are thinking of, and some info about what it is you do, and I can offer some advice. I won't steal your domain name (I have enough going on right now to worry about that)

James

[confused]

Difficult to say without seeing the name.
Some people dont like hyphens (for some reason people seem to struggle typing them!!), then on the other hand, it depends on HOW odd the name looks, for example, my name DatacomUK looks fine written like it is there, but all in lowercase datacomuk.co.uk doesnt look nearly as good. can you maybe use initials? for eg if your name was John Joan and Brian you cuold use JJB (obviosly not JJB !) but if you see my meaning.

CALV

[Rob Holmes]

If it's a serious business buy hyphenated and unhyphenated - for the sake of a few quid you'll be upset you didn't spend it if the names get snapped up by someone else in a similar business.

Rob

PS heres our no-strings registration system domains are £5.99 you can get cheaper but we don't charge for alot of options and you get our support :)

http://www.register.matrixxhosting.com

[mattk]

My favourite is ExpertsExchange.com - or if you stratigically re-arrange the capitals - ExpertSexChange.com

Stop sniggering at the back!

As Tom said though, the cost of domain names are so low you can afford to register a few, maybe even do some blind tests on users and then decide which one you want to launch your site under.

[confused]

lol @ expertsexchange, all the time I used EE I never once thought of that.

[Tazuk]

My company was taken as a domain name but after some thought i put the hyphen in because i plan to launch other offices in different countries so

helivation-uk.com works fine so will helivation-us.com etc

TAZ

[YMW]

Thanks for your replies. I know its hard to say properly without seeing the domain but I am paranoid someone will see it and know there is interest in it and buy it then try and charge me more money for it. :evil:

Matrixx do you mind letting me know what the extra features are that you provide for free?

Many thanks

[Coding Monkey]

I don't mean to sound rude, but it's £5.99 - hardly a large investment. Don't wait on it, how do you know someone isn't going to buy it in the next hour?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4325918.stm

[Rob Holmes]

Matrixx do you mind letting me know what the extra features are that you provide for free?

Many thanks

Change DNS, amend owner, billing, technical contacts, transfer between members, me on the phone (very expensive ;) ) and a small bit of webspace with an email address you can use.

Rob

[Coding Monkey]

P.S. Go with Rob ;)

[YMW]

I don't mean to sound rude, but it's £5.99 - hardly a large investment. Don't wait on it, how do you know someone isn't going to buy it in the next hour?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4325918.stm

I know £5.99 isn't a large investment, you are right. but I do plan on buying around 6 relates ones and it addds up if the idea isn't a good one in the first place!

Saying that, I will be purchasing them soon tonight ;)

[elaborations Ltd]

Hi,

If you do decide to select a name with hyphens, also register it without hyphens as well and redirect it to your main address. I’d probably suggest going without hyphens as if someone hears your business name, they are more likely to type the words in without hyphens than with, it’s more common.
I was reading an article few months back that Google has penalised sites using 3 or more hyphens. It is a method used to get a good organic ranking. For example I could buy www.web-site-development-design-company.co.uk and I’m fairly sure this will count as spam.

Brad

[crus]

OK,

First buy the domain you are thinking about, its cheaper to do that now, rather than later.

Is the .com in use? If not try approaching the owner with a small but fair offer. If it is, unless you really have to, look for another name, you dont want to be marketing someone elses site after all.

Finally yes to hytphnes, but in this case I would be suggesting marketing a 4 letter acronym domain as this will be much more memorable.

eg

hard to find records htfr.com

If you want some specialist domain advice please PM me, this IS my industry.

D

[DuaneJackson]

Powergen has an italian site. PowergenItalia.com

Could be PowerGenitalia.com though : )

[F5 Webdesign]

I just wanted to throw a quick 1 in. I used to use the hyphenated version of my web address, but now, giving out the address without the hyphen is so much easier.

And as someone else said people are more likely to type www.companyname.co.uk in rather than www.company-name.co.uk if they have heard about your company.

[crus]

As F5 says,

try to go for a unhyphenated name for display, but always try and by hyphenated as this will assist in SEO.

D

[YMW]

Your replies are very helpful.

Crus, you say As F5 says,

try to go for a unhyphenated name for display, but always try and by hyphenated as this will assist in SEO.

D

which I find interesting. Is that because the search engines are able to read and identify each word as individual words rather than it being a jumble?

[F5 Webdesign]

I've started a topic that may be of interest to anyone reading this one, so thought I'd link to it

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8507

Cheers

[crus]

Quote from somewhere or other,

'Only 10 cases out of 150 (6.7%) where hyphenated domains containing the keywords were in the top 30. Even if you were to count hyphenated domains not containing keywords (just because they’re hyphenated - as if hyphens by themselves are some kind of magic), and I don’t think you should, it’s still only 14 out 150 (9.3%).'

However, this was just from google (ignoring the fact that most hyphenated domains are not developeed correctly and dont have the marketing resources of non hyphenated owners) and these guys have cutting edge keyword explosion tools that 99% of other engines dream about, now when we start looking at saturation getting front page listings on as many outlets as possible is something I look for. The hyphenated domains can play a part and are still a tool of my marketing arsenal.

D

[VeryMark]

Do do put in a trade mark application asap to protect you - trade marks give you a monopoly over everything else.

And bounce the name off other people you can trust:

1) Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous: www.whorepresents.com.

2) Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views: www.expertsexchange.com.

3) Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island: www.penisland.net.

4) Need a therapist? Then go to www.therapistfinder.com.

5) Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South
Wales: www.molestationnursery.com.

6) Gas central heating anyone? Then click on www.gasheating.co.uk.

7) New to Milan and you need electric light? Why not sign up on-line with Power-Gen in Italy at www.powergenitalia.com.

[bwglaw]

A member here as a username, and presume a domain name to lowcostinks

[DuaneJackson]

Couldn't lowco sue for libel?