Domains .uk or hyphen

[trebor8]

Hi All
Hope your keeping well.

I'm going to embark on a new website venture, unfortunately the domain name I want (xxxx) ending in co.uk is not available but .uk is, or, I could go for a hyphen between the two words

i.e.xxxxx.uk or xxxx-xx.co.uk

What do you think of .uk or does the splitting of the words seem better to you? or not much in it?

Thank you

 

[Graham Tyers]

if xxxxx.co.uk is taken then only the owner of that domain can buy xxxxx.uk

Plan b, probably.

 

[trebor8]

Really! didn't realise that, thanks

 

[Graham Tyers]

When they introduced it in 2014 there was a period ( think it was 9 years ) that protected the .co.uk owner.

There's going to be some serious fallout at the end of the protected period with people not having registered their .uk counterpart and losing it.

I might just get back into the speculative domain buying and selling business.

The decision over the hyphen really depends on whether or not you want to be communicating the domain name verbally. A huge number of people don't know what a hyphen is.

I'd go for xxxxxx.co.uk and xxxx-xx.co.uk ( and probably get xxxxxx.uk and xxxx-xx.uk at the same time. )

 

[benb]

If the owners aren't using it why don't you approach them to see if they want to sell it?

 

[JamesMason67]

Hi there
On the subject of hyphens. I have read conflicting things about whether hyphens in the domain name are a good idea or not. Some tests have shown a little negativity from Google in the serps towards hyphenated domains apparently.

What are the members thoughts on this? Is the OP making a mistake in choosing a hyphenated domain?
Cheers
James

 

[webhostuk]

Rightly said hyphen domains are not a better choice. I would personally avoid.

 

[JamesMason67]

I have also heard there is very little in it. Is that fair to say?

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

Hyphen domains are less valuable in almost all cases. If your marketing based only on SEO, the difference is slight - you can loose some traffic when returning visitors forgot to use hyphen during typing down your domain name.

BTW. For many industries its worth to use typosquatting when strong hyphen domain occupy top Google spots. You can get alot of HQ traffic if register non-hyphen analogue of it.

For broad advertising projects, including radio, tv, press - hyphen domains are huge mistake.

Can you imagine radio speaker ending his sentence with - name1(hyphen)name2.com

Short and memorable domains and generic domains are still treasured.

 

[JamesMason67]

Thanks Marek. that's helpful.
James