Domain Name - best option - opinions please

[Narked Diver]

Hi,

I'm setting up a website for a Thai client and have a slight issue

Their business name is Baan something something and I can get the domain baansomethingsomething.com for them.

In Thai baan means house and can be anglisised as either baan or ban

Someone else already has bansomethingsomething.com and I am concerned that there may confusion with emails, etc

Two thoughts I've had are to use baan-something-something.com or baansomethingsomething-zzz.com where zzz will be replaced with the code for the local airport

I don't like using dashes in the domain name but I'm struggling to think of alternatives will reduce the chance for confusion

Which of these options do people think is best or is there a better option that I haven't considered yet?

Thanks in advance

 

[jmiddel]

That's a long url, any possible contractions or abbreviations? Underscores also look better to me than dashes.

 

[Narked Diver]

Fortunately in reality the something-something are two three letter words so the full url would be something along the lines of baan-aaa-bbb.com (or baan_aaa_bbb.com if that is considered more correct)

 

[BrianBaughn]

I'd go ahead with the baansomethingsomething.com that you said was available (would be more like baanaaabbb.com in length).

I think that the majority of the time email addresses are copied/pasted or added to address books from incoming emails instead of typed out. Presumably their website will display a proper email address. Additionally, if the other "ban...com" company isn't the same, exact type of company there shouldn't be much web presence confusion.

 

[Melrose]

Don't use dashes if you can avoid it.

The similarity with the other domain likely won't be an issue - you're speaking to a specific audience who already knows enough to look out for the two A's.

 

[960design]

Don't use dashes if you can avoid it.

The similarity with the other domain likely won't be an issue - you're speaking to a specific audience who already knows enough to look out for the two A's.

Dashes spread ( water down ) your search focus (SEO), but makes it a little easier to remember. Underscores combines it all into one kinda like doing a url search with quotes around it. Better, depends on what you want.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Don't use dashes if you can avoid it.

The similarity with the other domain likely won't be an issue - you're speaking to a specific audience who already knows enough to look out for the two A's.

I'm with Melrose. I have ABC-something.biz, and when saying the domain name over the phone, it gets troublesome. Sooner or later, the employees of Baan-aaa-bbb.com will have to give their address over the phone, and the fun will live with them forever.
Since we're in the time of TLD going every which way, I'd look at some of those as well. There is a whole slew of them here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains
and .com isn't as definitive as it once was.

Also, I'd get several domain names with similar spelling, and have those redirect to one that you want to use with no delay, such as:
BAANaaabbb.info is the main one
BANaaabbb.info points to BAANaaabbb.info

This way, the traffic funnels to the main site, and when their customers bookmark the site, it'll be correct one.

 

[Narked Diver]

Thanks for all your advice folks - it's given me food for thought

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Thanks for all your advice folks - it's given me food for thought

You're welcome! Also, when advertising (even on business cards), make sure that you capitalize each word.

Nothing like having a domain name like "the pen is mighty dot com" all run together, because people will see something unintended.

 

[jonnysods]

A thought could be to get the lengthy domain for the website and an abbreviated domain to host the emails. I have a client that has a huge web domain name, it's a pain in the butt for people to use their email domain so we bought a shorter one.

I would avoid dashes if possible but I get it, sometimes you get backed into a corner!

 

[Narked Diver]

Having checked with the customer xxxyyy can be used as a single word so in the end I went for
baan-xxxyyy.com

Banxxxyyy.com is in the same business arena (a guesthouse) but in a different part of the country so I thought the hyphen and the extra 'a' might be enough to differentiate the two (here's hoping )

 

[-hh]

Having checked with the customer xxxyyy can be used as a single word so in the end I went for
baan-xxxyyy.com

Banxxxyyy.com is in the same business arena (a guesthouse) but in a different part of the country so I thought the hyphen and the extra 'a' might be enough to differentiate the two (here's hoping )

What would be a good idea would be to buy Ban-xxxyyy.com and on it host a simple page that lists both businesses with a very brief description of each. Tell the other business that you're doing this for their benefit and ask if they can host a link on their page for your potentially lost/misdirected customers.