Domain name opinion

[rivsrush]

Hello World,

I've been on the site, but this is my first post. I am working on opening up a business and possibly opening up a business and registering it as "brick mortar" what are your advice for the domain name. What are the options I have?

"Brickmortar"
"Brickandmortar"
"Bricknmortar"

In advance, Thank you for your advice and response's.

[keyplyr]

Hi rivsrush and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

All three are good IMO, but probably to represent the common phrase "brick and mortar" I'd choose "brickandmortar" so the user doesn't need to rethink what they're already familiar with.

[rivsrush]

Hi, Keyplyr!
Thank you for quick, prompt response and opinion.
Any other idea around.
Thanks in advance!

[engine]

Yes, i'd do that, too, but i'd also register the others to protect the brand and to catch the traffic that might just type part of the domain.
I might also register the plural version, too: "bricksandmortar"

[Webwork]

Think about how it may sound on the phone / radio / broadcast media and what they will imagine the spelling is once they hear it.

For example, I'd "hear" bricknmortar and think "brick and mortar".

Given 1-5 seconds to remember the spelling will they remember the "natural pattern" or the unnatural?

Run your idea past family / friends . . those who won't hijack your idea / domain. :P ;) :-/

[rivsrush]

Thanks for the reply Guys!
Hm, maybe "brik and mortar" doesn't reflect my case.
I think the "Smith & Wesson" is closer to what I mean.
Possible legal/operational names are "Smith & Wesson", "Smith and Wesson" and "S&W" but the domain name can appear as "smith-wesson".
I think that "and" and "-" as domain name combiners do not work well.
So my question is, does it make sense if the domain name is "smithwesson" and operational/legal name is "Smith & Wesson" or can this lead to problems from a marketing, promotional and success point of view?
Thank you!

[lucy24]

I checked the first two real-life national businesses I could think of that have "and" or "&" in their full name. One of the two uses "and" (unpunctuated) in its website name. The other doesn't--but they obviously do own the "and" form, because I was redirected.

I then went on to check a strictly local business with "and" in its name. That time I ended up on a site belonging to someone else's completely unrelated, equally local business--in a different locale, I mean--with the identical name; I suppose they just happened to grab the domain name first. The business in my own town turned out to use "-n-" instead. But who knows: maybe that's the form they picked in the first place.

Conclusion: it depends on your business. How well-established is it already; is it primarily local (at least for now), and so on. Among other things, does the clientele include a lot of people--like, ahem, cough-cough, WebmasterWorld readers--who would in fact try to find a website by typing businessname dot com into their browser's address bar. For people who find all websites by going into a search engine and typing in the business name [editorial comment rigorously suppressed] it wouldn't make much difference.

[toidi]

Lucy has a good point. The name you choose should consider who else has something similar. Don't pick the name and try to make it work, find out what your options are and pick the one you can dominate.

[rivsrush]

Thank you for the reply everyone! just a small background of the business, to see if this changes anyones answer, it will be a small local business providing services, not selling products, and it will be a new business. Do any of those factors change how to approach the name?