Catchy domain name or practical domain name

[BoJon]

I always try to come up with a catchy domain name, that is short and easy to remember without any hyphen, if possible. But know I'm thinking... wouldn't it be more efficient for the Google ranking to have domain names like:

buy-glasses.com, buy-hair-spray.com, buy-flowers-to-my-mother-in-law.com ?

You see what I mean. More targeted domain names.
Wouldn't this be better?

And I was also thinking that having a hyphen in the domain name would give my site better ranking when people type for example: "buy glasses". As I understand hyphen are equal to space. People are more likely to type in "buy glasses" than "buyglasses" which of course would be easier to type in the address bar.

[deloriagod]

Having the keyword in your domain name definitely helps your SERPs. I made a site in a pretty low competition market, made sure the keyword was in the domain, and did some very basic on page SEO. Within a few hours that site was at #9 for the keyword. It hasn't budged in weeks and I haven't built any links to it.

Catchy domains are great if you're looking to brand your name and make a business (or at least have a reputable presence on the internet). Keyword domains are great for just ranking quickly to sell some products.

Also, the hypen doesn't matter. Matt Cutt's says to avoid them if you can but if not it's not a huge deal.

[BoJon]

Thanks! Your feedback on this was very helpful. You have a good point. If I want to build a long term business it would probably be a good idea to have a catchy domain name, short, if possible.

[theseoguys]

Personally...I would try to avoid the hyphen.

[miranon]

I prefer practical domain names with keywords in it for small niche sites. But if you are making a supersite/authority site you can better use a catchy domain name.

[paulgl]

if you think keywords in the domain help serps, you obviously
never heard of zillow, amazon, monster, zoosk, wikipedia,yelp, zappos,ebay,...
Ever hear of warriorforum? Digitalpoint? Squidoo?

You want a catchy name.

Domains are not ranked by domain names.

Webpages are ranked.

Paul

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by paulgl

if you think keywords in the domain help serps, you obviously
never heard of zillow, amazon, monster, zoosk, wikipedia,yelp, zappos,ebay,...
Ever hear of warriorforum? Digitalpoint? Squidoo?

False comparison Paul. the names in the first group are big names that Got oodles of media coverage and powerful natural backlinks from it. Warriorforums and digitalpoint get tons of backlinks because they filled in a forum niche early and worked that niche to be standards that everyone links to.

There is absolutely no doubt that in a small niche Keywords in the domain name can help. Op not to worry Spacing in searches does not matter for domains.

[warriorkay]

If you plan to build a BRAND that will become one
of the leaders in its niche, then go for catchy domain
name, but if it's just "one of those" niche sites that
we build for adsense or affiliate earnings, then
go for practical keyword domain name,

Kingsley

[apdfranklin]

As wariorkay says, the type of domain you choose comes down to whether you are simply building a small niche site, or an actual business.

I'll assume that you are planning on building a niche site, and are trying to rank well for a specific keyword.

In my experience, exact KW domains (without dashes) are easiest to rank (although it has become more difficult after the latest "mayday" update in Google).

[BoJon]

OK, thanks for your posts ! I finally get a hang of this! It all comes down to whether I will have a small niche site or an actual (hopefully long term) business then.