Found a great exact match (with hyphen) domain

[livemusic]

This exact match .com domain (but with a hyphen) I found has not been available for past three years, I guess somebody let it go. It's equivalent to something like Golf-California.com. (Just an example.) And GolfCalifornia.com (example only) is owned by a company that just redirects it to their main site, so, it's not really useful to the surfer. Thus, my exact match, with hyphen... I'm very pleased to snag it. Somehow, I thought to check it and lo and behold, it was available.

I don't have much time at all right now to build a new site. Should I quickly build a Home page for it and get it up and running? Reason I ask is because to PROPERLY build the home page, it will take quite a bit of work for me to carefully build the page and come up with good copy (from a copywriting standpoint). My concern is when I read some people say you should not materially change a page, once it's created. Slight edits, okay, but not big changes. Should I just start building it offline and publish it only when finished or get a decent one up and going now?

[jig]

I wouldn't put too much time into this. It seems that exact match domains are going to be less and less effective with the next few updates.

[LemonSqueezy]

don't worry about it too much, like jig mentioned, they will be less popular. Also, nobody likes hyphens so direct traffic won't be at full potential. If you aren't building right away then wait, somebody could let an even better one go.

[Wi]

LESS popular - not unpopular.. I still care about this, and with good reason. Because it still works a bit - for me at least.

[livemusic]

Originally Posted by LemonSqueezy

don't worry about it too much, like jig mentioned, they will be less popular. Also, nobody likes hyphens so direct traffic won't be at full potential. If you aren't building right away then wait, somebody could let an even better one go.

Why do you guys say they will be less popular? Has Google said so? Why would an exact match become less relevant, seems that an exact match certainly SHOULD have a little extra juice attributed to it.

As for hyphens, this concern is mainly for SEO. The one with out the hyphen is taken. And they will not be letting it go. I know who owns it, they are a multi-billion dollar company and they won't ever let it go.

It's as good as you can get for this particular niche, it says it all, it just has a hyphen!

[RevSEO]

Honestly if you are looking at making this a long term project at some point, I'd highly recommend getting content up there now. Even if its a quick, 500+ word article on whatever the website is about. Build a few links, and then build out the site over time.

Google will trust your site more if its had content up and been active than a brand new site. So use the time to your advantage and get something up now, and eventually build it out.

[Clyde]

Domain names with hyphens won't give you the SEO boost you expected but are still valuable for branding purposes.

[livemusic]

Originally Posted by RevSEO

Honestly if you are looking at making this a long term project at some point, I'd highly recommend getting content up there now. Even if its a quick, 500+ word article on whatever the website is about. Build a few links, and then build out the site over time.

Google will trust your site more if its had content up and been active than a brand new site. So use the time to your advantage and get something up now, and eventually build it out.

Okay, thanks. But what kind of page should I put it on? I mean, the home page is going to be the most important page of all, and as I said, that will take me awhile to carefully write the copy. So, should I put this first page there, (on index.html) or elsewhere? Sorry for dumb questions.

[36burrows]

My health site has hyphens and I had no trouble getting it to page 1 for its most competitive keyword

[livemusic]

Originally Posted by uniches

Domain names with hyphens won't give you the SEO boost you expected but are still valuable for branding purposes.

Do you think MyGolfBalls.com is just as good as Golf-Balls.com from an SEO only standpoint? (Hypothetical example only.)

From an offsite marketing perspective, I suppose MyGolfBalls.com is actually better, because you can just say it, versus having to say "Be sure to type the hyphen between the words." OTOH, if someone did a search, the SERP results description showing Golf-Balls.com might draw the eye to click more often than MyGolfBalls.com. But additionally, I am curious about the SEO (non-human... algorithm standpoint) aspects.

[RevSEO]

Originally Posted by livemusic

Okay, thanks. But what kind of page should I put it on? I mean, the home page is going to be the most important page of all, and as I said, that will take me awhile to carefully write the copy. So, should I put this first page there, (on index.html) or elsewhere? Sorry for dumb questions.

Put it on index.html, and then if you ever build out a larger site you can simply copy and paste that content into Wordpress, or whatever you use. I wouldn't even spend a ton of time on it since you aren't gonna be working on it now, and you don't know when your gonna get started.