Domains-with-dashes... Good or bad?

[sitehero]

Sometimes a dash can make a domain much more readable and I'm wondering if there good or bad. Also, if a dash is used to seperate keywords, wouldn't this make it much easier for a search engine to recognise the intended keywords?

For example:

mobilesimcards.com
mobile-sim-cards.com

To me the dashed one looks much better.

Also, from a computers perspective without any dashes it might read the above domain as:
mobiles im cards.com because the keywords are not clearly defined. I know this isn't a great example as Googles algorithum is a bit smarter than that but I hope you get my point.


Whats the overall opinion on dashed domains?
Whats your opinion on them?

[JimmyR]

So far I've had bad experience with dashes. I've never done well with ranking them compared to using say a plural. Like "cards" in your example. They are also usually pretty bad for branding, if that is of any concern. Generally people see dashed domains as more spammy, and I wouldn't be surprised if google thought similarly.

[AmandaT]

I've actually had no problem ranking websites with dashes. Generally I will check for ones with no dashes to start just because it makes it easier for the average person to remember, but if it isn't available, I don't hesitate to get a domain with dashes.

[tommen]

It is important to make the domain name unique and easy to remember and by adding dashes (and numbers) to it makes it hard to remember and type.

Everything should be as simple as possible.When I choose a domain name it has to be a .com, .net or a .org, the keyword needs to be in the domain name as well.I also try to keep the domain name as short as possible, but it is a bit of a challenge these days.

[roomservice]

Originally Posted by tommen

It is important to make the domain name unique and easy to remember and by adding dashes (and numbers) to it makes it hard to remember and type.

I totally disagree. 99,9% of traffic IM-websites generate are by clicks on links, whether it's a search engine result or a link on a page. So "rembering" urls is not an issue.
Another thing: browsers auto-complete when a person starts typing an url.
Who ever types all digits of w a r r i o r f o r u m . c o m ??
For SEO-purposes dashes don't matter nowadays, or maybe a very, very, very small portion. I easily rank sites with dashes in it.

[Alexdoerr]

There are many domains with dashes which have good rankings. It depends on the content, onpage and offpage SEO, the way you promote your website. The domains with numbers are also ranking great in SE.

[high_plains_drifter]

Originally Posted by roomservice

I totally disagree. 99,9% of traffic IM-websites generate are by clicks on links, whether it's a search engine result or a link on a page. So "rembering" urls is not an issue.
Another thing: browsers auto-complete when a person starts typing an url.
Who ever types all digits of w a r r i o r f o r u m . c o m ??
For SEO-purposes dashes don't matter nowadays, or maybe a very, very, very small portion. I easily rank sites with dashes in it.

exactly right

/thread

[jsmichael6]

Domain with dashes is good for search engine but dont use more than 2 hash otherwise it will consider as a spam and from user wont remeber url as well.