Do you do Dashes in Domain Names?

[Dena Gottlieb]

What do you think is better? A domain name with a dash or a name made up of 3 words and no dash?

[showbizvet]

I will always try to go for NO dash if possible, but of course that's not always possible. If not, then you could consider adding a qualify keyword. i.e. weightloss.com is probably (I'd bet on it) taken, but you might find.. easyweightloss quickweightloss fastweightloss bestweightloss or something similar. If even then I can't find what I'm looking for, I'll add a dash.

[Dena Gottlieb]

I want to put up a site to SELL a product (not an information product).
Would you choose "acme-cars.com" or "buyacmecars" or "theacmecars.com"
Thanks

[MikeWest]

I saw that dashes are more popular in europe (like for personal domains first-lastname.com)
Whereas in the US its a no dash rule Everyone takes firstlastname.com

So for the US market i'd go with no dash at all if possible.

[SandyDuPlessis]

Dena,

Site Build It recommends and encourages dashes. Others recommend no dashes. I think it is very much up to you. If the site name you want is taken without dashes, then you go get it with the dashes in.

As to your other questions, I would go for buyacmecars. People who come to the site know from the beginning that it is a sales site so that means you are getting targeted customers who want to buy, if not immediately, then a little later.

That is just my opinion, others may think differently.

Sandy

[inovica]

I think it depends on how the domain name reads - sometimes it can be hard to tell what the domain says if the words used are hard to separate out. That might sound a little dumb, but it happens! Or if the first word ends with the same letter that the next word begins with the domain won't look that great. 'toniccompany' 'treeeater' -- just making stuff up now, but for me it's a question of how well the domain looks and reads as to whether I add a dash.

[um1001]

Never.

If my keyword phrase is:

Best Party Pontoon Boat Chairs

I am always going to use either:

bestpartypontoonboatchairs.com
bestpartypontoonboatchairs.net
bestpartypontoonboatchairs.org

If I can't find one of those, I move on to an easier target.

[ChrisDouthit]

I use to do dashes in domains, a while back it was much easier for the search engines to pick up the second and third words. However, today thats not the case. I dont ever to dashes anymore. Mainly because if someone is trying to type my domain name in from memory they will likely forget the dashing and instead go to my competitors site.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Dena Gottlieb

Would you choose "acme-cars.com" or "buyacmecars" or "theacmecars.com"

No.

I would want "acmecars.com".

If I can't have that, it can only be because it already belongs to someone else. In that case, I'll think up a new name rather than base a business activity around a domain-name of which I don't own or control the ".com" version, because I can see endless downside and no possible advantage in that at all.

I often wonder whether I'm "missing something" here, because this is one of those very, very frequent questions in the forum over which, for the most part, I have some difficulty relating to others' preferences: to me, it seems a real no-brainer.

[TheRichJerksNet]

I stay away from dashes.. If you purpose is for SEO then those dashes do not matter as they are ignored so you might as well register mykeyword.com vs mykeyword-mykeyword.com. Not to mention the fact a domain is way easier to remember without dashes.

The more complex you make it the harder it is going to be to create a true success out of the site you are trying to put together..

James

[turbostar52]

For SEO, it's usually better to get domain names with no more than three words without hyphens; but with more three words, you should go with names containing hyphens.

[the_master]

If your domain name is your primary keyword and Google your main source of traffic, you're better off without dashes. I have noticed on several of my niche sites that the ones without dashes are easier picked up by Google. It might be just my case, but i have observed this in multiple cases.

[Gene Pimentel]

Originally Posted by the_master

If your domain name is your primary keyword and Google your main source of traffic, you're better off without dashes. I have noticed on several of my niche sites that the ones without dashes are easier picked up by Google. It might be just my case, but i have observed this in multiple cases.

Not just you. This has been my observation as well. I believe Google's algorithm now gives less importance to dashed domains because more often than not, dashed domains are registered only because the more viable non-dashed version is already registered.

[raylm123]

It depends on the purpose of my website. If it's for adsense where I just want to rank for keywords and get the click, I'll use dashes. If it's for a website where I want repeat visitors I go for the easy to remember domain name (i.e., no dashes).

[SPress]

I agree with the "no dash" contingent But it's just a personal opinion. In reality, I've never seen it affect rankings either way.

But only for the domain name. For folder and page names, then I prefer/recommend the dashes.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Gene Pimentel

I believe Google's algorithm now gives less importance to dashed domains because more often than not, dashed domains are registered only because the more viable non-dashed version is already registered.

You never quite know with Google, but for myself, I have absolutely no difficulty believing this is probably true. It intrinsically makes sense (not that that's always a reliable indicator!).

[MemberWing]

MainMerchant.com sold a product whom i decided to become affiliate with.
So i registered main-merchant.com and make it as affiliate redirect.
In a few days I noticed more affiliate commissions than expected.
What happened is main merchant marketing department put main-merchant.com domain (with my dash!) into their Google active adwords campaign.

It didn't last long - but was it ever a joyful ride!

Gleb

[Gene Pimentel]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

You never quite know with Google, but for myself, I have absolutely no difficulty believing this is probably true. It intrinsically makes sense (not that that's always a reliable indicator!).

Yeah, the only one who knows for sure is the individual who coded the algorithm... but even that may have been the work of an automated bot. The only thing we can rely on is our own observed results!

[mikeyman120]

I'm not sure how it started for me but for some reason all I ever bought was domains with a dash or dashes in it. Then I stopped and now I only do domains of a few words and no dashes. But I have about 15 sites out there with dashes.

Mike

[BIG Mike]

Ok, I'm here to tell you that A) Google does NOT give less importance to hyphens and except for type in traffic (which you need to test), and B) hyphenated domains are just as equally useful as non-hyphenated ones for SEO. I've used hypenated domains for years and never had any difficulty in getting them ranked well.

Years ago, before web browsers had various bookmarking/favorite type systems, using a non-hyphenated domain name was practical as many domains were typed in by hand. Additionally, shorter, non-hyphenated domain names were readily available.

Today, that's not much of an issue at all and you simply need to check your stats for an idea of how many folks type in the domain name.

Sorry Gene, but saying that Google gives less importance to a hyphen is like saying they give less importantance to the letter "R" - it just ain't so.

What raises a flag with Google is the use of multiple hypens in domain names such as my---website---here.com

If you really stop and think about it, hyphens are just one more allowed character in a domain name...there is no logical reason to ignore them, give them less importance or whatever - it's just another myth.

[gary15]

I've always heard 2 different sides of the story, some people say that having no dashes is better for ranking higher as the domain name is more SEO friendly, however I think that it won't make a huge difference.

I somehow do prefer domains without dashes as they look more orginal, but I guess we'll never know as only Google knows.

[EricThor]

I don't know of a single study, published by any university or government, that gives any weight to dashes in domain names - flip a coin and that answer is just as good as any other answer.

The whole idea is to show Google (and this is all about Google) that the name of your website says more than any other page in your website. With billions of domain names in use why would Google care about dashes at all? (My guess).

The problem is when your description, of your website, can't be in your domain name - what to do? E.g. your website is all about used cars. Well you can't use dashes unless you use one between each letter and Google isn't that smart.

So I use sub-domain names and get ANY website name I want. www.usedcars.somethingInGeneral.com is how I'd tell Google exactly what my website is all about. I will get just as much "juice" from that name as WWW.UsedCars.com (my guess again).

Additionally you can hang hundreds of websites off the core website www.somethingInGeneral.com and pay $7/year for all of them.

All your other pages/posts, in your website, should be related to your domain name. Google should then have little doubt just what your website and every page/post is about.

[Killer Joe]

Matt Cutts from Google addressed this and said it's better to use dashes than running your words together in certain instances (I'm paraphrasing).

He used the example of "experts exchange" which when tied together could be read as "expert sexchange" by Googles' bot.

For SEO purposes, dashes sometimes are better as in the above example Matt used.

I have a lot of domain names that use dashes. What I also will do if I can score the combined single domain name is to register the dashed domains as well. You can use them as redirects, and also eliminate confusion when others grab the hyphenated names for good keyphrases. You own them, you control how they get used.

Your milage may vary...

KJ

[JohnMcCabe]

Dena, since you asked what I think, here goes...

It depends.

If you are choosing the domain name for the search engines, I don't think it matters much.

If you are choosing the domain name to have people type it into the browser bar, go for the no-dash name.

Better yet, buy both and redirect one to the other so you have both bases covered...

[jeffbarnes]

I use dashes in several of the domains I own. They seem to work well for me.

[Gene Pimentel]

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

Sorry Gene, but saying that Google gives less importance to a hyphen is like saying they give less importantance to the letter "R" - it just ain't so.

No problem Mike, there is room for more than one point of view on this subject. That's why I tried to not state my observation as fact be saying "it was my observation", and "I believe..."

Saying Google gives less importance to a dash than it does to the letter "R" makes perfect sense to me. The alphabet forms the keywords, dashes don't. Google gives much less importance to .INFO domains (and others) simply because they factor in the quality of the content found on the majority of INFO sites, as well as their longevity. I believe the same applies to hyphenated vs non-hyphenated. But that's my personal observation and not documented fact. It's all speculation unless we run a scientific test :-)

From my own personal experience, non-hyphens are preferred over hyphenated in serps. It's important to factor in all the other variables of course, and there are so many of them.

I agree, lots of hyphenated domains get great rankings and position. Many hyphenated domains outperform their non-hyphenated counterpart. But in my opinion, when Google has the choice of two domains with ALL else being equal, the non-hyphenated domain prevails.

[Olga Schipilow]

Dena

I agree with Sandy. But whatever suits you , take your pick.
To your success!

[Ellen Violette]

It's just easier to find domain names with no dashes. You have to get inside your buyers mind. If they heard the name of your product would they know there was a dash in the url just from hearing it? No. So unless they saw it written down, they probably wouldn't be able to find it. That's why no dashes are better. Having said that I do have one product out of many that has a dash because the other was taken but if I were doing it today, I would have found another name-or added another descriptive word to it as was mentioned in one of the comments.

[juniorich]

For search engines dash or no dash does not matter, but visitors prefer domains with no dash, it's easier to type. So, no dash is better for type-in traffic, for example if you decide to promote your site on youtube with watermark on your videos.

[sbucciarel]

No dashes for me. I want domain names that have some resell value and having dashes reduces value of domains .... plus, I just don't like them.

[Dena Gottlieb]

Thanks for all the input.
I'm going with "buyacmecars" I think.

[troy23]

Dashes are better as it seperates the keywords out. I have seen this in books about getting to the top of Google.

[TelegramSam]

Originally Posted by MikeWest

I saw that dashes are more popular in europe (like for personal domains first-lastname.com)

This is totally incorrect.

[Gene Pimentel]

Originally Posted by troy23

Dashes are better as it seperates the keywords out. I have seen this in books about getting to the top of Google.

Sorry, but this is not the case. Outdated information.