long .com domain or .org with a dash?

12 replies
Hi,

I think I've found a great niche to pursue.

I have a problem with purchasing the domain, though...

Which would you opt for:

1) A .com domain with an extra word at the start or end of the exact match.

I.E. warriorforumonline.com or warriorforumsupplies.com

or

2) A .org domain with a dash in between the exact match.

I.E. warrior-forum.org


Thanks
#dash #domain #long #org
  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    I've never tried a domain with a dash in it, but I've seen them at the top of the SERPs often enough surrounded by reasonably tough competition, so they don't seem to present an insurmountable problem.
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    • Profile picture of the author chrisscott
      I would suggest that you should purchase a .com domain having your selected keywords without any dash (-).

      As what I've experienced that without dash will have a slight upper hand as compare to with dash.

      Also we've seen that despite the fact that a domain is available with dash but people would like to purchase a domain without dash.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
        Depends on the full intentions with the domain and site.

        I don't have enough information to answer you on this.
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  • Profile picture of the author evanlambda
    Google gives high relevance to keywords in the URL, whether they are dashed or not. The dashes themselves make little difference as long as the keywords are there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trent Brownrigg
    I've had equal success with domains that have dashes and domains that don't. It really doesn't make much of a difference either way. I say pick the one you like the best. If I absolutely had to answer one or the other then I would say get the .com without dashes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Always-A-Warrior
    Don't just pick a domain name ... do the research first on your niche and see what keywords people are clicking on and so forth. Check out Youtube, they have many tutorials on keyword research. You can always find something better than a 3 word or hyphen names and if not then give me a ring. I'll come up with a few good ones.
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  • Depends on what you're after:

    If you're trying to make your domain memorable so actual people remember it and even pass it to each other, then ditch the dashes and go for .com

    In it's SEO what you're concerned about, then the dashes make little difference if at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    What about .net?

    Also, an SEO guru that I follow has just announced that he has been doing some SEO testing on a .info domain and it actually ranks very well too.

    Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author joetann
    Thanks for all the replies!

    It's actually just a micro niche site, so I'm not that bothered about people memorizing the name too much (Is this sensible/OK to reason like this?). It's mainly for SEO purposes.

    I didn't really consider the .info domain for some reason.

    I did a bunch of trawling on the web and have now purchased the domain, I went for the hyphenated exact match in the end. I chose this because I couldn't think of a good word to add to a .com domain name - the niche has quite a few areas in which I can expand to with different pages... I don't want to limit myself by adding some variable that will only apply to say, 70% of the searches for my general keyword. I can't really explain without actually saying the name. I can liken it to wanting a domain name such as bodyart.com, but the only real words I could add to it would be 'tattoobodyart' or 'piercingbodyart' if you know what I mean? If someone was searching for tattoo body art and my site was no.1, they wouldn't choose piercingbodyart.com even if it had tattoo stuff on it. (sorry, terrible analogy there).

    *the niche has nothing to do with body art or anything like that <--
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  • Profile picture of the author powerspike
    Another thing to look at as well, is how likely will a people on google be willing to click on the domains? will a hyphen scare them off? will an added word get them to click possibly ?

    Depends on the niche, but adding something on the end of a keyword like reviews, offers, details etc could possibly get a higher CTR in the rankings.
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  • Profile picture of the author theentry
    I would go for a longer .com but with a word added to the end!
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  • Profile picture of the author Lauryn
    I'd go for the long-tail keyword in the .com
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