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Dashes In Domain?

by Sumit Menon
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey,

I'm registering a new domain. This is, actually, the second domain I'm registering after the one for my blog.

So, I wanna know if I should put dashes in the domain.

I'm using this to create a niche lead capture page. I mean, you know, the one where you give a free report, an e-course and promote affiliate products.

So, do i register:
my-keyword.tld or mykeyword.tld

Thanks,
Sumit.
#dashes #domain
  • Profile picture of the author Anup Mahajan
    Hey Sumit,

    If it is a long domain name then you can use dashes to improve the clarity. If it is short then register without dashes.. I am not an expert on whether Google loves domains with or without dashes but you can get answers here..

    Cheers,
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    im not an expert but i think dashes are not as seo friendly.

    but they can be direct traffic friendly (people typing in your url).
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  • Profile picture of the author Cryp
    Dashes generally devalues a domain, try to get mykeyword.com

    Don't think of any othere tld than .com first - it really is much more valuable than the others. If yourkeyword.com is not available, go for the .net and if that is also not available then think about adding dashes
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    • Profile picture of the author Sumit Menon
      Originally Posted by Cryp View Post

      Dashes generally devalues a domain, try to get mykeyword.com

      Don't think of any othere tld than .com first - it really is much more valuable than the others. If yourkeyword.com is not available, go for the .net and if that is also not available then think about adding dashes
      But my keyword is 4 words long. Even then?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Williams
    As much as I'd like to say that dashes will destroy your Search Engine ranking, I rank just as high with them. In fact I think it's the one thing you shouldn't start passing around because then I'll lose all of my awesome domains that easily rank on page 1. So shh
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  • Profile picture of the author Oscar D
    I have to agree,

    Try and get the .com and if you really have to add a hyphen then try to only add one. You could split the keywords into two, this would look like this if you have 4 keywords: word1word2-word3word4.com or you could have it like this: word1word2word3-word4.com

    It depends on you, but take your time and try a few different styles, I highly recommend you use the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to search and try a few different keyword options.

    I try not to buy a domain with dashes and so far I do not own any domains with dashes/hyphens.

    Search and then search some more, you may be able to find a gem
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Williams
      Originally Posted by Oscar D View Post

      I have to agree,

      Try and get the .com and if you really have to add a hyphen then try to only add one. You could split the keywords into two, this would look like this if you have 4 keywords: word1word2-word3word4.com or you could have it like this: word1word2word3-word4.com

      It depends on you, but take your time and try a few different styles, I highly recommend you use the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to search and try a few different keyword options.

      I try not to buy a domain with dashes and so far I do not own any domains with dashes/hyphens.

      Search and then search some more, you may be able to find a gem
      Or you could get a key-key-key-key.com domain that is a high paying keyword and capitalize off the huge search potential and not worry about dashes because they don't affect your SERP nearly as much as people think... err disregard this post
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  • Profile picture of the author anomaly
    i have to say dashes are fine ...

    and in fact, i think especially if your domain is a longer one (e.g. 4 words) it's easier for the human eye to decipher when looking at the search results etc ... this can have some value, IMO
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  • Profile picture of the author RichyJ
    My own experience of having dashed and non-dashed domains is that Google does tend to rank sites quicker and higher with non-dashed domain names.

    I even had one site rank in #1 position for a particular keyword solely because of the domain name ie I had no content on the site, no meta tags and no index.htm page!
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  • Profile picture of the author garyseo786
    i think ..no problem with dashes ...you can still rank on 1 pages
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  • Profile picture of the author nettech
    I would suggest that you have keywordSOMETHINGHERE.tld, this is so that your keyword is the first thing Googel sees. YOu can add asomethig like keyword + info, review etc at the end. Try to lose the dashes.
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    Thanks
    Zaheer

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  • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
    Dashes don't make a difference SEO-wise but there is a perception out there that it does. Thus, this will affect the resell value of the domain should you want to sell it in the future.

    I would also recommend buying the undashed version, even if you don't want to use it, because leaving it out there would open the door for a competitor to take advantage of your direct traffic. However, the opposite doesn't usually hold true since people don't typically type in an address with dashes.

    A case where a dash might be preferable is when your name can spell something else, for example expertsexchange.com decided to move to experts-exchange.com for the sake of clarity.
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