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domain names and non-alphanumeric characters

by johnharvard
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I've been reading that one of the best ways to pick a domain name is to exactly match the keyword you're going after. For example, if the keyword I'm targeting is "small brown dog" a good domain name would be "smallbrowndog.com". So does this mean that google ignores spaces in keywords? And if so, what else does google ignore? Dashes, dots, etc.?

If other characters besides spaces are ignored wouldn't "small-brown-dog.com" be just as good as "smallbrowndog.com"?

Thanks
#characters #domain #names #nonalphanumeric
  • Profile picture of the author Always-A-Warrior
    When registering a domain name you cannot have any spaces between keywords. Some registers will automatically remove the spaces or not accept the keywords so you may need to remove the spaces yourself. Hyphens can be used also. Keywords is only one factor for ranking. Fresh relevant content is its air to breathe. No air no life.
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    • Profile picture of the author johnharvard
      I think you missed the point. I know you can't have spaces in domain names. Put simply, what characters are ignored by the search engines? Is mydomain.com the same as my-domain.com in seo value.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Originally Posted by johnharvard View Post

        I think you missed the point. I know you can't have spaces in domain names. Put simply, what characters are ignored by the search engines? Is mydomain.com the same as my-domain.com in seo value.
        Why do you think they ignore characters?

        If you do a search for James Bond, guess what?
        007.com is the first non wiki site shown. #2, actually.
        What does that tell you?
        (I gotta remember that one for keywords in the domain myth)

        I think you mean dashes between words being better.
        Yes, dashes are better in a lot of instances. I own a few myself.
        Dashes are good because, according to google, the user (not the
        search engine) knows pretty much what you want to say by
        making words separate. Okay, sometimes even search engines.

        I also like dashes between words that end and start with the same
        letter. It looks better to the visitor and not open to typos.

        Like reddogs. I like red-dogs better.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author skygod
    I think mydomain.com is same as my-domain.com.

    It's doesn't matter what name you are using, it depends on the searchers if they are seaching "mydomain" keywords. Without space is okay, because if you search my domain in google, your website will become BOLD fonts for mydomain.com.
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  • Profile picture of the author BoganMarketing
    the engine strips them out of the domain name then breaks the words down.

    To Google = Reddog = Red Dog and any other word combination's in the domain. So basically Google can literally break non spaced keywords up to find results, such as domain names.
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