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Hyphenated Domain Names

by thatjc
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I've been in the habit of adding a hyphenated version of every domain name, in the belief that search engines can parse any keywords in the domain name that way. Then I point the hyphenated version at the website's main domain name (or vice-versa).

For example: "used-cars-danville.com" plus "usedcarsdanville.com"

Does this really do any good? If so, which should be the main domain name, the hyphenated version or the other?

Thanks All!
#domain #domain names #hyphenated #names #url #url keywords
  • Profile picture of the author zdebx
    Hyphens look very unprofessional...You're basically saying all you care about is having the keyword the domain.

    I'd rather have a clean .net or .org domain, or even a .com with suffix added at the end, than use hyphens.
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  • Profile picture of the author thatjc
    @zdebx
    Thanks for your response. So I take it that you're saying the hyphenated version should be pointed at the non-hyphenated main domain name, such that visitors don't see the hyphenated version, but search engines do.

    By the way I have one site where the main domain name is hyphenated and it gets a good amount of traffic and never any complaints or comments about the hyphens. I admit that such a lack of evidence is not itself evidence. That is, it would take an A/B split test to see if the hyphens were having an effect.
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