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I know hyphens in URLs are not the best, but . . .

by SusanUSA
10 replies
Hi Seasoned Warriors,

Newbie here . . . needing your input.

I want to start a new niche marketing plan for me. But all the domains I try to get are taken. It will be to sell affiliate products to a very specific audience and I want the site to have lots of content.

So here is my question: If I can't have my first choice of a great same without hyphens, should I get a great name that includes a hyphen.

As I recall, some gurus say hyphens are good because the search engines pick them up, but the others say that's no longer the case.

Frankly, I am not choosing a name soley for the SEO but rather to communicate clearly with the audience.

Thanks for your input, and let me know if I need to explain my situation in another way to communicate more clearly.

Susan
#hyphens #urls
  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    Lately, I've been steering away from dashes. The few sites I have with them do poorly...but it's hard to say if the dash is the contributor or not. I suspect it is.

    Try to find a workaround. Creativity is key with domain names. Or sponsor a $20 contest here to have gurus come up with some great domain name ideas.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brian
    From personal experience, it doesn't matter. You can rank well for as long as you have backlinks from related sites no matter how "ugly" your URL/domain is. I have a competitor whose domain totally does not have our competition keyword, but he beats me just because he had many related site backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    Some of my sites have dashes and it makes them very easy to remember. I would take a dashed site over another one if it gets me the .com extension.

    TomG.
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    • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
      I don't like hyphenated domain names. They are a pain to type in.

      Who doesn't want to type in:

      how-to-get-really-rich-off-suckers-and-fire-your-boss.com

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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
    I've ranked high for domains with hyphens in them. All that matters is the amount and quality of links pointing to it. You can see proof of this when doing Google searches.

    Although you should have only 2 hyphens max per domain. Any more looks spammy.

    I personally would go for the .net over the hyphenated version. Especially if there is a competitor on the non-hyphenated .com, type in traffic might forget to include the hyphens.
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    • Profile picture of the author SusanUSA
      Originally Posted by norcaldude View Post

      I personally would go for the .net over the hyphenated version. Especially if there is a competitor on the non-hyphenated .com, type in traffic might forget to include the hyphens.
      Thanks for all the great input. On this particular domain name search, the .net was already taken.

      I totally agree with everyone that no hyphens is the best way to go . . . but I hate to go for a weaker name because I can't use a hyphen.

      Cheers to all and thanks so much for taking the time to respond . . . I'm gonna go and buy me a domain :-)
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      SusanUSA

      Believe me! If I can do it, so can you!

      How a grandma made $12k+ in 5 weeks on her first IM offer spending less than $100!
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      • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
        One of my websites has a hyphen in the domain, and it is kickin' butt - it has only gotten stronger and stronger every month since it has been in existence.

        I think that if you foresee most of your traffic coming from organic search engine searchers that it won't really matter.

        But if you want something that people need to remember...NO HYPHENS!!!!

        AL
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        Every day I check the obituaries. If I don't see my name there, then I know it's going to be a good day!
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
    I wouldn't worry about it, especially if it's just 1 or 2 hyphens.

    Ask yourself how many people are going to type in your domain name. For most sites, not many. They will be following links, so hyphens are not an issue as far as people being able to get to the site.
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  • Profile picture of the author jensrsa
    Susan, hyphens really only matter if you have an offline audience when they are a pain to explain. When you purely work though links - se's, linkbacks, etc. - it doesn't really make a difference

    Jens
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