Doman Name - With A Dash | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

16 years ago

Yes, you can use dashes or add a word. I've done both with .com, .net, .org and .info domains and all get indexed and rank.

Good Luck,

Alex

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RanD 16 years ago

Yes, the search engines don't care, nor do people clicking links. Hyphens are fine for many sites.

However, if it's a link you want people to remember and come back to, or that you want to pass along by word of mouth, you would probably want to avoid hyphens. People will forget the hyphens and go to one of your competitors websites. For example, if you tell someone to go to dog-training.com, a couple of days later when they decide to go look it up there's a good chance that what they'll remember is dogtraining.com.

So it depends on your needs. If it's just for link clicking, it doesn't matter.
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- discrat 16 years ago
  
  Its a moot point. Dashes are fine !! Its been proven over and over again !!
  
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Marhelper

16 years ago

Dashes have always worked well for me. In fact, I have probably had more domains with dashes then without.

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All Night Cafe 16 years ago

They work great. Just go to Google, put in a
popular product name.

Most often you will see domians with dashes.

Go for it.
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- Killer Joe 16 years ago
  
  RanD is correct in those statements.
  
  The biggest downside is the free traffic boom a competitor may receive if their domain doesn't include dashes and your site becomes popular.
  
  The other thing you want to watch out for is encroaching on someone's territory if their domain is well established. If the domain is a generic string of words the likelyhood of that happening goes down. But if you include words that are specific to the point where they have commercial connotations such that a certian business is known by those words you may invite scrutiny from that business.
  
  I have domains with dashes the search engines rank without a problem. So from my experience the dashes themselves are fairly benign.
  
  KJ
  
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Rupps 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Marhelper

Dashes have always worked well for me. In fact, I have probably had more domains with dashes then without.

So do I. Never had a problem with dashes and can always pick-up a good name this way.
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- Alexa Smith Banned 16 years ago
  
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  pl@yerone 16 years ago
  
  If I can get the domain without a hyphen then I will. If I cant then its no big deal.
  
  As someone mentioned its sometimes easier for people to remember without the hyphen but if they are long domains then its easier to read if hyphens break up the phrases.
  
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  Killer Joe 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John McEachern
  
  Nice retention! I'd say that ridiculous, but correct, comment crackled.
  
  Well, the important thing is that using hyphens won't dash your chances of getting ranked....
  
  KJ
  
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  Matt Bard 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John McEachern
  
  The last few posts have actually referred to hyphens rather than dashes. That's all good.
  
  RanD post#3
  
  People will forget the hyphens and go to...
  
  Me post#8
  
  ...you can use a double dash (double hyphen).
  
  just goes to show that people don't really pay attention or read all of the posts
  
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Matt Bard

16 years ago

If you really want a longtail but even the dashes have been taken, you can use a double dash (double hyphen).

If lose-weight-now is taken you can use lose--weight-now or lose--weightnow, loseweight--now.

But I agree with Killer Joe (above) and Allen Graves (below), that if you can avoid it, avoid it.

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LivingCovers

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Matt M

If you really want a longtail but even the dashes have been taken, you can use a double dash (double hyphen).

If lose-weight-now is taken you can use lose--weight-now or lose--weightnow, loseweight--now.

But I agree with Killer Joe (above) and Allen Graves (below), that if you can avoid it, avoid it.

You've gotta be kidding me. Tell me you're kidding with that, right? I've never heard anything as such.

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Matt Bard 16 years ago

Originally Posted by LivingCovers

You've gotta be kidding me. Tell me you're kidding with that, right? I've never heard anything as such.

Do you mean kidding as in if one hyphen is bad enough then two is ridiculous ?

Or that it wouldn't work?

Bad idea or not I leave to you. Would it work? It does. Why wouldn't it?
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Allen Graves

16 years ago

Yea - dashes are fine. But I would seriously suggest looking for another memorable name without a hyphen in it. If you plan on getting 100% of your traffic from hyperlinks, then it won't matter, though.

Allen

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johnwalton

16 years ago

when i use PPC i always have dashes between words because its easier to read. If your lead is going to type in the domain then it should be easy to remember and catchy without dashes

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Emersion

16 years ago

I could definitely be wrong here, but I think that domains with hyphens do not rank as well. This is just my experience. I've been told that it doesn't matter and have purchased a few hyphenated domains. But I never see the same results with those domains as I have with others. But there are so many other things that could have contributed to that too. So it's hard to say. But I would keep searching for a domain without a hyphen, although it is getting harder and harder to find good domains.

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RanD

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Emersion

I could definitely be wrong here, but I think that domains with hyphens do not rank as well. This is just my experience. I've been told that it doesn't matter and have purchased a few hyphenated domains. But I never see the same results with those domains as I have with others. But there are so many other things that could have contributed to that too. So it's hard to say. But I would keep searching for a domain without a hyphen, although it is getting harder and harder to find good domains.

Have you seen all the hyphens in blog and other web2.0 page links? in Squiddoo, Ezine, etc.. every word in the page/article title is separated by links in the url and they often rank #1. Nope, the search engines could care less about hyphens.

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Killer Joe

16 years ago

Originally Posted by RanD

Nope, the search engines could care less about hyphens.

Actually, according to Matt Cutts of Google, they allow the search engines to parse the text easier. And that's a good thing.

He uses the example of (www) expertsexchange (.com) where the domain is meant to be "experts exchange", but can be parsed by the search engines as "expert sex change".

So from his viewpoint he would much rather folks use "experts-exchange" including the hyphen.

Your milage may vary...

KJ

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Matt Bard 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Killer Joe

(www) expertsexchange (.com) where the domain is meant to be "experts exchange", but can be parsed by the search engines as "expert sex change".

With this method you can have two niches in one

Like Frank Kern's Pen Island Studios. In one of his videos he even has a logo that at first glance looks like a palm tree on an island with two coconuts at the base of the tree.

So maybe Frank was trying to make some money on the side selling enhancement products
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RanD

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Killer Joe

Actually, according to Matt Cutts of Google, they allow the search engines to parse the text easier. And that's a good thing.

He uses the example of (www) expertsexchange (.com) where the domain is meant to be "experts exchange", but can be parsed by the search engines as "expert sex change".

So from his viewpoint he would much rather folks use "experts-exchange" including the hyphen.

Your milage may vary...

KJ

LOL Yeah, I have been a member of that sight for years, and I remember thinking, on many occasions, that that could be taken the wrong way if some one saw my bookmark to the site.

By the way, that's a good point in favor of hyphens.

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kcman 16 years ago

I want to thank everyone for your reply to my question - this tells me what I wanted to know.

Thanks again.
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- Julia Russo 16 years ago
  
  I always try to come up with variations of my keyword phrase and when I check for them in the domain name search box at Yahoo small business, Yahoo gives me a list of suggested similar names (though never any hyphenated ones). It lets me know what others have purchased and gives me a start on ideas of names to try for availability.
  
  I do NOT buy domain names from Yahoo, however. After the first year, they charge a whopping $35 for renewal. All my domains have been transferred to or bought from NameCheap. Love their service.
  
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Paleochora

16 years ago

Originally Posted by RanD

Have you seen all the hyphens in blog and other web2.0 page links? in Squiddoo, Ezine, etc.. every word in the page/article title is separated by links in the url and they often rank #1. Nope, the search engines could care less about hyphens.

Using this logic, the subdomains should be fine too. This has been a SEO question that I have never had properly answered.

Everybody goes off happily spending what sometimes amounts to hundreds of dollars a year on domains but is it really necessary?

We also hear a great deal about branding yourself so if you get yourname.com (should be quite easy unless you are called Barak Obama, Michael Jackson or Princess Diana) and then you can use whatever keywords you desire. Appleipadreview.yourname.com - whatever. You get the exact keywords you want in your domain and brand yourself at the same time.

Do they rank?

Well, all Ezine, Squidoo, A.N.Other Article Directory etc., etc. are all subs.

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RanD

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Paleochora

Using this logic, the subdomains should be fine too. This has been a SEO question that I have never had properly answered.

Everybody goes off happily spending what sometimes amounts to hundreds of dollars a year on domains but is it really necessary?

We also hear a great deal about branding yourself so if you get yourname.com (should be quite easy unless you are called Barak Obama, Michael Jackson or Princess Diana) and then you can use whatever keywords you desire. Appleipadreview.yourname.com - whatever. You get the exact keywords you want in your domain and brand yourself at the same time.

Do they rank?

Well, all Ezine, Squidoo, A.N.Other Article Directory etc., etc. are all subs.

No, not really. They rank well, because they have thousands of people placing content on their site on a regular basis and generate a lot of traffic. Those sites are highly respected by the search engines and are spidered multiple times a day. It would be impossible for you to compete with that. That said, pages are all ranked separately, which is why we all still stand a chance.

The search engines try to determine relevance for each page and ans many things you have working in your favor, the better. The name of the domain is one of the things they take into consideration, and every page on your site has the domain name in it. Yes, you could ranks well for a specific keyword on a keyword.yourname.xxx type site but, given the same quality and effort, a marketer with a keyword.keyword.xxx domain would easily out rank you.

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Social Experts

16 years ago

Yeah they don't care

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Chill.

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Steve Powers

16 years ago

Domain with hyphen is ok.But two hyphens are not very good choice for you.It's not
very easy for people to remember.As to SE,I think it's ok.Don't worry too much about that.

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GSX Enterprises

16 years ago

I've had more success for a particular 4 word keyword thats hyphenated than the unhyphenated domain. Google engines don't care, just SEO it up!

-Safe Travels

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Rupps

16 years ago

Ohhh we HAVE to call them dashes, not hyphens. That will just mess everyone up. I can tell you to go to "dog dash toys dot com" you'll find proablky it. If I tell you to go to "dog hyphen dot com" you'll look at me like a deer in headlights.

I doeznt care wut yer English teacher calls them.

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Rupps

16 years ago

Here's another good question as I am doing some domain name research this morning.

I have the chance to get a 2-word domain name for my main keyword phrase either with a hyphen or as a .net, which would you prefer? I have bought a lot of domain names in the past and have never bought a .net

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Dexter007

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Rupps

Here's another good question as I am doing some domain name research this morning.

I have the chance to get a 2-word domain name for my main keyword phrase either with a hyphen or as a .net, which would you prefer? I have bought a lot of domain names in the past and have never bought a .net

I would go with .net. According to me, .net, .org and .com all three of them work fine and smooth. No need of going with hyphens(dash:p)

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jennypitts

16 years ago

Using the main keyword as your domain name is a very effective tactic. Even it is with a dash. The only disadvantage of the dash is that not many people will type it in by default when the what to go to your site.

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frank.smith

16 years ago

yes you can, but its better to have somthing else and rememerable.

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Doman Name - With A Dash

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