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Domain Names: Hyphen OR Extra Letter?

by Valuable Solos
31 replies
From an SEO perspective... If the extact match domains were taken would you prefer to register a domain with a hyphen or with an extra letter? According to what I've read the extra letter is ignored by Google. Example:

Credit-Cards.com

OR...

CreditCardss.com
#domain #extra #hyphen #letter #names
  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    No absolute answer here, imo...but I would choose the domain with an extra letter.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ben Armstrong
      My understanding is that from an SEO perspective a hyphen is not the same as a space, it's just like any other character, so really you may as well be comparing:

      creditxcards.com

      with creditcardsx.com

      I'd go with the 2nd option.
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      • Profile picture of the author dcristo
        Originally Posted by Ben Armstrong View Post

        My understanding is that from an SEO perspective a hyphen is not the same as a space, it's just like any other character.
        That is incorrect. A hyphen acts as a word separator.

        To answer the question, I'd prefer the hyphen domain over something stupid like a keyword domain with an extra character, unless the name was memorable and very brandable.
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  • Profile picture of the author Valuable Solos
    Thanks, I agree. I was just double checking before shelling out money.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    HYPHENS ALL DAY.

    Has anyone in this thread actually tested what they're suggesting, or are they basing it on theory????
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  • Profile picture of the author 3000
    I personally don't care - hyphens over extra letters both ways do just fine. I have sites with extra letters at the end and I have sites with hyphens. Just work on your on-page seo and off-page seo if you're trying to rank a niche site.
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffreyhuan
    I prefer the domain with extra letter. It is more convenient for visitors to type into the browser.
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  • Profile picture of the author multimastery
    If you optimize both with proper on page and off page SEO, then they both can perform well. But if I had to choose one it would be CreditCardss.com. I don't think a domain name really needs hyphens usless perhaps it was just too long and the hyphens made it easier to read.
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  • Profile picture of the author feliciayapsl
    creditcardss.com would be better.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Hyphens are separators, and are ENCOURAGED by the team at Google.

    Its been said many, many times before.

    I have several sites that rank first position using hyphens.

    Meh, up to you man.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan David
    From an SEO perspective, I have never seen a difference between throwing in dashes or not. From my experience, keywords in the domain isn't a big factor at all. I have keyword/nonkeyword domains that rank for the same keywords based on the same strategies.

    So I'd choose the non-dash domain. But in that example, I'd probably go a different route because I think the extra s is kinda strange looking. I'd prefer something like ABcreditcards.com or topshelfcreditcards.com or something. It's probably tough to find a good domain with creditcards in there, so maybe go a different route...like fatwallet.com did
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    I would go with a hyphen.
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  • Profile picture of the author ibacklinkpro
    Your question is
    From an SEO perspective
    And the correct answer is, it does not matter at all. Therefore make your choice based on what you prefer.
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    • Profile picture of the author Valuable Solos
      Originally Posted by ibacklinkpro View Post

      Your question is

      And the correct answer is, it does not matter at all. Therefore make your choice based on what you prefer.
      It doesn't matter? What about using stop words?
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    • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
      Originally Posted by ibacklinkpro View Post

      Your question is

      And the correct answer is, it does not matter at all. Therefore make your choice based on what you prefer.
      :rolleyes:
      This is 100% FALSE.

      Hyphens. Hyphens all day. As pointed out above, Google encourages hyphens for SEO purposes. Not just that, but I have tried both, and hyphens work significantly better. Ignore anyone that tells you otherwise, they are likely just echoing others who also haven't actually tested the differences for themselves.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Gibson
    Instead of adding on another letter which makes the URL look spammy, why not add another word? Like getcreditcards or allcreditcards or something.

    Hyphens look just as bad in my opinion and if I'm searching for something though Google and see how-to-train-a-dog-by-using-food.com as the first result, I will look further down the list.
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  • Profile picture of the author beck13
    my vote is also on hyphen. however adding a plural as the extra character is fine, if it isn't taken already...

    e.g. awesomekeyboard.com vs awesomekeyboards.com
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  • Profile picture of the author ibacklinkpro
    lol, everyone claims that they know something and of course one way to prove your point is to attack someone else... the reality that as long as the keywords are in url (EVEN in reverse order) then that is what matters, neither extra characters, not hyphens, not even stop words matter at all. Don't attack my opinion until you have concrete proof, because based on my findings what I just said is reality, anything else is just an opinion, false opinion, until you have proof.

    I do have to laugh at the hyphens work significantly better opinion... keywords in the URL barely have any effect on Search Engine rankings, much less a hyphen or an extra character... so the 'significantly' is an obvious hyperbole
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  • Profile picture of the author JCorp
    Though extra letters may seem more type-in friendly and may look more appealing to the eye, hyphens give you more of an edge when it comes to SEO. Michael does give a good tip about just adding a whole word...I'd probably just do that.
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    Screw the extra letter, go for a valid suffix.

    Today, now, info, news, etc are all great suffixes. Even 101.

    I use dashed when I KNOW with 100% conviction that I will be relying on search engine traffic ONLY. Prefixes are also great.

    Add the word CHEAP to nearly any keyword phrase and your bound to find it available.
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  • Profile picture of the author Valuable Solos
    In my case both the singular and plural are taken. So the best option according to the group consensus is to register the domain with the keywords in reverse order? Eg. cardscredit.com
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  • Profile picture of the author jpratama
    So the conclusion is you can use both strategy. But my personal preference to use extra letter(s).
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  • Profile picture of the author PatchesDM
    Originally Posted by bluemanhand View Post

    From an SEO perspective... If the extact match domains were taken would you prefer to register a domain with a hyphen or with an extra letter? According to what I've read the extra letter is ignored by Google. Example:

    Credit-Cards.com

    OR...

    CreditCardss.com
    Adding an extra letter takes away points for how professional your domain looks, and adding a hyphen takes away the simplicity. I would recommend you choose a different domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author shawoon98
    Download google's "Search engine optimization starter guide". It's mentioned that key-word.com & keyword.com is same to google.
    Personally I don't like hyphens because mykw.com, my-kw.com and mykeywordsucks.com gave me same good results. Only thing is that I didn't keep any record of how much time it took for getting indexed, backlink indexed and ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author shawoon98
    Download google's "Search engine optimization starter guide". It's mentioned that key-word.com & keyword.com is same to google.
    Personally I don't like hyphens because mykw.com, my-kw.com and mykeywordsucks.com gave me same good results. Only thing is that I didn't keep any record of how much time it took for getting indexed, backlink indexed and ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author TwinDragon
    Interesting discussion and food for thought. I have seen both ways taught.
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  • Profile picture of the author clove
    Banned
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