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Domain Name ?'s Copyright and Dash's

by JuicerFan
8 replies
I was looking at some domains for sale and had 2 questions:

1. How much of a negative effect will dash have in terms of SEO. I see that sites are taken but dash versions are available. For instance...

I might want....Grocerystore.com but it is not avilable.
Grocery-Store.com is.

How bad is that dash?


2. Can you use the name of a company in the domain?

Say....GoodHondaCars or GoodToyotaCars...

Thanks
#copyright #dash #domain
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    SEO wise, it makes no difference. I don't like them and for an investment, I don't buy them, but Google doesn't care if it has a hyphen.
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  • Profile picture of the author absolutelee
    Google has stated that they ignore the hyphen. But what sbucciarel said was right. Don't buy it if you're going to sell the domain or even the site later on. Hyphenated domains are viewed very negatively by buyers.
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  • Profile picture of the author joefizz
    Hi Juicier Fan

    As far as SEO goes, dash'es are not good. However, if you wanted to retain the name as you have outlined for Grocery store, because its important, then the impact of a dash - is less than an underscore _

    With regards to copyright names, then that's usually a no go! Of course you can register domains etc but just imagine that domain getting so popular that it came up on Honda's or Toyota's radar, then potentially your business could be gone overnight!

    Always have an eye on the future my friend and play the long honest game?

    Hope that helps?

    regards

    Joe
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
    Your 2nd question isn't related to copyright but trademark issues. If you register any domain with a trademark in it you'll usually get a cease and desist email and a request to turn over the domain immediately. It should be noted that a trademark holder could sue you if you use their trademark for financial gain (i.e. cyber squat).

    Rich
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    • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
      Absolutely no to copyrighted words in domain names. As for dashes, I have one hyphenated domain and it is working out just fine. I would have preferred the .com but it was not available so I took the hyphenated name.

      However, my goal with the site is affiliate marketing not try to develop it into a brand. If you are going for brand development, do not get a hyphen. Think of how you would say the name out loud. Go to my website best dash keyword dash keyword. That would be a mouthful!
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  • Profile picture of the author lootbags2010
    Originally Posted by JuicerFan View Post

    I was looking at some domains for sale and had 2 questions:

    1. How much of a negative effect will dash have in terms of SEO. I see that sites are taken but dash versions are available. For instance...

    I might want....Grocerystore.com but it is not avilable.
    Grocery-Store.com     is.

    How bad is that dash?
    I think a more important question is will the hyphen have a negative effect on your traffic instead of your SEO?
    I my opinion you will lose some of the traffic because when you verbally tell someone your domain name you have to hope they remember to type the dash when they try to go to your website otherwise you're just giving extra traffic to the site without the dash.

    i think someone mentioned that buyers have a negative view of the hyphenated domain names and it could be because sometimes the hypens are much easier to forget.

    If someone remembers Grocery Store in your domain name chances are they will look at the one without the dash first . How many times have you typed Grocery-store or anything else with a hyphen in a search engine?
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  • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
    Just to be clear, there is no such thing as a "copyright" on a domain name. Domain names cannot be copyrighted.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      When you say "copyrights", do you perhaps mean "trademarks"?

      That's a very different matter altogether. There are plenty of discussions on the subject in the forum, but ultimately it's a "legal advice" question, and this forum isn't the place to ask for (or to take) legal advice.

      Hyphens have no relevance to SEO/rankings at all. Matt Cutts, from Google, has said so very clearly and unambiguously on a video clip that's linked to in several threads on the subject, if you want to look for it. (I'd use "hyphen", rather than "dash", as your search-term, though: they're actually two different punctuation-marks ).

      That leaves unaddressed, of course, the different question of whether you'll lose traffic to the owner of the unhyphenated domain.
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