[GomerMagtibay]

Hello friends, I am about to register a new domain name, and I need your advice. Which is better to have, a domain name containing (dash) in between words, like guitar-lesson-with-gom.com or something like guitarlessonwithgom.com ?

Those with (-) looks like more appealing to me because you can clearly see the meaning, but it may have some negatives which as of now I do not know or not sure of. Please advise me which to have. Thanks!

[Jeffery]

I will not advise you of which to have, but my professional rule-of-thumb is no dashes at all, but if dashes are mandatory then no more than two. Reason being is the majority of Domain Evaluators give a low score for domains with dashes and a lower score with more than two dashes. Many professional Domain Brokers will not sell a domain with dashes, so that would be a criteria to consider if the domain is to be sold through a Domain Broker.

Jeffery 100% :-)

[GomerMagtibay]

Okay. Thanks for that, Jeffery. I asked this question, not only for me, but also for those newbies to have an idea what is best thing to do when registering a new domain name.

I also thought those "dashes" are ideal substitute for "spaces" between words, in a long domain name.

Now, I know. What you have shared here are strong points not to have a domain name with multiple dashes.

What about the others here who advocate the opposite? Dashes in long domain names.

Anyone?

[smartiewriter]

I've always learned that no dashes are better. For one reason or another, that's what most people recommend.

[Jeff Casmer]

Hello,

I am doing okay with dashes in mine. My domain is also several years old however any advice Jeffrey gives you is good advice

Take care
Jeff Casmer

[powerofschool]

Hi,
Having domain name without dashes is good to remember and

if you use dashes between the domain. Don't use no more than 2 dashes.

You have one advantage , if you use dashes in the domain.

If you have website , websitename.com

If you use website-name.com

There are more chances for the domain website-name.com to get to the first in google.

because google will treat website-name.com as a website name .

So think and take correct domain name, this is your business.

[Yenhoo]

My personal preference is no dash, no number, also not too long, guitar lesson with gom is a little long for me tbh...

[Patrician]

I have heard dashes are no good and Jeff is right Jeffery is very knowledgeable so I would listen to him.

It really doesn't matter as far as them reading it because if you are building your back links with relevant keywords that is what will count - not the domain name. (you only get slight points for domain name either bad or good).

So however you format the domain name, what will count THE MOST is 'Guitar Lessons' or whatever your keywords are.

That is what people search for, not domain names.

That is the name of the game - who finds your site and buys something they are looking for or finds information they need.

So even if the name is GomerM.com with keywords for guitars and lessons, they will find you or not.

[youtubevlz]

most best: short, no dash, no number, easy remember and .com

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by Jeff Casmer

Hello,

I am doing okay with dashes in mine. My domain is also several years old however any advice Jeffrey gives you is good advice

Take care
Jeff Casmer

Yes, Jeff's domain names with dashes and his business models are a perfect example of how to do it right. He has capitalized on "Exact Domain Name Match" and "Highly Relevant Subject Matter". That alone scores high with "Human Readability" and "Search Engines". Perfect!

His backlink skills are professional grade above and beyond probably 98% of the people in this forum.

Whatever Jeff advises about the subject can be banked because Jeff knows how to make money.

Scroll down and read Pat's post as well because she is spot on about domain names that are not "exact match" and how to "rank high" in the serps with keywords and backlinks.

Jeffery 100% :-)

P.S. You will come to learn that we are only covering the basics as we can not possibly write a book here in this thread, but the "basics" are essential to a strong business foundation.

[Koolsteve]

guitarlessonwithgom.com

No dashes needed. If you go make a search on Google you will see it has the intelligence to pick out individual words in domain names - usually shows up in bold in results.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by Patrician

I have heard dashes are no good and Jeff is right Jeffery is very knowledgeable so I would listen to him.

It really doesn't matter as far as them reading it because if you are building your back links with relevant keywords that is what will count - not the domain name. (you only get slight points for domain name either bad or good).

So however you format the domain name, what will count THE MOST is 'Guitar Lessons' or whatever your keywords are.

That is what people search for, not domain names.

That is the name of the game - who finds your site and buys something they are looking for or finds information they need.

So even if the name is GomerM.com with keywords for guitars and lessons, they will find you or not.

Agreed.

@ Gom
The proof is in the.. search. Search "make money online" (with the quotes) and depending on your data center the results returned are usually not "exact domain name match". However, the "match" is the keyword either in the "subject matter" or the meta data. That happens to be one of the most difficult niche to rank. As you can see Pat is 100% correct.

Jeffery 100% :-)

[GomerMagtibay]

I got your point, Pat. It's the keywords used in back links for the site, that matters, more than the domain name used. Any domain name of your choice will do, as long as you build back links to it using your chosen keywords, right? And better if the domain name also contain your keywords, right?

So, if the keywords I have chosen for creating back links with articles are "network marketing", I may register a new domain name like this: networkmarketingwithgom.com . Is this okay?

You know, I feel like a newbie again today, who needs some serious advice from you, pros.

By the way, you will notice I always use a suffix "by gom" or "with gom", because it's my name, Gom. As a network marketer, one way to build a successful network marketing business is to brand yourself, and I can see successful network marketers use their names in their domains as a way of branding themselves. I even saw a document in betternetworker that says, "Never mind Google. Just build your name in the social networks". Oh, really?

Listening to them (the MLM gurus on the other side), and the people here (who are good at SEO), confuses me of what to do.. And I'm thinking, what about using the best of both worlds?

[tjm2788]

Personally I always aim for a domain without hyphens. Just looks so much better if nothing else!

[the ultimate]

Hi warriors. I need a little help from you all.
I wanted to ask a question.
Actually i recently observed that people were selling some domain names for really good price.
It seemed to me a good opportunity to make a quick buck.
Actually i needed money to start my online business and thought that it would really help me get started.
The domain name which i bought is 9 characters long including 2 dashes and 7 characters. It is a brandable name and very easy to remember and on a hot topic and i thought that people would be interested to buy it. Now i think that it was really insane of me to think like that and am really worried if i would be able to sell it.
Please help me and tell me if i would be able to sell it.
One more thing- a domain name like that but without dashes was listed as a premium domain so i thought that it had some value.
Plz help me and advise me what should i do and how to go about selling it.
Thanks!

[CPAPJason]

Being that this has become a click world, in most cases, dashes are not as bad as they once were. Anchor text, as stated above, is what matters, setting the hook in just a couple of words.

When using social nets, such as Twitter that converts all links to t.co URL no one sees the dashes. On Facebook have an attractive image for the thumbnail is probably more important then the URL itself. If anyone reading this remembers the free FB credit thing that went around a short while ago, if not making rounds now, the marketer used a free blog service for it. So the link itself was not all that important, but the thumbnail and title were.

One of the first commercial sites that I designed was for a rent to own company in Michigan, and I ended it with -mi.com. Sadly their site flopped since they did not do the offline promotions I told them to do, on the fliers, business cards, envelopes, letterhead, and store receipts.

[khurramseo]

But if you use one (dash) i think its enough,,

[mmrumii]

You are right @Warrior Machine.
It's same problem to me, In my opinion I don't think so about the dash.
I think without dash, your site domain name will be more beautiful and easy to remember to people like me.

[samurai007]

I've always learned that no dashes are better. Domain name without dashes is good. short, no dash, no number, easy remember. :p

[goleza]

I am of the opinion that your domain name should be easy to remember and user-friendly. It should be short enough and not complicated. If you include dashes in it, your website visitors may find it hard to get you if they forget to include the dashes, which is likely to happen to many people. But if it's your preference, no problem you can go ahead to include them.

[Hasanabd]

I think domains with dashes ( when seperating words ) are ofcourse better when talking to the ability to read the domain name , but if you want to improve the SEO i think dashes habe a disadvantage regardless of making the domian name longer

[stoltingmediagroup]

In our experience it has never mattered whether we used domain names with dashes. Similar questions have been asked regarding using .info extensions. Oddly enough, even though some folks advise not use dashes in a domain name, or they advice against using a .info, we have had two ".info with dashes" on the first page of Google right on the top in the first spot, and they remained there for years. (thus disproving any nay sayers). What matters is the content on your page in relation to SEO, and also whether you want to sound it out as "sure I have a website, its at w w w . something DASH something DASH something . com" or whether you want to say it in one word.

[byodchai]

Domain name without dashes is good. short, easy remember.

[Studio239]

Domain name without dashes, unless you absolutely have to have those exact words and they're already taken. If that's the case, then use the dashes, but preferably no more than 2 dashes.

[SergioFelix]

Just picture this...

You just done your video and you're going to mention your domain name and you have to say: "Thank you for watching and find out more at guitar dash lesson dash with dash gom dot com" still sounds good to you?

Absolutely NO dashes my friend.

Sergio

[stanleyday25]

It is always best to have a domain name that exactly matches the keywords you are targeting. Most keywords would not have hyphens in them.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by SergioFelix

Just picture this...

You just done your video and you're going to mention your domain name and you have to say: "Thank you for watching and find out more at guitar dash lesson dash with dash gom dot com" still sounds good to you?

Absolutely NO dashes my friend.

Sergio

Agreed in this threads context, but not in every instance!

Example is I have many domains such as "1-800-insert name here" that I lease to many Fortune 500 companies. And I have sold a few here at the Warrior Forum before it went public for six figures!

Jeffery 100% :-)

[stanleyday25]

I have a question for anyone who has the answer:
In one of Gomer's replies he mentions "( the MLM gurus on the other side)". I keep hearing this term being bandied about but the other side of what? Where is "the other side"?

[teamline]

Hi,

I do not agree that hyphens in domains is bad for ranking well in google.
If content is there, site and offline seo is good, hyphens in domains is not bad.

Here is some example ( suorce site is not my website)

Websites Link and keyword, all of them are no1 in google for keyword!

Website Keyword
Front Porch Designs and Front Porch Ideas to Jazz Your Home Front porch ideas
How To Train A Dog, dog training tips and techniques for home based dog trainers Dog Obedience Training
Welcome to Windows-Vista-Update.com, the most comprehensive Windows Vista website Windows vista update
Practical Home Theater Guide: Systems Reviews and Home Theater Design Home theater guide
Digital Photography Tips: Digital Photography School Digital Photography Tips
Digital Photography and Photoshop tips and tricks Digital Photography Tips
Digital Photography Tips Digital Photography Tips


Suorce:
http://lettersfromdan.com/the-hyphen...-name-dilemma/

[winiw]

it is better to avoid dashes.

[GomerMagtibay]

Originally Posted by stanleyday25

I have a question for anyone who has the answer:
In one of Gomer's replies he mentions "( the MLM gurus on the other side)". I keep hearing this term being bandied about but the other side of what? Where is "the other side"?

In BetterNetworker.com.

[Lorenzo Basil]

For SEO purposes is OK to have dashes, what most people forget is that there are other top level domains which can rank as easy as .com like .co and .cc for EMD (exact match domain) I have seen lots of testing that proves it.

But from the branding perspective there's no doubt without dashes and .com works better.

[pkumar]

my experience with domain names with dashes is not very good. Better to avoid it until and unless you don't have any alternative.

[GomerMagtibay]

It's been a while since my last post here. It amazes me of the longevity of topics posted in this forum. Thanks for all the replies. Great!

[Allen Lundy]

Gomer, I agree with the attached quote as well.

The domain name doesn't matter as much as the title, and the keywords.

When you do a search for business opportunities (just an example) you aren't really searching business-opportunities.com but for the keyword business opportunities.

In the return results, if you have business opportunities as one of you keywords in the title, the description and keywords meta info, and of course you have good content, off page seo etc... Google and all the search engines could easily return you site.

This site uses a hypenated name and it's NOT a .com. It's NUMBER 3 ON PAGE 1 OF GOOGLE.

Dane Carlson's Business Opportunities Weblog
www.business-opportunities.biz/Cached - Similar
You +1'd this publicly. Undo
The original blog about business opportunities and business ideas for small business entrepreneurs.

Hope this helps with your questions

Originally Posted by teamline

Hi,

I do not agree that hyphens in domains is bad for ranking well in google.
If content is there, site and offline seo is good, hyphens in domains is not bad.

Here is some example ( suorce site is not my website)

Websites Link and keyword, all of them are no1 in google for keyword!

Website Keyword
Front Porch Designs and Front Porch Ideas to Jazz Your Home Front porch ideas
How To Train A Dog, dog training tips and techniques for home based dog trainers Dog Obedience Training
Welcome to Windows-Vista-Update.com, the most comprehensive Windows Vista website Windows vista update
Practical Home Theater Guide: Systems Reviews and Home Theater Design Home theater guide
Digital Photography Tips: Digital Photography School Digital Photography Tips
Digital Photography and Photoshop tips and tricks Digital Photography Tips
Digital Photography Tips Digital Photography Tips


Suorce:
http://lettersfromdan.com/the-hyphen...-name-dilemma/

[GetExperienced]

Well thanks to Google's EMD update destruction, I've seen non-keyword domains rank higher that relevant dashes/nodashes.

I say, keep at least one of the keywords in the domain and lose the dashes. Normal people will never type the dashes.

Dash domain are generally made for search engines.

[CDawson]

I think the rule of thumb is to have your domain name match a keyword exactly how it is (without dashes).

[antonamoto]

Registering a domain name with the dashes is not ideal for me imho. I would suggest you register a domain name with targeted keyword in your niche. So if you niche is people who like "guitar playing" for example then you can use guitarplayingwithgom.com is better. You can use Google Keyword Tool to get the exact match of your keyword. In this method your keyword will probably ranks easier on Google. Hope that makes sense. :-)

[webcreams]

Hi there, I would definitely recommend to get both with and without hyphens if possible.. In order to have more weight in the search results you'll better have the domainname without hyphens. In order to protect you from any competitor that is after your domain I would also take the hyphened domain name. It also helps for anyone that tries to search for your site with hyphens, otherwise they will end up nowhere or at the competitor. Cheers

[Jeff Schuman]

I see this thread is active again so let me chime in. I grew my Team-Schuman site with hyphens and have doen the same with other sites over the years if I wanted to get a good keyword rich domain.

Today I would say do not do it. Try and buy a .com, .net. or even a .org version without hyphens if you can and capitalize the first letter of each word when marketing it online to make it easier to read i.e. TopMoneyMakingProgam, BestWayToStopSweating, EasyDogTrainingTips, and and so on.

[PrimaDNA1989]

I would recommend not going with the dashes. At one point I was on a buying spree and registered over 50 domains with dashes. I then read in many places that it is more memorable not to have dashes and some even said for ranking it helps if you don't have dashes. Now I only go with domains without the dashes.

[rozay]

It doesn't matter. You're worried about the wrong thing.

[Itachi]

Hey, I was wondering the same and ended on this thread, pretty interesting, I was wondering though.

I know it looks kinda odd in the domain name if you use hyphen (dash is a longer version right ? source wikipedia) but what about words that follow themselves and are linked by the same letter, for instance : itachiinformatik.com doesnt that look odd you think when 2 I follow eachother ? like : itachi-informatik.com look so much better suddenly I think..

So I think for that reason I might get a domain name with a hyphen

Was curious to hear what other people think !

[smurray]

Hello,

I have used domains with hyphens in the past, but I prefer domains without hyphens. I don't know that it really matters which version you go with these days. However, most research I have done points towards using domains with no hyphens.

Sandy

[WtWarrior]

I believe that there is no difference if you have dashes or no...had couple sites with dashes and they outranked sites with no dashes. But in todays SEO I would suggest to build a brand. So use brand domain, rather the one with keywords in it...maybe something like:

GomLessons.com
GuitarWithGom.com


Hope it helps,

Brett

[whland]

If possible I'd go with the domain without hyphens.

When I first started up my hosting business I went with a hyphenated domain but after almost a year decided that it'd be best to use a domain without hyphens.

My customers actually thanked me as they said they sometimes forgot that the name had a hyphen in it and was wondering why they couldn't access the site until they remembered it had a hyphen.

It doesn't really matter for SEO purposes though. But for users it's best to go without the hyphens.

Chad

[Michael Biermann]

Originally Posted by smartiewriter

I've always learned that no dashes are better. For one reason or another, that's what most people recommend.

I tried to create a AWS certificate for pres–it.com ... no success, it looks like hyphen was not a good idea.