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Hyphens in the domain names

by bobmcalister
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
searched here for the relevant info and did not find so was hoping someone here could help

I ahve read that google does not discriminate between the domains with hyphens and those without ....is that true ?
and
is there a reference from google on this

i appreciate your time and help in this ...thanks
bob
#domain #domain development #domain names #hyphens #names
  • Profile picture of the author seodeveloping
    From what I have heard, there is no discrimination between hyphenated domains and non.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      The issue is not about discrimination, it's about what's more effective.

      There are two schools of thought on this.

      1. People don't want to type in domain names with hyphens.

      2. People don't type in domain names anyway, they just copy and paste links.

      Well, using my own experience, it's a little of both.

      Some domains, like njtransit.com, I type in. Other domains that are longer, I
      don't want to type in a long domain name, so I copy and paste.

      So if you have a long domain name, for me, it doesn't matter if it has
      hyphens or not.

      Of course like I said, everybody is going to feel differently about this.
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      • Profile picture of the author steveweber
        Also, I wouldn't use hyphens in a domain which might be repeated human to human. For example, I would not want to tell people to visit my website at w w w dot my dash site dot com.

        If your just after search engine traffic, Google won't care about the dash.
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        • Profile picture of the author tim_buchalka
          In my experience I have always have good success with dash domain names when I have decided to use them.

          I actually believe they stand out more in search engine results.

          e.g. thisisadomain.com or this-is-a-domain.com.

          I'd say the dashes one definitely is more readable to the human eye glancing through listings.

          I've gotten brand new domains to page one for keywords in days with dashes just as often as domains that do not have dashes.

          Would agree if you're going to be getting people to type it in (the domain with the dashes) it's going to be a bit painful for people.

          Bottom line: I don't believe there is any penalty from google for domains with dashes. It's just another domain to them.

          Cheers
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        • Profile picture of the author askloz
          for marketing purposes, sure that makes sense...
          but when the traffic is coming from search engines, it doesn't really matter, and if you want them to come back put a BOOKMARK THIS SITE link or image on the site, prominent so they can see it... If not, all they have to do is enter the same phrase again where they came across your site any ways.

          80% of my sites have hyphens in them, it's all good here.

          Originally Posted by steveweber View Post

          Also, I wouldn't use hyphens in a domain which might be repeated human to human. For example, I would not want to tell people to visit my website at w w w dot my dash site dot com.

          If your just after search engine traffic, Google won't care about the dash.
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          • Profile picture of the author radhika
            If there is a keyword in your domain name, keeping hyphen makes sense. Search engines see the actual keyword.

            keyword1-keyword2.com is better than keyword1keyword2.com.

            .
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      • Profile picture of the author Tuzic
        Banned
        hi,

        i agree most people dont want to type the hyphen especially when we want to manually go to the site as it seems like hard work even though its not!! so it shys people away.
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        • Profile picture of the author John Hocking
          If most of your traffic is coming from search engines, it does not really matter to the vistor if it has hyphens or not.

          In terms of SEO. Having your keyword/phrase in your domain name can be
          a big benefit in terms of ranking.

          It can be very hard to find a good domain name without hyphens that targets your phrase.

          With that being said, you should try minimize the number of hyphens to one or two. Having a really long domain name can look spammy and could lead to other issues like problems with creating email addresses off the domain.

          I know several sites that limit the length of an email address in contact forms for instance.

          Most of my domains have home or two hyphens and most rank in the top 10 in Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author askloz
    not really radika, it makes no difference, the search engine can differentiate between the two.

    I just prefer to use hyphens cos it makes the words stand out more to the user.
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  • Profile picture of the author PPCguru
    I always use hyphened domains. Never had any problems and did not notice any decline in impressions/clicks. That may just be me though.
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    • Profile picture of the author domainmonetization
      This issue of domain with Hyphens and google must be looked at from an angle of what a good domain name is and what a good domain name is not.

      A good domain that can easily be indexed by search engine is an effective domain and it must have some of the following qualities:

      1. It must have Mindshare: Mindshare means if a domain is seen or mentioend, it will be easily remembered. If it is remembered easily then it can be typed on the browser without being serached on google.

      2. Typo-Generic: A typo generic domain is not hypenated. It is a domain that you think up and just go to the browser and type still.

      3. Length of Domain: A long domain is not good for your users. So is hyphenated domains.

      Note also that if you use a hyphenated domain (our-7-dollar-store.com) and someone else uses a straight domain of same name (our7dollarstore.com), you will easily know that the former will loose traffic because he may have registered the domain after the later.

      What to do here for with hyphenated domain or non-hyphenated domain and google: Your content if its a blog, your SEO and traffic strategies is what matters.

      Even if you have a non hyphenated domain and you don't have a good seo, original content that are indexed by google, you will still not do well.

      This is my 2cent.

      Henry
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