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Which is better for Seo purposes in a domain name?...

by ErnieB
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Which is better for seo purposes.... a domain with a dash between the keywords or a domain where you add a word at the end of the keyword.

For example best-junk.com or bestjunkguide.com

Also, would your opinion change if one of the ways would end up being a .net versus the other way being a .com.

Thanks for any input.
#domain #purposes #seo
  • Profile picture of the author Palo Coyote
    Hi Ernie,
    First: TLD or Top Level Domains are always best. .com .net .org and more are TLD
    List of Internet top-level domains - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Next, Google sees a hypen or dash as a space. It's best to use it when you could confuse a domain name example: wxw.managesexchanges.com could be Manage Sex Changes.com or Manages Exchanges.com. Dash/hyphen would be preferred. Otherwise, Matt Cutts, Googles main guy for Spam has said that hypens are OK if used sparingly (don't remember his quote, but you could find it). His concern is keyword stuffing, example wxw.teach-dog-no-barking-dog-obedience.com probably is too many LOL.
    The dash-hyphen thing is if someone has to type in the name of the domain, "Hey Erine go to wxw.best junk dot com, oh yeah put a dash in there," is probably not going to help anyone. But if it's a click thru link, no problems.
    For SEO both would work, .com or .net are TLD's and dash or not, all good.
    (Just so you know, we tested this on some blogs and they all ranked just fine) I have an SEO Company and we test as much as we can instead of just issuing opinion, our clients have to get results, or they're gone.)
    Thanks,
    Palo aka Tony
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    • Profile picture of the author uktelephonesystem
      Originally Posted by Palo Coyote View Post

      Hi Ernie,
      First: TLD or Top Level Domains are always best. .com .net .org and more are TLD
      List of Internet top-level domains - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      Next, Google sees a hypen or dash as a space. It's best to use it when you could confuse a domain name example: wxw.managesexchanges.com could be Manage Sex Changes.com or Manages Exchanges.com. Dash/hyphen would be preferred. Otherwise, Matt Cutts, Googles main guy for Spam has said that hypens are OK if used sparingly (don't remember his quote, but you could find it). His concern is keyword stuffing, example wxw.teach-dog-no-barking-dog-obedience.com probably is too many LOL.
      The dash-hyphen thing is if someone has to type in the name of the domain, "Hey Erine go to wxw.best junk dot com, oh yeah put a dash in there," is probably not going to help anyone. But if it's a click thru link, no problems.
      For SEO both would work, .com or .net are TLD's and dash or not, all good.
      (Just so you know, we tested this on some blogs and they all ranked just fine) I have an SEO Company and we test as much as we can instead of just issuing opinion, our clients have to get results, or they're gone.)
      Thanks,
      Palo aka Tony
      Thank for sharing.

      Helpful information.
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  • Profile picture of the author mariahm
    Here is my opinion:

    best-junk is better than best junk guide

    My opinion does not change either way if it is .com or .net.

    Do the same amount of SEO for a .com and .net your results will be the same. I know as I have tested this out.
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  • Profile picture of the author ErnieB
    Thanks for all the advice. Glad its also based on personal results as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    There's really no question that it's dashes over adding any extra words. You want as close to a 100% match between the search phrase and your domain name (regardless of the extension). I've tested this so many times I have absolutely no doubts anymore about this one.

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author shaktimaan
    Originally Posted by ErnieB View Post

    Which is better for seo purposes.... a domain with a dash between the keywords or a domain where you add a word at the end of the keyword.

    For example best-junk.com or bestjunkguide.com

    Also, would your opinion change if one of the ways would end up being a .net versus the other way being a .com.

    Thanks for any input.
    Exact match domain, bestjunk.com is best. If .com is not available. Choose net or org if available.

    I have noticed domain with dashes also has some seo value in yahoo but not in google.

    For any proof/experiment check my sig links. All registered same day. Have same type/quantity of links.
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    Shaktimaan

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  • Profile picture of the author JJ Remington
    Check out how-to-stop-procrastinating.info for an example of the exception that proves the rule. I watched this thing go from #8 to #1 on Google in 6 weeks. He's doing something right.
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    • Profile picture of the author stackman
      In my experience, dashes work as well as anything else. The pages get indexed well and work better than running keywords together. I like short domain names and dashed subdomain or subdirectory names, as well as dashed page names (containing keywords of course).
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshBrown
    With a proper inbound linking campaign, you can make any site rank well. The domain name doesn't make a difference except kw-rich domain names (i.e. keyword-keyword.com) make it easier to use the inherit anchor text. However, that still doesn't make a heap of difference.

    For example, one of my sites ranks #7 for: exercise advice (broad match), and the KW is completely alien to my domain.

    Best,
    Josh
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by JoshBrown View Post

      With a proper inbound linking campaign, you can make any site rank well. The domain name doesn't make a difference except kw-rich domain names (i.e. keyword-keyword.com) make it easier to use the inherit anchor text. However, that still doesn't make a heap of difference.

      For example, one of my sites ranks #7 for: exercise advice (broad match), and the KW is completely alien to my domain.

      Best,
      Josh
      Very true, but exact match domains do provide some benefit for ranking. No way around acknowledging that fact. Time and time again, EMD's sit on the first page with lower quality and less backlinks than the rest of the page. There is a definite benefit to having an exact match domain. I know from personal experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author Katie_White
    I would prefer to have a domain without - in it because according to me its easy to seo for such site and easy to remember names
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  • Profile picture of the author JJ Remington
    Hey guys. I'm new here and I'm wondering, maybe did I break the rules posting the .info domain above? It's NOT mine (boy don't I wish) but it's not .com, .net, or .org. It has all the dashes. And appears to be picking up 750-1000 BLs each day! Is this supposed to rocket to the top of Google? Is it a shooting star that will burn out and plummet?

    I guess I don't understand SEO like I need too.
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