Does a Dash help or hurt a domain name?

12 years ago

I'm not sure how much it would help or hurt, but I'd check out the pages that you are competing against...do those have the dashes or not?

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LogoNerds

12 years ago

I don't think it will hurt your rankings at all...but it won't be easy for customers to remember. If you're designing a site for search traffic only and are not concerned about repeat visitors (Example: made for adsense sites) then it won't matter.

If you want to have a URL that is easy to remember and easy for your visitors to refer people, stay away from the dash.

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mrsray 12 years ago

Originally Posted by LogoNerds

I don't think it will hurt your rankings at all...but it won't be easy for customers to remember.

I totally agree with this ... I have dashes and it does not hurt my rankings, in fact it's the best ranked site I've ever had LOL

but ... in order for customers to remember it is the only issue I feel is important to consider, how important is that to you? I think that is what you have to answer.
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LondonPaladin

12 years ago

You get one dash no problem but more than that and you will have some trouble with organic rankings.

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terrapurus

12 years ago

It is openly recognised by Google that dashes are equivalent to spaces to bots. Just look at this thread's URL in your browser if you want an example.

For - Can be easier to pick up these days; not that critical as people actually don't remember domain names. If you say to someone you know at work xyz.com is a great site, then they will forget the URL in 20 minutes.

Con - can look spammy; if you tell a user you have my domain dot com they will go to mydomain.com and not my-domain.com;

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HCLee

12 years ago

I have no proof if it is bad but I've never used dashes or hyphens as they don't look good. Moreover I've heard people mention not to use them too. If you can't get the keyword domain you want, just do another keyword research.

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gcaine

12 years ago

This is a piece from Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Good practices for URL structure
• Use words in URLs - URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure
are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be
more willing to link to them.
Avoid:
• using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs
• choosing generic page names like "page1.html"
• using excessive keywords like "baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards.
htm"

Notice the last line.

It's an example of an excessively long line, but more importantly they do use dashes.

Also I can't find it now, but I'm pretty sure that I did see somewhere on their site that they actually recommend using them.

I use dashes in the urls of my articles all the time and I still get number 1 rankings so I think that they don't hurt, and they may actually help.

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zeekstern

12 years ago

Originally Posted by gcaine

This is a piece from Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Good practices for URL structure
• Use words in URLs - URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure
are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be
more willing to link to them.
Avoid:
• using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs
• choosing generic page names like "page1.html"
• using excessive keywords like "baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards.
htm"

Notice the last line.

It's an example of an excessively long line, but more importantly they do use dashes.

Also I can't find it now, but I'm pretty sure that I did see somewhere on their site that they actually recommend using them.

I use dashes in the urls of my articles all the time and I still get number 1 rankings so I think that they don't hurt, and they may actually help.

You are absolutely correct. Google does recommend using dashes. Anything you can do to provide clarity, Google likes. If you do not use dashes, there can be a case where the words within the url can be misinterpreted. Makes sense if you think about it.

Thanks
1 reply

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tsgeric

12 years ago

Originally Posted by zeekstern

You are absolutely correct. Google does recommend using dashes. Anything you can do to provide clarity, Google likes. If you do not use dashes, there can be a case where the words within the url can be misinterpreted. Makes sense if you think about it.

Now I'm really confused. I thought I read that Google has specifically stated that one dash is okay, but more than one looks spammy.

Of course, it hurts brand building for all the reasons mentioned already.

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Kurt

12 years ago

Originally Posted by terrapurus

It is openly recognised by Google that dashes are equivalent to spaces to bots. Just look at this thread's URL in your browser if you want an example.

For - Can be easier to pick up these days; not that critical as people actually don't remember domain names. If you say to someone you know at work xyz.com is a great site, then they will forget the URL in 20 minutes.

Con - can look spammy; if you tell a user you have my domain dot com they will go to mydomain.com and not my-domain.com;

Originally Posted by gcaine

This is a piece from Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Good practices for URL structure
• Use words in URLs - URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure
are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be
more willing to link to them.
Avoid:
• using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs
• choosing generic page names like "page1.html"
• using excessive keywords like "baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards.
htm"

Notice the last line.

It's an example of an excessively long line, but more importantly they do use dashes.

Also I can't find it now, but I'm pretty sure that I did see somewhere on their site that they actually recommend using them.

I use dashes in the urls of my articles all the time and I still get number 1 rankings so I think that they don't hurt, and they may actually help.

Both of these posts mistake URLs for domain names. There's a difference between having a hyphen in a URL and in a domain.

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Kurt

12 years ago

Originally Posted by tsgeric

Now I'm really confused. I thought I read that Google has specifically stated that one dash is okay, but more than one looks spammy.

Of course, it hurts brand building for all the reasons mentioned already.

There's a good reason you are confused. Many giving advice on this thread are confused about the difference between domains and URLs.

Your question is actually a little different. There's some theories that Google doesn't like CONSEQUTIVE hyphens in domain names, as they are generally only used by SEOers.

This is a valid domain name:
cheap----------viagra.com
(A domain name just can't start or end with a hyphen.)

They'll use something like:
london--hotels.com

It's the two consecutive hyphens in a domain name that you should definitely avoid.

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mrs spencer 12 years ago

i really dont know how much dashes will affect google or the se but perdonally i never liked domains with dashes it somehow looks spammy to me... but thats only my view...
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shermancox

12 years ago

I always ask myself can I easily tell someone about my domain name. If I ended up on a podcast or something and I had to audibly tell people my domain name, will it be difficult?

I think dashes and the like won't hurt rankings, but it will be difficult to tell others about your website. Now depending on the purpose of the site, that may not be a big deal, but if you want to create a site that you plan on investing a significant amount of time in...I would suggest not using the dashes...

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Steve Wise

12 years ago

My understanding is that dashes make no difference to how the site ranks because the search engines can still identify the keywords as they don't recognise dashes. As for it being difficult to give a site name verbally to someone with dashes in, I can't ever really see that happening as you generally provide a link to your site and often cloak it anyway.

Thanks

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