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Domain ranking: Hyphens and order of words?

by mooble
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
It's been asked and debated before, but does anyone know for sure? From what i've seen domains with hyphens are much harder to rank than the same domain without hyphens for a particular phrase. I'm also wondering if order of words is a huge deal? for example, usethisexample.com vs use-this-example.com vs thisexampleuse.com

99% of all niche keyword domains are used or being sat on based on my past three weeks of keywords research, so what's the next best thing in terms of domain and ranking?
#domain #hyphens #order #ranking #words
  • Profile picture of the author terrapurus
    In interviews, Matt Cutts has stated that dashes appear as spaces to search engines. They will not effect SEO, but if for example in a podcast, you tell users to go to use this example dot com they will not type in the dashes (if they remember the URL at all, which will be rarely as URLs are almost impossible to remember if you hear them).

    As for keyword order, you will probably rank for exact match first, then start ranking for phrase match and then finally start ranking for broad match (all things being equal) as your site builds authority. This is why your URL should resemble what users actually type into the search bar. And it also looks professional. Look at it as physical world example - which real estate agent would you list a house with? John's Real Estate or Estate John's Real?

    Do things for readers first and SEO second.
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  • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
    Originally Posted by mooble View Post

    99% of all niche keyword domains are used or being sat on based on my past three weeks of keywords research, so what's the next best thing in terms of domain and ranking?
    The best thing is having the strongest, most authoritative, links to your site. Do some searches on popular keywords and you'll find sites that don't have an exact keyword match .com domain name beating sites that do have the keyword in the domain. Why? Domain authority.

    I wish it was as easy as having an exact domain name match but it isn't.
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