No for SEO but yes if you want to brand it.

No difference for seo, but for branding its harder for users to remember it.

Since .com's are getting limited, hyphens are a good option.

I personally use hyphens prior to going to a different Domain Extension (.net, .org, ,co, etc...).

Good Luck!

I am looking to use hyphen, not underscores at this moment.

I am using it only once because it is a 2 word domain name. Should I go for it?

They definately do not have any negative effect on SEO.

As stated above, I do not see any negatives in using a hyphen. Personally, I think the hyphen makes sense as it separates the words making them more readable and in my opinion (easier to remember) as opposed to having a jumbled mess, depending upon the length of the domain name.

I've heard rumors that domains without hyphens hold a greater value for resale, and perhaps branding, but I am not buying into that theory, solely because the real value resides in your content, and if people like the content... they bookmark it or subscribe via RSS.

I rarely ever type a web address into my browser manually. Cut & paste, bookmark, favorites tabs, etc...

To say a hyphen has any real impact in search is bogus too, because using Google's keyword tool returns the same results of any two-word searches [exact]... with or without the hyphen.

I believe it is important to obtain a .com, .net, .info, and on occasion maybe a .org though, as they do hold a specific hierarchy in relation to search.

I hate hyphens in domains for branding purposes. Here's a bad example of this -

The Chinese Tea Company London

Imagine you were the owner of that site, and had to explain to a customer on the phone your website address.

"its - the hyphen chinese hyphen tea hyphen company dot com"

People are whimsical and fickel. So, if they type out an address one way, and it's wrong, many will quickly give up and assume that the website does not exist. Adding a hyphon to your domain name is asking for trouble.

No, Google treats hyphens as spaces between words.

The only negative effect will be the perception of the person viewing the domain name.

I do not see a problem with it. As long as your domain is not hard to remember, I think you should be fine.

Just a hypen on a domain i think it doesn't not matter. the matter is when you put more than two hypens on a domain.

I have never seen any negative effects with hyphens in domain names.
At this point in net history you may as well get used to the concept , since name choices are becoming more limited each day.
Some have replied that the hyphen will hurt you in branding , if it does I believe it will absolutely minimal.

For SEO purposes a domain without a hyphen will track better.... so, always try to create a domain without the hyphen if possible. You have to decide on how important it is for your business. good luck

You din't mention what you need the domain for. I'm pretty sure it would not have a negative effect on your Google rankings, so you can buy it without hesitation for SEO purposes.

But, if you want to create a brand name, then I would not suggest hyphens in your domain name. You need domains that would be easier to remember in order to properly brand a site, and hyphens are not good for that purpose. So, it depends on what you need the domain for.

Hyphens don't affect SEO efforts, but they do lessen the value of the domain for resale. I don't buy them and a lot of people don't like them.

I hear what your saying, but from a marketing perspective its completely wrong. Branding is EVERYTHING for small businesses, to help you stand out in a saturated marketplace. You have ranked sites on the first page of Google solely with longtail EMD or whatever and seen some success. Thats fine, it's brought you business so I can understand your point of view. But your business is neither memorable or scalable based on its name. You haven't built your website for your customers, you've built it to capture the search engine traffic. Why does every large company have a brandable domain? Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, eBay, WarriorForum? Its because its memorable, and the name alone is enough to make people remember the company which creates repeat business, trust and credibility. That same analogy should be applied to small businesses as well, because your 'brand' is effectively your reputation. And small businesses need a good reputation to survive.

Someone in a coffee shop isn't going to recommend your business based on its domain name, the name can't be branded effectively on a business card, logo etc because it would look silly. I have a few sites that are EMD, and these are still ranking okay, but they are only meant for online traffic. They are not offline businesses so I have no interest in people recommending the sites, but if you were an offine business then a brandable domain is paramount IMO.

Google has devalued EMD domains now, so you have equal chance to rank either a EMD or brandable domain depending on your SEO. And from an offline marketing point of view, the brandable name wins every time. You can create stickers, T-Shirts, flyers etc with that brandable name. I don't see the point in forwarding a good brandable domain, to an ugly search engine orientated domain. The ugly domain is lost in the search results, as it isn't recognized by the searcher who is looking for the brandable domain from any advertising.
Or the user is confused thinking they are going to to brandable domain, and when they end up on a ugly generic domain they click back on the browser as they don't understand domain forwarding. Extreme maybe, but perfectly plausible.

The following quote is from Google's own patent for detecting commercial queries:

United States Patent: 8046350

Here's some great resources on branding for your perusal:

The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs | SEOmoz

Google's Exact Match Domain Name Patent (Detecting Commercial Queries) - SEO by the Sea

Why Brand Building Is Important - Forbes

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/mark...-need-a-brand-

Hyphens make the word clear to understand so if your domain name is of two word then it will be a good choice of adding a hyphen. A single hyphen will not make the SEO word dificult. You may face some problem when you are reselling the domain name because many buyers do not want to buy a domain name with hyphen. I have also registered a domain name with a hyphen and the URL to my domain name is
Viral Blogging

Actually , it doesn't matter, in my case though. It really doesn't affect your search ranking on Google. Ranking vary daily and hyphens has nothing to do with that. It only depends actually on how people sees your domain name.

For branding is no. Branding should be no more than 3 syllable and it's gotta be a dot.com But for seo purpose, I don't see a major difference.

No negative seo effect of hyphens. A hyphenated .com is always preferred over other extensions without hyphens.

Hyphenated domain names can be very beneficial indeed when you have a domain name like:

expertsexchange dot com

or

therapist dot com

There's loads of other examples where a missing hyphen in the name has very unfortunate outcome.

Not at all! It should be fine!

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From SEO prospective it is really too good whereas for the brand value its not, so decision should be based on the the above mentioned factors and at the same time, think about EMD update i.e. Exact Match Domain, which will cause problem if you don't have quality content in the website.

On its own it won't but in combination with other spammy factors it will.

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So the conclusion is to avoid hyphens if possible. No any negative effect on SEO.

Hyphens are a bad idea IMO If another domain name exist without the hyphens.

Who do you think will get return traffic?

• hxxp://mydomain.com
• hxxp://my-domain.com

I'm sure the domain without hyphens will get most of the direct site search traffic, regardless which site is better. Traffic isn't going to sit there all day trying to figure out hyphens.

If you have a craptastic site, none of this matters, your not getting any direct site search traffic anyways.

I would rather a EMD.net than a E-M-D.com

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Hyphens are not really a big deal, underscores is what sucks. Hyphens are read like a "space" in the eyes of search engines.

Surely no negative seo effect. If you have a shorter and niche related domain name a user can recall it easily only if he wants to ( in case you have a high quality content or interesting content).

Today most internet hardly wants to stick to one site rather remembering a domain name they put query in search engine. So, I don't think you should bother about domain name but your site layout and quality of content.

Well, this would give more info about brand name with hyphen:

http://productforums.google.com/foru...er/2zIW7y_oaTA

I have had really surprising success with EMD domains with a single hyphen in them. Add 2 hyphens and they never seem to gain traction, but the single hyphen thing is a bit of a hidden gem.

One of my domains is killing it right now with a small amount of links, it's equivalent to something like Best-ProductReviews.com