Whats with the -

[oninuva]

What is with the - in domains now? Are they worth more?

For example if a domain was two words like "digital point" they would register digital-point.com.

Does the - make the site worth more? I heard Search Engines count it as a space there fore having better keywords maybe?

IMO its hard to tell about a site like that via word of mouth.

And what are - called?

[T0PS3O]

It's called a hyphen.

You see them more because all the non-hypenated ones are taken. They're not worth more per se. And if you have more than 2 or 3, it's probably worth less.

[oninuva]

Well isnt it hard to pass on via word of mouth then? Would you register one?

[T0PS3O]

I use a few one and yes, they can be confusing to say over the phone to someone, epsecially the non-web savvy ones.

I would use them again though. Main benefit is this.

Many webmaster who don't know much about SEO link with your domain name. So the code would look like this:

<a href="http://www.great-blue-widgsets.com">www.great-blue-widgets.com</a>

So with the hypens being spacers in most search engines, effectively they DID give a decent enough anchor text of "www great blue widgets com".

Whereas for a non-hypenated URL you would have gotten the rather useless phrase of "www greatbluewidgets com".

So especially in the inital stage of launching a site I have seen benefits of using hyphens. But later, when you have built enough quality links, those benfits become almost non-existant.

[oninuva]

Yeah that is the only reason I think hypens are good. But.. for a forum.. only people who use em are "web-savvy" peeps

And side note :) Grats T0ps on your 10k posts :D

[T0PS3O]

If you have 'tell a friend' type facilities, the worth of mouth isn't that important. Word of mouth isn't neccesarily spoken word of mouth. I'd just get the closest domain to what you want. With ot without hyphens, doesn't matter. Heck, you can even register www.blue--widgets.com with two hypens. Possibly even more :)

[domnom]

Hyphens are only good for Search Engines because they considered from SE (until now) as spaces. We all know how important is the domain name for the rank criteria if the surfer put the exact same keywords of the domain

There are also some good domain names sales of hyphened domains (the good catchy ones)

I vote yes for hyphen but use it with caution and not make all your site hyphened

[oninuva]

not make all your site hyphened
Eh? What you mean?

[ReadyToGo]

Generally speaking, as far as the value of a domain goes, non-hyphenated nemes are more valuable.

[domnom]

I mean that you should not think hyphen as a good solution for all your domains you may build
It may good for search engines but for type-in traffic and general web site non-hyphenated domains are much better