Hi. I have a perfect domain with double dash. Basically, my domain is two word keyword separated by double dashes '--'. Does this impact any search engine rankings? Can I still rank high with my keywords? Won't G think that it could be a possible spam? Thanks.
not sure about this one, what i can tell you is that domain with dashes will not perform as good as domains without dashes.. example, if you are after "wedding favors", then weddingfavors.com will outrank wedding-favors.com, i'd just say stay away from domains with dashes , double dashes however is just plain weird. (oh and don't listen to anyone who tells you there is no difference between having a dashes or not, those people just have no clue or experience and are parroting what they hear on forums).
Bull - Get a Dr Spock trekky head on and see the obvious transfer from .tld/brilliant-url-structure-logic that must also apply to domain names > http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76329 green-dress is much more useful to google than greendress!
Even one dash is a bad thing for marketing. You could rank ok if you can market. But I wont recommend getting it.
LMAO you just can't get over your defeat in the other thread, oh and suddenly Google's official sources are now useful lol for the sake of "education", i was talking about dashes in domains, which has nothing to do with inner pages, i have experimented with dashed domains since 2007 when the " google dashes update occurred" and suddenly thousands of sites lost their rankings, none of my dashed domains performs anywhere near normal domains without dashes, but hey, Are you ready to put your money where your mouth is ? I Officially challenge you with 2000 dollars, to be transferred by both of us to a third person here on Digitalpoint (someone we can trust, a mod maybe). then we do this: we agree on a very easy keyword,, then we register both the "dashed" and "undashed" dot COM versions of that keyword combination; and we host them on two separate US hosting accounts. Let's say the keyword is Videos of Barack Obama, we register http://www.VideosOfBarackObama.com/ and http://www.Videos-Of-Barack-Obama.com/ in the same time , according to your logic, the domain with the dashes has more value from a SEO perspective, both of them are exact matches of the targeted keywords, therefore according to your theory again, the domain with the dashes should outrank the other domain just because of the dashes). The on-page optimization will be the same, also just 1 article of the same lenght on each site and 3 Youtube video links (to the same videos) embedded after the article. After that we build just 1 forum links for each and submit both sites to Google, just to get them indexed (i don't want you to argue later that the undashed.com outranked the dashed .com because of better links, so no links, just get them indexed with 1 forum links for each (from the same forum). we then wait 1 week for the sites to get indexed, and another 3 weeks to judge the rankings, if in 30DAYS the normal .COM outranks the ugly dashed com, (my guess is that the .COM will be top 10 to top 5 already and the dashed com will be miles away but the exact position doesn't matter anyway as long as the Normal .COM wins. So if what i say happens, then i would have proved that the normal .COM has an algorithmic edge over the domain with the dashes and i get the 4000 DOLLARS , if the contrary happens you get the 4k and my public apologies. NOW, Are you WILLING to put your money where your mouth is ? (and don't tell me you don't have 2000 dollars to play with, since obviously, being the great SEO that you are, you should be making loads of cash ) the experiment should take 1 hour to implement. don't play the "i dont have time card with me" (please don't tell me you don't have time to make a quick 2k) Let's see now. this is GETTING REALLY EXCITING, this should be the easier 2k i have ever made in my life sorry, this is a popular forum, a lot of people are here watching and learning, and I just refuse to let newbies get misleaded by self proclaimed SEO experts.
well, I can tell you something from my own experience. I am not a guru of SEO. I had once a site with targeted keywords "funny cats". I just put like 20 pictures of funny cats and left the portal. My pictures got indexed and the pictures could be find on the first page of google images. Also, I ranked at #23 on Google by keyword Funny Cats. The domain was with no dashes. I didn't do any of SEO either. I guess unique content and good domain helped me a lot. I used to receive 400+ unique visitors a day from Google images. Well, I guess I will have to look for dashless domain then. Thanks
Ok Well we have one or two problems in your envisaged scenario 1 I don't mislead and people don't get misleaded they get mislead. Excuse my pedantic nit picking! 2 I deal with content - Content being "text content" as "Content is King" and vids - other then their titles and alts are relatively useless to me RE SEO. 3 You have quite obviously picked a subject you already have some groundwork and back end work done for under your belt, or you would not have suggested such a subject that is irrelevant to me and yet is highly relevant to you due to a Geo factor. 4 There is no defeat in the other thread, it is just your perspective, the conversation is ongoing and I will yet prove my point. 5 On page optimization (or optimisation as it is in UK English) cannot be the same as that's the a major factor that gives one page/site the edge over another. 6 I either cannot or do not access vids, on the likes of YouTube etc, because I either choose not to, or I am blind, or I am deaf, or I have some other accessability issue that means I must rely on text content, which can then in turn be converted into an alternative audio or visual format freely without having my rights infringed with having to pay for something others view and access freely. 7 I always back up what I say with "from the horses mouth" statements that people can make of what they will, or proof positive evdience to inform and enforce the subject and view point. 8 I never submit sites to Google/Yahoo/Bing etc as that is something that is outdated and which there is no need of these days as a simple anchor text link placed in somewhere half decent will suffice and negate any need to submit to SE's as they have these softwares callled spiders that "crawl" and so there is no need whatsoever to submit a site to any of the biggest SE's. 9 Logic tells me (Now this is extending on Googles own logic here > http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76329 that other than getting linked from a humorous point of view - like these sites > therapistfinder.net penisland.net powergenitalia.com expertsexchange.com mp3shits.com thepenismightier.com butthatsnotall.co.nz askandy.com helpmypenisstuck.com dickslumber.com and to round it off vetskill.com Hyphens contrary to popular US thinking is actually the logical way to go, both after the .tld/great-url-structure as well as in the domain name. 10 If you really want a challenge then let's choose something really challenging neither of us has any background in - like "Paris Hilton" or something someone neither of us know or have any connection with chooses so we have a level playing field.
But, in the absence of the availability of the domain without dashes, people go for the hyphenated domains. So it is impossible to prevent the domain without dashes from showing up first!
i am getting tired of this, w-t-f, onpage SEO is the major ranking factor ? have you ever started a website ? or ranked any website at all ? you will give me a heart attack, every SEO in the world knows that offpage SEO accounts for 90% of your SEO effort, i will comment just about this : the obama example, was an example, i have no connexion with that example, and for god's sake which geo factor are you talking about now ? i am from france and by the way excuse me, english is my third language, anyways, if you accept the challenge, then let's start a thread right now in the SEO section and let's organize this asap, please prepare 2k on ur paypal and we will both transfert the money to a mod, I'll even let you choose the keyword, just make sure both the dashed and dashless versions are available to register as .COM. that being said, if you were implying that you are a disabled or blind or deaf person, then i am sorry, and i will unfortunately not have the heart to take your 2k. if that is the case, just for the sake of your education, try register two domains of the same keyword combination, one with dashes and the other without the dashes, and then decide for yourself, it will teach a very valuable lesson about dashes, in the SEO world, it's not about what you hear or what you read, it's all about doing your own experiments. dashed domains are crap and will never outrank a clean dashless domain in %99.99 of cases.
You really have got your knickers in a twist funkymario. I have thousands of page 1 SERPS and hundreds of number 1 SERPS on all the top SE's. I was using examples about usability and the fact that it is on page text content that is what makes for usabilty. I have many sites on page 1 of Google and in 1st position with 0 off page factors or backlinks and a 0 PR. I do not link most of my sites to any external sites and probably never will as I do fine geting page 1 SERPS with no PR and no linking. I have already tested the hyphen thing and there is no lesson to learn as Google tell you they prefer hyphens in URL's so logic dictates the same thinbg applies befor the .com or whatever tld as, although not staed directly the implication that it makes Goglebot's job easier is pretty clear, as if it applied after the .com/ it also behaves the same with the wording befor the .tld part. The bot has not got a split personality which makes it bahave differently for the wording befor as oppoed to the part after the tdl extension. An example of page 1 and number 1 SERPS, pick any London Borough and pair it up with the acronym SEO. So that could be something like "Harrow SE0" "Knightsbridge SE0" " Ealing SE0" "Fulham SE0" (change the 0's for o's of course) or any London Borough you like and I will usually be number 1. You could even try something like "commission London SE0" (again change 0 for o) or pick any number of SEO related search terms or even SE0 writer search terms and you will be able to find me masses of times on page 1 and quite often in number 1 position, all with absolutely zero off page factos involved and only on page SEO used. Bear in mind these are all just a few examples. I have thousands of page 1 SEO related page 1 SERPS, some of which are not searched much as are specific to a skill or area and some highly contested and searched loads. Hyphenated domains are not Cr*p dude it makes the search engines job easier and as long as you are not using repetitive spammy techniques hyphens make it easier for the bots to differantiate between words Both Google and Matt Cutts pretty much even say so > http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76329 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/ Also as i said they we're examples about accessibilty. The reason I don't watch and have never watched online videos is because I do not connect speakers to my PC so I would be wasting my time watching a silent movie LOL!
ok this is a joke, you have many sites in position #1 in google, with 0 links and 0 pr. you remind me of some kind of dinosaur living in 1995 who still thinks SEO is about onpage not links. Come back to me when you are ready to put your money where your mouth is, i am not interested in speculating in wonderland with you, i am not interested in theories, i learned my lesson the hard way, the real life challenge that you have just shamefully ignored in your last post could have taught you a valuable lesson about dashes. i am not going to waste another post on you. i am out of here.
There is no lesson to learn funkymario you have your opionion I have mine and I do not consier linking as SEO proper and do not need to get PR to het page 1 SERPS, that's my T Rex way I choose to do things and it works for me. Did you read what Matt Cutts and Google say on the matter?
You can get all the back links in the world, if you dont have a well optimized page with content its worthless. Content and onpage SEO is the main factor in SERP. With quality content, comes legitimate, quality, back links, comes SERP
Funky Mario is correct in that using hyphens is the domain is TOTALLY different than using hyphens in the folder and page name portions of URLs. Forget SEO... From a usability perspective if nothing else it is almost ALWAYS better to NOT use hyphens in a domain name. You want your domain names typically to be something that is as short as possible, easy to remember, and easy to type. Using hyphens in domains (ESPECIALLY double hyphens) means the domain is longer than it needs to be, harder to remember, and harder to type. It doesn't really matter if my-keyword-domain.com will rank worse or the same as mykeyworddomain.com. It will never rank better... And i DO know that mykeyworddomain.com looks FAR more legitimate than my-keyword-domain.com... is longer... is harder to remember... and harder to type. So even if a my-keyword-domain.com URL manages to ranks well, it will have a lower click-thru-rate in the SERPs than if mykeyworddomain.com had been used because my-keyword-domain.com will be seen as less legitimate. And mykeyworddomain.com will get more natural inbound links that my-keyword-domain.com again because other webmasters (especially authoritative sites) will likely see mykeyworddomain.com as more legitimate than my-keyword-domain.com. Buying domains w/ hyphens has all the same problems as buying domains with non-.com TLDs (like .net, .org, .info, etc.) They are not seen as being as legitimate in the eyes of users AND in the eyes of other webmasters. You SHOULD use hyphens in the folder and page name portion of the URL. But avoid them like the plague in domain names.
I got wrapped up in the SEO conversation didn't even address the OP. I totally agree with the above statement. Noone's going to want to type a bunch of hyphens to get to your site. As mentioned keep it simple and short as possible. I know its hard these days to thing of a great domain name, but i would leave dashes, number, and most other unorthodox characters alone.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/ Matt Cutts mentions them in the domain name as well, as log as they are not over done. Back OP's question Google used to own a couple of domains with double hyphens so some claim, but they have all since disapered. Double Dashes wouldnt be good Although I can think of one instance when they could be used in a branding exercise Double--Dash.com I find hyphenated domains that are hyphenated once between words do "extremely" well in SERPS and as I don't do linking the other argument about linking from others is not relevant to me personally.
The post is 4.5 years old... The post is not about hyphens or no hyphens in domains... It's about hyphens vs. underscores in the URL. All he says in regards to domain names is that Google doesn't penalize for having hyphens in the domain name unless it's over done... and he also warns they he is ONLY speaking to Google, which seems to imply that other engines might possibly frown on domains with hyphens in their ranking algorithms. And I never said that they ranked worse. I am pretty sure domains with or without hyphens are treated equally by Google unless, as Cutts implied, they are spammy. That being said, from a usability perspective and from the perspective of click-thrus and gaining inbound links, a domain without hyphens will always be seen as more legitimate by users and other webmasters than the same domain with hyphens as the keyword separator... and double hyphens, which was the OP's original question, just look plain spammy... and VERY unprofessional.
Matt Cutts often makes the statement that he is only referring to Google In my experience hyphenated domain names when they are not spammy work fantastically across the board on all the major search engines. I am a legitmate user and I prefer hyphenated domains Here is a prime example that tells the opposite story Google "Webmaster Talk" Here is an example of a domain that would have been better registered hyphenated vetskill.com (Could be seen as Vets Kill) Would have been better as vet-skill imho! I have asked Google Moderator and Google Engineers to clarify which is easier for Google to handle eg "hyphens or non hyphens". Bit slow get replies there though so may take some time to get a reply if any is forth coming.
I think ghoogle dont like domains with dobble dashes. Becouse I never saw any site with (--) up in google search. But Im not shure.