With or without hyphen - that is the question.

Hello guys,

I am about to start up an e-business, and the domain name is made of two abbreviations. I have both domain names without and with hyphen separating the terms, and I would like to know which one should I use primarily for SEO and promotional activities. Obviously, with hyphen it is much easier to make out what the term is all about, and without, it is more simplified.

I would appreciate your feedback as to which domain type is more effective from both SEO and promotional points of view.

Best regards,
Amir.

 

I would recommend you the option with hyphen - not for seo purposes (it doesn't matter at all), but simply, as you already said it will look nicer for the visitors and they will remember /split and remember the 2 words easier/.

Good luck with your project

 

People think that hyphen causes SEO problems(especially begginers) but there are very popular sites with hyphens in domain names. eg. think-traffic. Go for the hyphen one if it is more readable.

 

For SEO, the hyphen won't make much difference. As you said, it is much easier to read with the hyphen, so I would go with that one.. but it is up to you.

 

My friend has a very successful site that uses a hyphen, so I know that it is not that big of an issue. Still, though, I prefer domains without hyphens. Makes it easier for users to remember and to tell others.

 

Here is one of the things that points out exactly why the SEO industry gets a bad name.

Amir, congrats on starting your new e-business and I wish you the best of luck as your journey begins. As for the hyphen, use it by all means! As you begin your adventure please keep this in mind at all times:

YOU DESIGN FOR USERS, NOT SEARCH ENGINES.

I have seen a lot of awesome businesses in my day go to waste simply because the owners became obsessed with SEO and started designing for Search Engines instead of their users.

I hope this helps

 

You can do both. I design for users, but I also make sure that it can be picked up by search engines.

 

without hyphen domain is good for seo bcz u can save your website from EMD Updates.

 

EMD or exact match domains are pretty much a thing of the past. This is just what we are talking about where you would most likely be designing at this point for search engines and not users.

 

Hyphens are treated as spaces by search engines and you would get benefit too from SEO, as search engine clearly sees each word in the domain name.

 

Without hyphen will make your site more professional

 

I preferred without hyphen because it is easy to remember and write.

 

For Users - Without hyphen & For Search Engine - With hyphen.

 

I think without hyphen it is not much easily readable to users. I would like to suggest you to use hyphen as it is more understandable to user and also Google prefer those sites which are beneficial for users as compared to those who are created for only SEO purposes..

 

Yes, it is difficult to read as the two words combine without any gap or dash or hyphen.

 

The hyphen (‐) is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes (‒, –, —, ―), which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign (−) which is also longer.

 

I really don't think it matters for users, mainly because most internet users will google the name of the website instead of typing it directly in. Therefore it doesn't matter if they put the hyphen in the search box or not, so doesn't matter on your domain name. If it reads better, throw it in.

 

I'd say whatever helps to associate with your brand, go for it.
But most importantly, look at it from your visitor/customer perspective.
That's what counts in the end anyway.

 

Here is my two cents.
Use the hyphenated domain to help out your non hyphenated domain name. If you are selling a service I for one, will not buy from a domain that uses that special character. You could set up your hyphenated domain to hold a demo or more information on your non- domain name. Since you are worried about SEO you will most likely be listed Number 1 and Number 2 for the keyword which is a good thing.
As ThePhil says you must look at the visitor perspective.

What type of service will you be offering?

 

Go without hyphen will be better.
Let make this senario , when you search for a website , will you put datch ?
I believe your visitors will likely forget about the datch when search for you .

Beside that a datch in your domain name will make your site seem unprofessional and Google might take it as spam due to over optimize on the keyword.

After EDM domain algorithm changes that it might not give that huge weight if the site is overoptimize with the same keywords or look spammy. So stay away from the datch and you still can rank well if you have unique and quality content in your website.