Which is better--a .net name or a hyphenated name?

I own a few domain names, and I am thinking about starting a website and business—a document editing and proofreading business. I need some help choosing which domain I want to use from among the domains I own.

My options are:


editing-proofreadingservices.com


or


editingproofreadingservices.net.


The domain name “editingproofreadingservices.com” is not available, so I am trying to decide if it is better use the words with a “dash” and .com, or no dash and .net--in terms of the best option for SEO? For the purpose of this example, first answer this question without factoring in the difficulty of saying the domain name verbally with a dash, or other marketing concerns, because I am going to forward another business name address to my site anyway, which I will use on my business cards and when I speak to people over the phone. So which option do you think is better for SEO?

Then, please consider marketing concerns and if I am going to use the name verbally and on business cards and answer the question according to those concerns.


Thank you very much.

 

dot com is generally more common, people tend to make mistakes when typing a url that is dot net, info, biz, ca when it is actually dot com. And the trend now is anything dot com, net, biz, info contain similar info in the same niche.

In essence, i would rather go for dot com and save the spill.

 

I see that you are talking about what your internet address ends with. My personal website right now ends with ws. I think if you put it on business cards and post your internet site with your name everywhere you go...you wouldn't have a problem with it ending in dot net or dot whatever for that matter.ThanksMarcus Wahlskype id: mcwahl1

 

I think without hypen domain is good

 

This is just my personal opinion, but I always like non hyphened domains, they just look neater. However Google has said a hyphen in your domain will do no harm, however you have to think if your customers will remember where that hyphen is. If it was me I would just go for the .net, just for looks alone.

Malcolm

 

If you use a hyphen domain you really only care about search traffic, though. So the visitor remembering the domain name is not really an issue. I've used both strategies successfully, but I will typically go for the EMD first before the hyphen.

 

A dot.net without the hyphen is easier to remember

 

The jury seems to be out on whether hyphens in a domain name is a problem or not.

I've met marketer who suggest you should always get a domain name without hyphens whenever possible. Then again I've met others who claim the hyphens make no difference. Google suggests you put hyphens into your domain name to make it more readable to humans; they claim the hyphens don't make any difference to the search engine. Personally, I'm inlcined to believe them though whether that's true of Yahoo, Bing and the rest, I don't know.

 

I will prefer editing-proofreadingservices.com