What is better for a domain? with dashes or not?

Hello

I am wondering which is better in Serps? domains with dashes or without?

example:

www.free-mobile-ringtones.com
or
www.freemobileringtones.com

for the keyword "free mobile ringtones".

Which is better for serps?

Thanks in advance

Cheers
Adel

 

IMHO, without dashes

 

Hi,

My gut feeling would be the domain name without the dashes, but I'm not entirely sure why!!

I'd rather have without the dashes, as when someone searches with a phrase similar to your domain name, the search engines may find your domain name more 'fluid' than the one with the dashes. Or your domain name may carry more weight when there is less 'clutter' between your keywords (by clutter I mean the dashes).

I'm probably talking rubbish, but that's my standpoint!!

 

Without slashes is better for the user.

 

Without dashes is good for someone to type in. From SEO point of view I do not think it will make any difference.

 

certainly without dashes .....But if your domain is lengthy...i would prefer to have dashes to differentiate the words in the domain ....

if you have dashes in the lengthier domain ...it is more convenient for the user to understand the domain name

 

It looks a bit more pro if you use without dashes but these days its impossible to find a domain which you wish...so better go with dashes than underscores or something else...

 

without ^_^
with will be lame.. 0_o

 

Hi u can experiment like this free-nokia-ringtones and freemobileringtones.com so here u get 2 sites to work. In this way u can target niche market (nokia market) too. Dashes are used if there is no alternative for the domain u selected and u still want the keyword.

Its true that with dashes would gain much more than without dashes.

But here u can go with both and play with them and experiment them buddy

Cheers!!!!
Googler

 

so which is better go seo?

 

It makes no difference to the search engines, but it does to the user.

People are used to typing in addresses which are one long phase, rather than a series of words connected together by hyphens.

So go for www.freemobileringtones.com instead of www.free-mobile-ringtones.com

 

I would say it depends on how you are going to use the domain.

If you want to just tell people your web address over the phone, without the dashes might be preferred. Similarly, in newspaper ads and the like, dashes can help distinguish between words.

Personally, if it were an important project, I'd grab both variations.

 

If you are using dashes in the domain, then forget the type in traffic that will come to your site as far as seo it really does not matters.

 

Without dashes, although that domain name is very wordy. I agree with altyfc in buying both domain names. If you plan on running a newspaper ad and you want it to stand out, hyphens would probably work the best. Without hyphens works the best in every other situation IMO!

 

Without dashes is easier to type in and most domain names do not have dashes. However if both domains are available get both. You can use them in different situations then. For example when written the dashes would help it make more sense.

 

Without is better.

 

They would be exactly the same in SERPs but the non-hyphenated one has better brandability.

Go with the non-hyphenated one.

 

Without dashes is better from a memory stand point. People typing in your domain. In most cases if you have the keywords again in the text of the site, search engines are pretty good at separating the words.

 

for google algorithm it does not matter

but from user standpoint, use one without dashes

 

Apparently there was a time when Google treated urls differently in regard to results that were returned when dots, instead of dashes, were part of a url. As far as SERPS are concerned there is no measurable difference.

My own research does indicate, depending on the url choice that's the best match for your target market, you may actually drive more traffic with dashes than you do with dots. One url I tested returned 44 million searches compared with approximately 600 thousand or so with dots.

The best advise I can offer is to test several versions of your url in the search box and see what you get.

Hope this helps.

Ciao,
Doc Rich