Hi all, I'm wondering does google treat dashed domains differently than non-dashed names? I'm deciding on a .com domain with no dashes or a .net domain with a dash and a main keyword i'm targeting. If I obtain the same SEO on both, will the keyword based dash net domain perform better than the .com? Thanks
I think you should opt for the .com when it is available. This will at least help your visitors remember your domain name easier. I don't think Google would put you at a disadvantage for using a domain with a single dash in it. I have gotten Google rankings such such domains. I wouldn't be surprised if they did penalize websites with more than 1 or 2 dashes. When you use multiple dashes it looks quite spammy. Without a dash, the search engines will still recognize your keywords in your domain. So I think the .com is your best choice.