How should I structure a domain name?

Which way should I word a domain name?


1. WidgetCarParts.com

-or-

2. Widget-Car-Parts.com


Is one better then the other?

 

Yes

Structure No2 is correct and better even though Google can read No1

But if what you are really saying is that you wish to be high on allinurl which you can achieve by placing it in the file name or the directory name as well in an existing domain

 

And as personal preference, Widget-Car-Parts.com looks spammy and I will have less confidence in that site than WidgetCarParts.com MHO

 

I would go with the hyphenated domain name because this way when people link to you using the url as the anchor text it will still help you rank well for 'widget car parts'.

 

Yeah, but exam is right -- those double hyphenated site names look spammy. Ranking in Google is one thing; getting people to click on your link in the SERPs is another. I don't always click on the number 1 or 2 results -- do you?

People need to get back to making decisions on what will benefit their sales and potential customers and worry less about PR -- do the first thing right and the second will follow.

 

Plus, I don't know how advanced googles linguistics stuff is, but with their corpus of basically *all* the words on the internet, they very well might be able to sort out the three words in "WidgetCarParts.com".

And I agree with minstrel, make a site for your customers or users if it's useful to them and you do some common-sense SEO-type stuff, you'll do fine in the SERPs (That last statement is gut feeling, because I'm actually pretty new to webmastering) - But I know it's true

 

The parse out words idea has a few issues. I used to do a lot of searchs on deleteddomains (when it was free) where I would seach for names that included two strings. Every once in a while a really surprising result would pop out

I also think there is some risk of webmaster types seeing things which the average visitor would never notice. Domains with two hyphens may look/be spammy, but for the average soul searching Google I doubt many notice.

I always laugh when I read the comments graphics heavies at Sitepoint make when reviewing new sites. Change this color, make a line thinnner, etc. My visitors seem happy with my FrontPage 3.0 pages of text.

There may come a time when competition is intense when such factors will make a big difference between success and failure. Right now Google rewards you for putting up material before it is polished because they like to see changes. Tom Peters used to say "ready, fire, aim" and that seems like a good approach to website building these days. IMHO

 

Well Said! If you're picking the domain name for SEO you're half way to losing the battle. Build your site for your visitors. Then modify the site to meet your SEO needs while staying true to the "make sense" usability for your target client.

my personal domain reads: www.youneedme.com - clean says what it means and looks like a typical company domain name. It ranks quite well with standard SEO techniques.

This may be true, however, when one asks to have a site reviewed, usually it is not from an SEO standpoint. It is to get a "Blind" visitor to come to a site for the first time. When I do site reviews, I rarely look at code as that is not what I am attempting to review. There are way to many code checking software packages that someone shouldn't need a code review for a basic site.

I look at a site as a brand new user and it's usability. Its my first visit. How is the load time... Do I know from the layout how to move around the site quickly. Do I understand the navigation, does it make sense or do I get lost. Is it visually pleasing. Is it spammy. Are there image distractions or Flash distractions. Or...heaven forbid..does the damn site play god forsaken music with no off switch??? Is the text easy for me to read. Do the colors hurt my eyes. etc. etc. etc.

You laugh about colors, you would be amazed at how important this is to visitor retention. Some color combinations can, after a short period of time, cause your eyes to get irritated. If I have to read it, I darn sure don't want my eyes suffering for that fact.

Cheers

 

There may be some truth to that. But again you have to decide what your goal is -- getting the site to look good in Google or getting it to look good enough for your visitors to have them stay, browse around, and buy something. If a site looks under construction, don't count on them buying anything from you and, depending on how distinctive your domain name and other things about your site are, they may not bother to return for a second look once it's actually "finished".

 

You could always go with both, provided you can afford it. Search Engines might prefer the --- way however, if a person was really impressed with your site and wants to come back later they may forget the hyphens (don't forget the reason why people buy mispelled domain names on purpose). They may also think your site is spammy or an affiliate site or brand new and not trustworthy. If your competitors find that domain name without the hyphens available they may grab it and make a few bux off it. Anything is possible.. Good luck with your choice

 

I think part of the difficulty in figuring out what works best is the tremendous diversity of sites and their visitors. I know I made some assumptions about my visitors that did not hold up when I started looking closely at my stats. That is some of the reason I like to put sites up quickly even if they are not complete. There is just nothing like real data from actual visitors to point you in the right direction for your particular market.