is hyphenated domain name good or bad for SEO

For domaining (i.e. buying/selling domains) hyphens are generally considered bad. For SEO hyphens are no problem.

 

In my opinion as long as you have used researched keywords in the domain it shouldn't make a difference.
I also think the first word before the hyphen should be your main keyword.
Just what has worked for me guys...

 

i always wondered about the difference that hyphens made in a domain name - this thread has really cleared things up - thanks peeps =D

 

I have heard that another rule of thumb is to not make the URL longer than 70 characters- Google stops at 70.

 

Do a search on your targeted keywords. Then look at the top 10 or so results and check whether there are hyphens in the domains. For one of my keywords sets the results contain domains both with and without hyphens but more without. This may just be because the guys who got in first have more SEO skill or just because they got in first. It'd definitely not a complete no-no (!) to have hyphens though I'd guess it's better not to have.

Ste

 

There is no any difference from the SEO point. You can use underscore, or hyphen, or even don't use any separator at all - this neither helps, nor hurts your position in SERPs.

 

It doesn't help when people are trying to type in your domain

 

Its not exactly bad for seo, seo depends more on the content of the website and how you promote it (vis-a-vis backlinks from quality authority websites etc.) But humans may have trouble remembering the hyphenated domain name as to where exactly the hyphen goes.