Wondering if using a dash in your web address is a bad thing or does it not matter? if you have web address: www.example-testsite.com is the dash okay... usually we use the dash because the site www.exampletestsite.com is taken and we really want to use that name. I find that the dash has no effect but some have told me it does. Just wondering... does it help with SEO at all? Any other benifits?
For Search Engines the dash is perfectly acceptable and will do nothing to either help or hinder the placement of the site. For the end-user who will open a browser and manually type in the url it can make an enormous difference as they have trouble remembering if there is a dash (usually they forget).
yeah, the dash is good for search engines because it could actually separate your keywords but in my opinion your domain will be longer and harder to type. so you'll get less direct hits.
If you rely on the search engines for getting site visits, then use dash. But when when your users "return" to your site, they will go to your competitor. Get a new name.
If people actually use the dash when typing the words it could be good, but otherwise I would recommend against it. For example, "e-mail" has 5.3 billion google hits, "email" has only 3 billion. So owning "e-mail.com" would be a good buy (obviously).
We do not personally like a domain with dash and do not suggest either. Dashed domains are not even search engine friendly though people have differnet views on thisw issue. Good luck, DAMnX.us
For niche sites, having dashes is better. It helps them to know your keywords. For example, makemoneyonline.com could be mak emon eyonl ine as far as a computer is concerned. Therefore, for niche sites I often use a dash or a different TLD. If you want to develop a quality site with readership and natural traffic you will want to avoid dashes as much as possible.
That's simply not true. The SE algos figured out a long time ago how to pick out the keywords in domains so your example of a broken up domain is meaningless.
I've heard it said that Google think one dash is OK and two is spammy. Try to think of a more imaginative name without any!
I agree with the same as most people above has stated. It is better to not use the dash, but as you mentioned the url without the dash was already taken and you really want the name so go for it
Depends what you mean by 'worse'. The SE's don't give a stuff between those two types of site name generally speaking so from a SERPs perspective it makes no difference whatsoever. The end-user however, generally has difficulty remembering to put a dash into a url when they are typing it into a browser. Incidentally, that's why typo-domains are worth so much money, because they will pick up the traffic from all those mis-typed domains so asking the end-user to remember to put a dash into the domain when they are typing it is usually asking too much, therefore if the target market for the domain will rely on type-ins the dash is usually a bad idea. If the target is purely SE traffic it doesn't matter so much.
having a - in the domain name is not good in terms of branding. if you are looking at long term this might be a issue. eg : some people tend to type the domain name without the - , and they will go to your competitors site hard to remember the domain name with a – inbetween
not to mention... if you try to TELL someone to visit a site with a dash... you have to say for www.my-website.com = Go visit w w w dot my dash web site dot com. I guess that is kinda retarded?