I have a gaming website I have been running for quite a while, I think a couple of years now and the domain has a hyphen in and since when I first purchased the domain I have learnt that a hyphen may not be good so I was hoping to get some opinions on the domain and if I should consider something else or keep the domain because it has alot of backlinks and has had alot of promotion? www.Online-Multiplayer.com Any comments are appreciated, thanks!
Hyphens are not good for type ins but if there is a community to remember it it won't be a problem. It will not hurt to much and as far as SERPs I don't think it hurts at all. If the non hyphenated version becomes available buy it and forward it to your current site.
Keep it for now and if you find something more brandable, then just replace the logo with the new name and have the new domain name redirect to the current url.
So if I find a new domain that is better I should just forward it and then promote it like that or would I be better making the new domain the main domain?
If you want to change domains then 301 redirecting the old one to the new one shouldn't result in a loss of rankings as long as you do it right. Make sure you redirect all the old pages to the identical new pages. Don't redesign the site at the same time.
It's fine. It shouldn't have a noticable effect. Your situation reminds me of what I hate: Greedy, unheard-of search engines that buy domains that have potential in hope of making $1 profit... IF THAT! If you're confused, I ranted about this after visiting http://www.onlinemultiplayer.com/ :-( Good luck
I believe (and I have read about this on a Google-related forum) that hypens are treated a spaces - hence creating multiple keywords from one. So keeping your current domain wouldn't be a problem. Remember that content is key.
Keep the domain. The age of it and all of it's back links are important. If you would like to get a domain more brandable, go ahead but keep your older site and make your new domain a new site.
I agree with educ8it, they are treated as space's and shouldn't harm your site in terms of seo / serp / pr Hyphens and numbers do however devalue the price that you could sell a domain name for.
In my experiences you might see a slight dip in rankings, but in a few weeks it should be back to what it was. Well worth it if you find an older more brandable domain!
Well Dominicc2003, onlinemultiplayer is owned by a person I would guess, not a search engine. The one you have a problem with is the person who bought and simply parked the site, instead of developing anything on it. Right? Or did something just go over my head. Totally possible if so.
I try to avoid hyphens when buying domain names, but they're perfectly fine to develop sites. They're treated like spaces, so they may even clarify to the search engines your intended keywords.
My two-cent is that you keep the domain. Do you dislike it because the hyphen makes your domain look cheap? Sure people tend to forget the hyphen and go to onlinemultiplayer.com. Google/Yahoo/MSN some keywords and you would see many sites with hypenated domains are listed high. PM if you want to sell it.
If you find your site is good in SERP's then don't think about hypen just do every promotional tactics for better positioning.