Will a "-" (score) in your domain name reduce chances of being indexed?

I recall hearing somewhere that having a score "-" in your domain name makes it much harder if not impossible for search engines to find your site. I dont rmember if it was for a domain name or just file names. Any assurance will be appreciated

Thanks

 

There is a search link in the ribbon above, use it.

 

No, a dash in the domain will not pose any problems for the Search Engines

 

Don't confuse a hyphen (-) with an underscore (_). Hyphens are OK but underscores are not OK for SEO.

 

I don't think its even possible to even register a domain with an underscore in it (Actually I know it isn't)

Gig-Guru - Are you asking about a domain you plan to register - ie. www.your-domain.com or your file structure - ie. www.test.com/your-file/your_file.htm

 

Quite right yfs1 I was meaning for filenames.

 

SE's read them as spaces. I've used them extensively in order to stuff keywords into the URL.

 

Kewl, yeah i meant ww.my-domain.com.

Abuzant- sorry, i know i should use the search, unfortunately im on dial up for the next month. It would literally take 10 minutes to search anything, not including filtering out other results

JackBurton- what do you mean by stuffing keywords into the url?

 

Well, say, I want to target a site that has information on blue widgets, and I'm thinking I want to grab all the search results for people typing in "information on blue widgets". So I would register information-blue-widgets.com, etc. It sounds unwiedy as hell, but trust me, it does work.

 

Going for long-term business building, I prefer to choose a domain I can really brand, vs. just going for keyword phrases (whose desirability may change in the future).

 

Very good, because I have one in my domain, but now I can feel happy ^^

 

happy to hear that registed one a couple of weeks ago with 2 - in it

 

I had one it did ok------------------

 

how about two or more successive hyphens in a domain name, such as in www.a--z.com ?

 

Is that even allowed? If so I would steer clear of it.

 

It seems to be allowed. www.a--z.com is up and running. Mind you www.a---z.com is not registered, seems to be a nice one, take it!

 

From my understanding the main reason against using a hyphen in your domain name is if you want to pass it on verbally to someone (TV ad, on the phone or something...) If so, hyphens make it a pain in the ass...

"No, I said information HYPHEN Blue HYPHEN Widgets.com, not informationbluewidgets.com..."

If you are intending on being found mostly through referrals or search engines, they're not really an issue.

Here's a question for you though: What is most likely to be returned highest in SERPs (assuming all else is equal) informationbluewidgets.com or information-blue-widgets.com?

(I would have thought it was the one with the hyphens...)

 

All else being equal, the hyphens will make it clear that the respective keywords were targeted, which make the hyphenated domain names rank slightly better, I think.

 

They dont pose as any difference in my opinion, and in case of file names, dont use Underscores, as I think they aren't great for SEO

IT

 

Using a double hyphen on your url like that is pointless, its allowed but really serves no purpose in terms of SEO.

As Jack said go with information-blue-widgets.com it does work wonders with the search engines.