Will hyphens in my domain cause any issues with the search engines?

Discussion in 'Domain Names' started by humpty13, Dec 21, 2011.

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  1. #1
    I am looking to resister a niche site and the domain name I want has hyphens in it. As far as my research shows this will not negatively effect my ranking with the search engines, but there may be some issues for users who are typing in the domain name.

    Does anybody have any experience with hyphened domain names and have they worked well or badly for you in the past?
     
    humpty13, Dec 21, 2011 IP
  2. terier

    terier Peon

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    #2
    There are many disagreements about this issue. There are some that say it's better to have you keywords with no hyphen and some that say the opposite.
    From my personal experience in SEO (5 years), it doesn't really carry a big weight, as long as you have the keyword in the domain in some way and you take care of all other SEO aspects of site.
     
    terier, Dec 21, 2011 IP
  3. kokopelli

    kokopelli Peon

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    #3
    I hate hyphens, they look unprofessional and spammy IMHO (in particular, if it is a .INFO too), and I think search engines (especially, Google) agree.
     
    kokopelli, Dec 21, 2011 IP
  4. tomeus

    tomeus Peon

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    #4
    Not with search engines, they treat domains with hyphen same as without. But in general I try to avoid them since it is hard to pronounce them and people get confused when you tell them go to myname hyphne my last anme dot com ;-)
     
    tomeus, Dec 21, 2011 IP
  5. humpty13

    humpty13 Peon

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    #5
    Thanks for your opinions. I would also only stick with hyphen domains if they are .com or .co.uk - I agree that there are some negatives for the users, but most people seem to agree that Google don't mind them too much. Was shown a good example today - if you google web directory 3 of the top ten sites have hyphens in them...
     
    humpty13, Dec 21, 2011 IP
  6. samdar

    samdar Well-Known Member

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    #6
    I always use domains with keywords and hyphen because most of the non hyphen domains are already picked up. I had no issues what so ever. Unless and until you do basics like offering good content and building good backlinks it wouldnt be a problem. All my domains with hyphen are ranking well. But from a branding standpoint dont use long domains with more than 3 hyphens. Even 3 hyphen is too long for me.
     
    samdar, Dec 21, 2011 IP
  7. savioder

    savioder Peon

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    #7
    Hypenated domain names are excellent for SEO purposes. However, only take up domain names with 1 hyphen as those score much, much better. 2 or more hyphens are messy and not ranked well. I have 300 odd hyphenated domains and have never had any issues with the ones with a single hyphen but the moment I registered a domain with 2 hyphens then that was when it was really difficult to market it. This is my 2 cents anyway.
     
    savioder, Dec 23, 2011 IP