What's your opinion of hyphenated domain names?

Keep in mind...

PR usually has No preference on your choice of domain name.

There's a whole different debate on how PR can make you Money and sometimes Not...

Phil

[Ankesh]

Hi Pete,

.edu sites usually rank higher than .com sites.

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Scott,

Thanks for asking. You've already received good advice.

My opinion is: go with non-hyphen names if you can find one. Because they are better from usability point of view. If you take a long view, you will face a nuisance after 5 years when your website is popular and people mistakenly type the domain without the hyphen.

From the search engines point of view, there is negligible difference between a domain with hyphens and a domain without hyphens. But from your audiences point of view, hyphenated domain names isn't a good idea.

Originally Posted by Scott S.

Such as a name like domain-name.com. Does it cause any real problems? Problems with search engines ranking. Also problems with an actual search for the term "domain name".

Scott S.

Scott,

Hyphenated domains such as domain-name.com should not cause problems with search engines at all.

As for how it will hurt or help your business, that mainly depends on how you will advertise. If a lot of your traffic will be driven by business cards, fliers, word of mouth, and so forth... then you will want something that is easy to remember and preferrably short.

On the other hand, if you will be advertising mostly through search engines, and linking to other websites / from other websites, then hyphenating your domain will not cause a problem. People who find your site from search engines, links, and then book mark your site could for the most part care less how long your domain is.

I own www.Bluefireweb.com which is a hosting company, designing websites / search engine optimization / and hosting are my specialties!!

Hope this helps!

Daniel Rosales
http://bluefireweb.com/

Scott,

Thanks for ASKing.

A Hyphenated domain name does not cause a problem with "search term". Generally, your search engine results will be more about the terms used on the Website as opposed to its domain name.

Look at your own searching. How often does a site come back in the results who domain name has Nothing to do with the Search Term you entered? Every time, yeah?

As for people Typing a name into the location bar... how often do You do it? Not often, if ever, I bet. I'd say, you move around the 'Net by Clicking Links, don't you? The same way those who come to your site will get there - by clicking links. In which case, it doesn't matter as Much whether the website has a hyphenated name or not.

The main thing about a Hyphen name is... it's prestigious. It makes you Sound more Official. It Might even give your customers more Confidence to shop with you - then again, if you have what they are after and it's hard to get elsewhere, they might just buy it anyway and sales won't be hurt at all.

Domain names are so Cheap these days, there really is no excuse for not Just Jumping In and Giving It A Go, hyphenated name or not, for whatever idea you have.

Get the non-hyphenated if you can. Even one of the others like .net or .info. Otherwise, go with the hyphen and market better than the others. Either way, Getting Started is More Important than agonizing over a hyphen.

Michael Ross

Thanks everyone for the response.
Scott S.