What's your opinion of hyphenated domain names?

[Dien Rice]

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".

Hi Scott,

I think hyphenated domain names have both good and bad qualities...

For some domain names, there's a "type in" factor - that is, how likely people are to just "type it in" when they're looking for something. I think people generally don't type in the dashes (and it can be hard for some people to find the hyphen on their keyboard!).

So, while some people might type in "runningshoes.com" (if they're looking for running shoes), I suspect they're less likely to spontaneously type in "running-shoes.com".

Also, people, I think, are less likely to remember the hyphen. So if you tell people to go to running-shoes.com, some people will forget the hyphen and go to runningshoes.com - which might be your competitor (or some spammy website).

On the other hand, when people link to a website, they often do so just using the domain name. So, for example, if a person links to www.running-shoes.com - I think search engines are more likely to see this as the phrase "running shoes". On the other hand, if there's a link to www.runningshoes.com - the search engine sees this more as the single word "runningshoes". Anyway, this might affect search engine placement in some cases (positively for the one with the hyphen)...

The rule I tend to follow is - where possible, get both. If the one without the hyphen is available, get that. If the one without the hyphen is not available, but the one with the hyphen is available, then consider it, but consider alternative phrases too, since you might be able to find a good one without the hyphen...

I hope that helps! (I have several domains, both with and without hyphens...)

Cheers,

Dien