Hyphens vs Dashes - Page 3

Great Elephant · #21 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008, 03:30 AM

I've finally decided on a few domains that are serious possibilities for my website

My plan was to initially purchase the hyphenated version of the domain and the identical .net version but now I'm thinking since no one has taken the "normal" version I might want to purchase those too for branding purposes as well as ease of use for visitors and obviously to protect myself from copy cats

Lets say I happen to purchase 4 domains both the .com's and both the.nets can I use 3 of the domains to redirect to the one site? and would a redirect domain/website effect SEO? Would I only need to have the Meta Description and Keywords for it to work?

lisa · #22 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008, 01:07 PM

The 3 domains that you are going to redirect do not need meta info because there will be no content. They will also not affect your main site. I do this all the time. As you can see 2createawebsite.net redirects to my .com domain.

Great Elephant · #23 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

The 3 domains that you are going to redirect do not need meta info because there will be no content. They will also not effect your main site. I do this all the time. As you can see 2createawebsite.net redirects to my .com domain.

Thanks for the heads up Ms. Lisa

James · #24 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008, 05:26 PM

Unless you have good reason (like it not being available) it is almost always valuable to include the dot com whenever it is available either as the base or a redirect.

In addition to the fact that many people think primarily dot com and may not remember your extension, another reason is that many people just type in the primary part of a domain in the bar and hit "control enter" to go there because it automatically enters the http://www and the .com for you saving a lot of time. Even if they then change the extension and come on to your site they will go elsewhere first.

Lajocar · #25 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008, 01:07 AM

dot com version of domain name is always good, because it sounds better and people remember it.

Multimastery · #26 (**permalink**) 06-15-2008, 04:39 PM

Ok so let me make sure i'm clear on this...

a website name WITHOUT dashes will be read as just one single word by the engines. But if it contains dashes if would be read as separate words by the search engines -- which could effect search engine rankings in a positive way.

Am I correct on this?...

If so I guess it would be more strategic to always attempt to secure the dashed version of your domain name for search engine optimization purposes, and just use the regular shorter version when giving your URL out people directly.

James · #27 (**permalink**) 06-15-2008, 04:55 PM

Multimastery

You are correct, as far as the current consensus is concerned. No one knows what next year will hold as far as SEO, but for now you understand the way it works and express clearly what is most recommended.

Multimastery · #28 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 09:15 PM

Thanks

alpha7 · #29 (**permalink**) 06-28-2008, 06:16 AM

I just learned this from SBI. I am so behind. So theoretically, you would only need the hyphenated version for search engines and maybe email advertising. But, you could use a completely different and much shorter name that would not do well with search engines because of competition. For instance, how-to-write-a-book.com for that actual domain and t-shirt domain could be youwrite.com or uwrite.com that redirects to the site.

I was a little concerned that someone else has the un-dashed version of my new site, but if I get better placement than they do on search engines, I don't think people will bypass my site to click on the other link.

lisa · #30 (**permalink**) 06-28-2008, 08:30 AM

IMO, as the net matures, this is becoming less and less of a factor. I still think inbound links from quality sites matters much more than whether or not your domain name is hyphened. I certainly had no trouble getting traffic to 2createawebsite.com back in 2002 when the hyphen issue was probably more of a factor. Now, does that mean I would have gotten more had I hyphened it? Who knows? But in today's times I'm not sure that is as much of in issue.

And to your point, alpha, about people bypassing you... people are going to be looking at how compelling your title and description are much more so than whether or not your domain is hyphenated. I personally hyphenated my SBI! domain just because I thought it displayed better in the browser and it's easier to read by humans... not so much because I thought it would get better placement.

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