To Hyphen or Not To Hyphen

myfirstwebsite · #1 (**permalink**) 04-23-2007, 08:22 PM

What is everyone's take on hyphens in domain names? I've read everything from yes you should to no you shouldn't. Does it really make that big of a difference when it comes to search engines?

I tend to lean toward not hyphenating - it just looks better to me.

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 07:13 AM

Ahhh.... the question of the year. That's a tough one because I have mixed emotions about hyphens. I personally think if you have a long domain name then you should hyphenate it because it's more pleasing to the eye in the browser. I hate seeing mycoolwebsitemakesgoodmoney.com all run together like that.

Now some will argue that people will not remember to type the hyphens when typing in your address but the reality is most people will get to your site via a link anyway. Not many people type addresses in their browser.

As far as the SE's go some experts say the hyphen helps the spiders read the individual words and then others have said it doesn't make a difference. So I honestly don't think it matters in the grand scheme of things. I haven't been able to see any significant differences among my sites.

miles · #3 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 11:41 AM

I personally hate hyphens but I understand why they may be necessary (long URLs as you stated Lisa) One thing that comes to mind is a site I frequently visit, and they have a hyphenated URL. Sometimes I do type in URLs instead of using bookmarks (I guess I type super fast so it seems quicker... LOL) and there are occassions where I've misstyped a particular site, forgetting they had a hyphenated address.

amybiddle · #4 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 06:21 PM

Myfirstwebsite:

I had the same questions when I got my first (real) site going. My solution was to use hyphens for my main domain (because it's three words and they looked wrong all mushed together, and I doubted that the SEs could read them right without hyphens) and, as a little insurance policy, I bought the domain without hyphens and pointed it to my main domain.

Now, if I tell someone about my site verbally (on phone interviews, when I teach in person in public, or just one on one) I don't worry about spelling the site name out and indicating that the hyphens are important, because I've taken away that glitch by having both.

My second site is two short words - and the main domain is without hyphens. I did purchase the hyphenated version for the same reasons as above, but there's less chance for error with this 2nd one.

Good luck with your decision!

myfirstwebsite · #5 (**permalink**) 04-24-2007, 10:53 PM

Thanks everyone. yes ideally i'd like a two-word domain but am having trouble coming up with one that's catchy and easy to remember. I may have to do a 3-word and just use the hyphens as you did amy.

ppcFanatic · #6 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007, 11:23 AM

Don't forget you can always add a number in front. For example if you want the domain cookieinfo.com, you could do 4cookieinfo.com or something like that. I try to only register two-word domains too if I can help it.

Although I don't go for the organic SE traffic much since I mainly use AdWords so the SE traffic isn't usually a factor for me.

Seclinix · #7 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007, 03:03 PM

hyphens are just there so people can have a similar name eg. www.-example.com so if you accidently add a hyphen then you have a visitor.... also it helps with domain names, most domain names are limited now because the web is huge so they make more ways of hosting sites for people. One day they may have something like www2.example.com or www3.example.com or www4.example.com

Seclinix · #8 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007, 03:04 PM

sorry bout the link... i put it in text but it changes to url

myfirstwebsite · #9 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007, 06:57 PM

ppcfanatic, yeah I think that's what I am going to end up doing. Thanks!

Vera.Chandler · #10 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 02:28 PM

Hi,

100 votes to Lisa.

Even I think hyphenated names looks better than those jumbled upon ones. Also rarely people type in now a days. But still, during a phone call or so, there are chances for typing or noting them down. Even then, with a hyphen between all words in the domain name is not at all tough to remember!

ncaditya · #11 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 07:27 PM

My opinion:

No hyphens for humans

Hyphens for search engines

Make one domain point to the other, so that your site gets both type in traffic and fares well in search engines.

Vera.Chandler · #12 (**permalink**) 07-18-2007, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncaditya

My opinion:

No hyphens for humans

Hyphens for search engines

Make one domain point to the other, so that your site gets both type in traffic and fares well in search engines.

TRUE! Domain forwarding is a nice option for both types of names to be in the traffic. Good logic.

DORMAX34 · #13 (**permalink**) 07-25-2007, 09:43 AM

is number good for search engine?

if you have something like moneyforus.com and instead you have money4us.com it may be better to read at but is it good for google search engine?

TechieGuy · #14 (**permalink**) 07-25-2007, 08:31 PM

Personally, I don't like hyphens unless the domain name is long--and in that case I would look for a new name. With most Web sites not using hyphens, many users may not remember to include a hyphen when typing in the name.

As for numbers, if it works with the name then use it.

Lajocar · #15 (**permalink**) 07-27-2007, 05:24 AM

I personally think that hyphens is good for SEO purposes.

If you do a search in Google for e.g. "make a website" ... 629 million websites will appear in the Google SERPs

Now look who has the no1 spot

***How To Create A Web Page***If you want to, you can make other directories, one for all the web pages ... To Make a paragraph of "This is a web page. How do you like what I've done? ...
www.make-a-web-site.com/ - 2k - Cached - Similar pages

As you can see that www.make-a-web-site.com has the no1 spot from 629 million websites.

I have a lot websites and two of them have a long hyphenated url's

http://www.how-2-make-a-website.com and http://www.how-2-create-a-website.com

These two websites have already got no 1 spots in Google, Yahoo and MSN for certain keywords (phrases)

I will get short domain names that will redirect to them soon.

In my personal opinion hypenated url's work and is good for SEO.

The argument would be is underscores good for your filenames?

This is another topic

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