Dashes in domain name? Harmful for SEO?

[Ander]

I searched around and the only thread on bhw i could find about this was from 6 years ago.
I've read in some posts that google ignores it, I've read in others that it hurts ranking.
In the event that you can choose:
exact-match.com or exactmatch.net
Which do you go for? Anyone currently ranked high with dashed domain names?

 

[Mobrich24]

I believe they ignore but i would rather put my words together it's easier for the customer to remember rather then joes-crabs.com I would put joescrabs.com for user friendliness.

 

[Ander]

I believe they ignore but i would rather put my words together it's easier for the customer to remember rather then joes-crabs.com I would put joescrabs.com for user friendliness.

would you say though that a non .com without dash is better than a .com with the dash?
would you pick joes-crabs.com or joescrabs.net?

 

[dhia27]

For me, I see no reason it would be harmful unless the content and on&off page SEO are BS.
I am afraid that using EMD+hyphen is exactly what Google dislikes.

Another thing to put in mind I: if you rank, and I hope you will, the domain will look unprofessional and you'll get low CTR,that's what people say.

 

[Ander]

For me, I see no reason it would be harmful unless the content and on&off page SEO are BS.
I am afraid that using EMD+hyphen is exactly what Google dislikes.

Another thing to put in mind I: if you rank, and I hope you will, the domain will look unprofessional and you'll get low CTR,that's what people say.

yeah that's true too. i'm sure people would feel more comfortable going to healthguru.net than shadyweightlosspills.com
i'm just trying to squeeze out every drop of seo i can so that i can even make it to the front page, but i guess considering the long run is better

 

[kittykut]

I have a dash in my new authority site domain and it seems to be doing amazing, I believe there is no difference. I think Google treats it as a space. I would recommend getting the .com, but the better thing to do is buy both and redirect or forward them to the same site.

 

[GainRank]

would you say though that a non .com without dash is better than a .com with the dash?
would you pick joes-crabs.com or joescrabs.net?

Personally, I'd opt for neither. If its only the option between those two, make a brand name instead of an EMD. I think hyphens and .net look like shit and potential buyers/visitors could have the same thought process. But, keep in mind I'm a domain snob....

 

[dhia27]

Believe me, I am in your shoes right now, thinking to do the same as you are planning. I even considered using .xyz.
But, can't you just buy EMD domain (to help the process of SEO), make decent SEO, start banking and then build a brand and redirect your EMD to the brand which will gain the juice ?

 

[Ander]

Personally, I'd opt for neither. If its only the option between those two, make a brand name instead of an EMD. I think hyphens and .net look like shit and potential buyers/visitors could have the same thought process. But, keep in mind I'm a domain snob....

hmm... .com it is then. i guess i should just make a quick trip to the thesaurus lol

Believe me, I am in your shoes right now, thinking to do the same as you are planning. I even considered using .xyz.
But, can't you just buy EMD domain (to help the process of SEO), make decent SEO, start banking and then build a brand and redirect your EMD to the brand which will gain the juice ?

i think I recently read in a thread that doing this will actually mess up your rank in search engines. from the perspective of the search engine its like a pump fake i suppose.
can someone confirm this?

 

[GainRank]

hmm... .com it is then. i guess i should just make a quick trip to the thesaurus lol

Exactly, or go search godaddy expiring domains, a lot of times you can pick up some awesome names that expired and can get them for as little as $5-10. I will NEVER buy a non- .com nor will I buy a hyphen domain, but again, I'm a domain snob...

 

[dhia27]

Another thing to mention is, which another member said before, is that G considers hyphen as space (I red a ton of articles yesterday about the topic).
Anyway, feel free to contact me to chat more on the subject, maybe have some business.

 

[GainRank]

Another thing to mention is, which another member said before, is that G considers hyphen as space (I red a ton of articles yesterday about the topic).
Anyway, feel free to contact me to chat more on the subject, maybe have some business.

What happens when you choose best-cruises.com and you have people that come to your site, see your domain and they then want to come back naturally a few days/weeks later and directly input the URL and they put in bestcruises.com BOOM you just potentially lost a sale, traffic, ad click etc. and this is the exact reason I never do a non-.com nor hyphen domain. Same thing with a .net etc domain, people would probably type in the .com and not .net

This is just my opinion and experience, I never want to build a brand, just to lose potential traffic on something so simple to avoid from the beginning.

 

[dhia27]

i think I recently read in a thread that doing this will actually mess up your rank in search engines. from the perspective of the search engine its like a pump fake i suppose.
can someone confirm this?

If so, use PMD with no hyphens, I am sure you will find such valuable domains. (consider that I am not an expert yet, just my point of view). Good Luck !

 

[dhia27]

What happens when you choose best-cruises.com and you have people that come to your site, see your domain and they then want to come back naturally a few days/weeks later and directly input the URL and they put in bestcruises.com BOOM you just potentially lost a sale, traffic, ad click etc. and this is the exact reason I never do a non-.com nor hyphen domain. Same thing with a .net etc domain, people would probably type in the .com and not .net

This is just my opinion and experience, I never want to build a brand, just to lose potential traffic on something so simple to avoid from the beginning.

Totally true. Then, if not finding no hyphen EMD .com domains, should we build a brand (which seems hard work and hard to rank, for me) ??

 

[GainRank]

Totally true. Then, if not finding no hyphen EMD .com domains, should we build a brand (which seems hard work and hard to rank, for me) ??

Yup, brand all day. Personally, I always choose brand over EMD, it seems more professional and less spammy when you have a brand (QQTube.com) vs EMD (BuyCheapYouTubeViews.Com), it just seems more personal to have a brand and gives a potential customer in this example more piece of mind purchasing.

 

[dhia27]

Yup, brand all day. Personally, I always choose brand over EMD, it seems more professional and less spammy when you have a brand (QQTube.com) vs EMD (BuyCheapYouTubeViews.Com), it just seems more personal to have a brand and gives a potegntial customer in this example more piece of mind purchasing.

Fair enough, how do you compare ranking a brand vs an EMD in the same niche, which one is easier ??

 

[GainRank]

Fair enough, how do you compare ranking a brand vs an EMD in the same niche, which one is easier ??

I've never done my own SEO, so I unfortunately can't answer that. Nor have I ever tried to rank an EMD I've always gone the brand route. What I can tell you though, is that all of my branded domains have had no issue ranking very high/strong.

 

[dhia27]

I've never done my own SEO, so I unfortunately can't answer that. Nor have I ever tried to rank an EMD I've always gone the brand route. What I can tell you though, is that all of my branded domains have had no issue ranking very high/strong.

Good. If you advise me (PM) with some good SEO providers here you have worked with, that would be so much helpful.

 

[mkersen]

Anyone currently ranked high with domain names? Which do you go for?

 

[RayChand]

It doesn't matter as long as you have a good plan for the website. Content, Marketing and Classy Backlinks. Rest all can be ignored safely.