A Hyphen in a Domain - Does it Matter?

blackhatbeavis

BANNED

Oct 22, 2012

364

73

• Nov 27, 2012

• #1

I'm looking for a new domain, the niche has a lot of competition so good keyword domains are hard to come by,

After big G's recent updates - does having a hyphen in a domain have a negative effect on the SEO for the website?


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Beavis

 

R0meo

Senior Member

Nov 5, 2011

839

371

• Nov 27, 2012

• #2

in my cases it doesn't mater - just look nonprofessional

 

F

freller

Regular Member

Sep 26, 2008

218

71

• Nov 27, 2012

• #3

I've got a sizeable mixture of with and without - the withouts always do better in all 3 of the major SE's in my experience.

 

masterjani

Elite Member

Jr. VIP

May 10, 2011

6,104

534

• Nov 27, 2012

• #4

Always try to get domain without hyphen by trying to get in .org,.net etc

 

ja1myn

Senior Member

Feb 3, 2012

818

307

• Nov 27, 2012

• #5

Doesn't matter.

 

M1ndfluX

Banned - Selling via PM

Dec 23, 2009

1,129

882

• Nov 27, 2012

• #6

If its a competitive niche i would not go for it if i was you. Better target a lesser competitive niche or kwphrase if you want trough seo see the first bucks roll in within a month.

And already stated by romo, it looks not professional and i always type in the .com without the hyphens like most of us i guess

Im having awesome results with .org domains lately over .nets last months btw...

 

Last edited: Nov 27, 2012

aldis

Elite Member

Apr 10, 2009

1,590

589

• Nov 27, 2012

• #7

Doesn't affect your SERPs at all... It may just affect a little your CTR because it sometimes look kinda "unprofessional" to have hyphens within the domain name though, but this is minimal in most cases.

 

F

formosa

Regular Member

Apr 30, 2008

354

38

• Nov 27, 2012

• #8

i wouldn't mind having domain with one hyphen ..

 

S

SnowWar

Power Member

Mar 3, 2012

595

48

• Nov 27, 2012

• #9

Hyphen is just like a letter, nothing else.It won't cause any harm.

 

K

Kaistar

Power Member

Jan 9, 2010

562

336

• Nov 27, 2012

• #10

I find it makes no difference to serps but as mentioned by others, the presence of a hyphen can devalue the site in some peoples eyes.

 

A

AuthorityDomains

Newbie

Sep 9, 2011

41

10

• Nov 27, 2012

• #11

I don't think it matters and Matt Cutts has also confirmed this in one of his videos. It's all about how you do your link building.

 

Techxan

Elite Member

Dec 7, 2011

3,091

3,620

• Nov 27, 2012

• #12

Actually my experience is mixed. I have a pet site with two hyphens in it and is does so-so. Not that google has a problem with it, it ranks well. Traffic is not where I think it should be and I believe the title looks spammy to people in the serps.

On my local sites, I often use "carpetcleaning-houston" or "landscaping-dallas" and these sites rank like gangbusters.

Its a mixed bag, but using it for a site modifier seems to have no effect at all. Using it to get a EMD in there looks spammy to me.

I think people are resistant to it, but SE's are kind of ambivalent.

 

A

amoore9900

Regular Member

Feb 25, 2011

231

27

• Nov 27, 2012

• #13

I have got a number of domains such as name-name-name and it ranked strong for a while. I'm trying to avoid the - and EMD type domains for now.