Domain with dashes vs domain with no dashes

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maykino

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Hello all, I've been wondering what is the impact of using dashed in the domain name? I run SEO for mostly construction companies and very often, all domains related to my keywords are taken. If you can't buy for example: roofingcompany[dot]com would it be a lot worse to buy roofing-company[dot]com ?


Thanks
 
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I use dashes but many will tell you not to and putting a dash in will mean it's not an emd. But I rank a very competitive term without the keywords in the url and using a dash. It hasn't dome me any harm. Mind you if had the emd I might be in first place instead of 3rd!
 
it is still emd, google totally ignores dashes
it;s just domain filled with dashes looks unprofessional
 
Why does everyone freak out when it comes to dashes, if you can't rank a domain with dashes then you can't rank a domain without them its as simple as that. There is no difference unless you do t-h-i-s.com or this--word.com - if you use dashes in places of spaces then it's fine.
 
I still rank highly for some very competitive keywords with dashes in it. However customer recall will be less and it looks a bit unprofessional.

Just google 'dog training' and the first result is the best example for you question.
 
HelloInsomnia said:
Why does everyone freak out when it comes to dashes, if you can't rank a domain with dashes then you can't rank a domain without them its as simple as that. There is no difference unless you do t-h-i-s.com or this--word.com - if you use dashes in places of spaces then it's fine.
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Yep exactly! +rep for that.
 
It wasn't' about if you can rank with dashes or not. I was wondering if SE rank it differently. I noticed to be more difficult to rank my clients that use .net instead of .com...
 
HelloInsomnia said:
Why does everyone freak out when it comes to dashes, if you can't rank a domain with dashes then you can't rank a domain without them its as simple as that. There is no difference unless you do t-h-i-s or this--word - if you use dashes in places of spaces then it's fine.
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This is a good point. Do we know for a fact that google may ignore 1 dash but not 2 dashes in-between words? whats to prevent people form abusing multiple dashes between words.
 
If you need to make a brand, dash definitely does not look good. Because customer might be repeat visitors and they might not remember the hypen in domain. However if you are making some adsense website or review stuff, dashes does not make difference. In terms of ranking, it does not make any difference as per my experience
 
Don't think it makes a difference for seo.
I have a keyword-with-dashes.com' ranking #1 in both Google UK and USA.
 
I don't really know if people remember urls. My memory is so short, I have to add everything to my bookmarks or I simply start typing the name of the company in the address bar in Chrome and the last addresses pop up.
 
I got a domain with 2 dashes, its beating big sites, so go for it. Its only about great content and SEO.
 
HelloInsomnia said:
Why does everyone freak out when it comes to dashes, if you can't rank a domain with dashes then you can't rank a domain without them its as simple as that. There is no difference unless you do t-h-i-s.com or this--word.com - if you use dashes in places of spaces then it's fine.
Click to expand...

Because even Matt Cutts listed hyphenated domain names as a negative quality factor. Don't ask me for the source it was in one of his panda videos. Where he mentioned all the things they ask their focus (fuk us) groups and that was on the list of things they disliked or made a site look spammy.
Now will it make or break you? No. But if you can avoid it, do so.
 
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