It's 2017: Does a dash "-" matter in a domain or url or filename

It's 2017: Does a dash "-" matter with regards to SEO in a

1) domain?
2) url structure including subdirectories?
or
3) filename?

Thanks in advance ~

Like in a URL's subfolder? No, stuff like site.com/index/ny-news/local-news/1.html is completely normal. Google knows what a dash is. Using it in a domain is less "en vogue" these days, as Google stopped rewarding spammy multi-dash sites like www.red-pajamas-with-zippers.com so most people I know won't touch domains with more than one dash (for branding reasons as well). So to summarize, don't abuse dashes in domain names, but use it where it makes sense in URL structures and file names. Namely, where you'd naturally put a space if it is multiple words you don't want to run together.

-ThopHayt

thedorf said:

It's 2017: Does a dash "-" matter with regards to SEO in a

1) domain?
2) url structure including subdirectories?
or
3) filename?

Thanks in advance ~

Click to expand...

A domain without hyphen would generally be preferred as I think that is the first option to try if you're not sure. For SEO I don't think the hyphen in the domain matters much so long as it reflects the site content.

It could happend though, that the search ranking is affected positively by the similarity between the domain and the search queries your visitors might use looking for the content your site has.

I would register both to be safe, and then use the one without hyphen