Question about hyphens and EMD's

Okay, so I was looking for some peoples advice on this; I have the idea for a new money site and have found the primary keyword I want to target however the exact match domain is not available for this keyword.

In terms of SEO would it make sense to register this domain with hyphens it (e.g. my-key-word.com) or would it be better to add the word 'find' before my keyword in the domain (e.g. FindMyKeyWord.com)??

Although adding the word 'find' to the domain makes it easier for users to read & remember, that phrase doesn't get any searches in itself. So would it be better for SEO to register a domain with hyphens in it or with an additional word for me to rank higher easier?

If you cannot register EMD then I'll go with:

a) version with hyphens if there will be ONLY one dash in domain name (personally I don't register domain with more than one hyphens for security reasons - I feel safer )
b) version of EMD+word in every other situation

I use alternatively both of these types to diversify my web's portfolio.

Buysellbooth,

I think whether you go with the hyphenated version or the one with the additional word at the beginning, neither will provide you any noticeable difference in being able to rank the website. While the EMD can help, it is one of many factors and if your site is not of high quality, it wouldn't even matter if you got the non-hyphenated version in the first place. I would go with whatever will appear more relevant for the content of the site.

Best,

Shawn

I always tend to avoid hyphens when buying domains. It stands out like a red sore in the serps.

try to avoid hyphens. It's always good to add a little letter or a related word in the end of the domain name, but no hyphens.

I have had BOTH good and bad experiences with hyphens. If you have to buy the hyphened domain then do it, otherwise, if it can be avoided, then buy the EMD.

EMDs (Exact Match Domains) and PMDs (Phrase Match Domains) are hardly any different in terms of SEO effect, as long as you don't over-extend the domain name length.

As a rule of thumb, add a suffixed word at the end, to keep the keyword at the front; this also helps psychologically with searchers. So...

http://www.keywordblah.com

..where 'blah' is a short add-on word. If you can find a relevant/topical and SEO useful word, all the better. I.e maybe a long-tail phrase that is also worth SEOing for which has another word after. So, for instance, if my keyword was 'platinum jewelry', I'd try for: platinumjewelry.com.. Failing that I could use 'platinumjewelryhallmarked.com', as this is a PMD, but its also an EMD for the long-tail which might be with pursuing and may well rank faster.

I always choose PMDs that contain/start with EMDs that I could shoot for later when I've gained some authority. Generally, if you follow this route, you'll never have to worry about those godawful hyphens!