SEO & Domain Names with Hyphens

[danl]

How do search engines treat domain names that include hyphens? I ask this question for the obvious reason that many domain names are taken when searching for available domain names that contain keywords which relate to your content-rich web site. However, if hyphens are inserted in a previously unavailable domain name then the chances of the hyphenated domain name being available are increased. How do hyphens affect search engine rankings? Are hyphens counterproductive to prudent SEO tactics? What should I know about using hyphens in domain names?

Dan

[999affiliates]

at this time SEs are treating hyphens as a individual word. So if your URL is
www.my-stie.com the search engines will read that as 3 separate words and the hyphen is basically a filler.
If you choose to use this tactic keep in mind you will not be able to change your site to a new market. you will be stuck at www.my-site.com

[Linda Buquet]

Note: if it's TOO long with too man hyphens a spam trigger goes off for search engines (I think) as well as consumers.

I'm talking a long one like make-money-online-from-home-easy-money.com

I personally would never do more than one hyphen (but doubt I would ever have to
resort to even 1), you could maybe get by with 2, but that's the max I would do.

There are lots better creative ways IMHO to get a good KW domain.

Numbers: 4greenwidgets 2findcameras 5starWidgets

or adding words: beyondwidgets, widgetvillage, city, land, junction, planet
or any other number of words you could add in front of or after your main KW.

[999affiliates]

Originally Posted by Linda Buquet

Note: if it's TOO long with too man hyphens a spam trigger goes off for search engines (I think) as well as consumers.

I'm talking a long one like make-money-online-from-home-easy-money.com

you are 100% correct google trigger hits at the third hyphen. so you will be ok using 2 hyphens. however you should be designing your site for the user not the SEs. no one will remember www.my-cool-stie.com they will leave out the hyphens

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by 999affiliates

at this time SEs are treating hyphens as a individual word. So if your URL is
www.my-stie.com the search engines will read that as 3 separate words and the hyphen is basically a filler.
If you choose to use this tactic keep in mind you will not be able to change your site to a new market. you will be stuck at www.my-site.com

I'm seeing two separate words

1: my
2: site (I presume you made a misspelling in your example)

And you don't have to be stuck with it, if you have a better domain them move everything over to the new domain using 301 redirects, keep the old domain and 301 it to the new domain.

People that will try to find your site using the old domain will automatically end up on your new domain.

[999affiliates]

I didn't make a mistake, I stated that the SEs are treating hyphens as a separate word. so the hyphen would be word 2 and site would be word 3.

and yes you could use 301 directs. however I think conversions would be somewhat low when going from say new-cars to pianos.

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by 999affiliates

I didn't make a mistake, I stated that the SEs are treating hyphens as a separate word. so the hyphen would be word 2 and site would be word 3.

Sorry to disagree with you, but a hyphen is not a word, it's a word separator recognized by SE's.

Here is something directly from Google:

word-separator-character: A mapping name may contain one or more semantic "words" which are punctuated with this character. The default setting is the hyphen ("-"), which is SEO compliant.

and yes you could use 301 directs. however I think conversions would be somewhat low when going from say new-cars to pianos.

Ah, got ya - you're correct.

[999affiliates]

I am sorry I misspoke. you are correct. i misread a post by Matt Cutts (a google engineer)

[Edwin]

No problem

[positivecarry]

Some domains that you would think are generic can also be trademarked, and if you hyphenate them, a company will try their best to push you off of it. Search google and the united states patent office search engine for trademarks. And companies can still claim commercial use trademarks.