How important is a hyphen (-) for SEO?

[zoogo]

I was reading an article at www.seo-gold.com that said google doesn't parse non-hyphenated domain names as individual words, but does when they are hyphenated.

I.e. google will see friedchicken.com and give it the keyword "friedchicken", then it will see fried-chicken.com and give it the keywords "fried" and "chicken"

What the article didn't explain, was how this practically translates to SEO.

I've found a domain name for my site that I like, and am trying to decide if I should get the non-hyphenated, or hyphenated version.

There's 5 letters before the hyphen, and 5 letters after it, both are whole words that are related to my site's content, but fairly vaguely, and are vague words themselves.

Anyway, I wanted to know if the possible benefits of having a higher SEO on google will outweigh the downside, which is that I assume people may become frustrated typing in that hyphen getting to my site the first, or subsequent times.

Is the SEO/hit increase great from inserting that hyphen? I'd particularly like some input with someone who has a word-word.com and same wordword.com domain with statistics.

I also want to know if having more keywords in the domain (through hyphen) better for general SEO, meaning if it will get my page ranked higher, regardless of what the keywords (searched for) are, simply versus the same non-hyphenated name.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[dmi]

A domain name has no impact on SEO whatsoever. I'm talking from experience.

 

[gazzip]

A domain name has no impact on SEO whatsoever. I'm talking from experience.

Sorry, I don't beleive that one at all...going from my "limited" experience.



.

 

[mhdoc]

Register both, it's not like they cost a lot. Then develop on the hyphenated one and forward the other to it.

 

[zoogo]

Register both, it's not like they cost a lot. Then develop on the hyphenated one and forward the other to it.

"A or b?"

"Wait, I can have both?"

Wise words, thank you.

I am still curious if there is validity to the points I read.

 

[john_karr]

A domain name has no impact on SEO whatsoever. I'm talking from experience.

Care to share with us?

 

[TestCase]

My experience... I have a domain name that consists of a keyword plus a commonly related abbreviation without a hyphen between them (ex. KeywordEx.com) and when you Google them seperately (keyword ex) my site comes up as the number one match.

Their is no hyphenated version of the domain so I have no idea if it would out score mine, but Google sure seems to recognize the individual parts that make up the domain.

 

[bmugford]

Domain names might not matter as much as before, as far as search engines go. But if you have an exact keyword match for a niche term, it is easier to move the term up with less content than for a completely unrelated domain.

If you are creating a site on Energy Independence, it is much easier to move "Energy-Independence.com" up the search engines than "PickleDonkeyKnife.com" for the term "Energy Independence"

As far as SEO goes I don't think it matters if there as hyphen or not. There is no penalty for having a hyphen SEO wise, but there is also no benefit. The key search engines can split the words with or without hyphen.

The main penalties of hyphen domains are traffic bleeds

1.) lack of type in traffic
2.) traffic loss to non hyphen version

Brad

 

[lzy]

Domain name of choice definitely makes SEO way easier if you have the exact keyword.

 

[Ms Domainer]

Register both, it's not like they cost a lot. Then develop on the hyphenated one and forward the other to it.

*

Especially if they're reg-fee.

If this is an important project, no sense nickel and diming.

*

 

[gemstar]

Im working on
Phone-sex.com(1995)

Whoever regged that was logical at the time as phonesex.com was still avail. This domain will capture more traffic than the other.

 

[mhdoc]

I always assume that for the long-tail niches I work with no one will ever type in the domain and I will never promote it verbally or in print. That being the case, all my visitors come from search and for that hyphens and/or tld don't matter. The key words do.

For my niches the non hyphenated dot com is always a parked page so I don't worry much about loosing traffic to them either.

I think many of the rules/assumptions depend on what part of the market you are in.

 

[bmugford]

I totally agree. When you start getting into longer domains the type in traffic is normally not enough to worry about.

If you are a Music Production company the benefits of owning Music-Production.com would outweigh the negatives.

This is especially true if your primary method of traffic is search engine based.

Brad

I always assume that for the long-tail niches I work with no one will ever type in the domain and I will never promote it verbally or in print. That being the case, all my visitors come from search and for that hyphens and/or tld don't matter. The key words do.

For my niches the non hyphenated dot com is always a parked page so I don't worry much about loosing traffic to them either.

I think many of the rules/assumptions depend on what part of the market you are in.

 

[gemstar]

Yes

 

[bmugford]

I also think an exact keyword domain with a - is more credible. If I was an end user developing a site I think Phone-Sex.com looks a lot more professional than something like PhoneSexLLC.com on a business card or advertisement.

Brad

 

[gemstar]

Thank you :great:

 

[nmr86]

A domain name has no impact on SEO whatsoever. I'm talking from experience.

it has, keyword domains do have a big impact on seo

 

[Dean]

A domain name has no impact on SEO whatsoever. I'm talking from experience.

It actually does, why else are we here?

 

[Keral_Patel]

I.e. google will see friedchicken.com and give it the keyword "friedchicken", then it will see fried-chicken.com and give it the keywords "fried" and "chicken"

That one I am not sure of. I don't think google's algo is that foolish. They can spot keywords in the domain name with or without a hypen. If they can spot your spell mistakes and give you the suggestions of searching for the right spelling then Yes they can also spot the words in a domain name.

And here is the proof http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=friedchicken

There are results that have "Fried Chicken" in it. There is no mention of "Friedchicken" on some of those pages.

 

[zoogo]

That one I am not sure of. I don't think google's algo is that foolish. They can spot keywords in the domain name with or without a hypen. If they can spot your spell mistakes and give you the suggestions of searching for the right spelling then Yes they can also spot the words in a domain name.

And here is the proof http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=friedchicken

There are results that have "Fried Chicken" in it. There is no mention of "Friedchicken" on some of those pages.

You bring up a very curious point.

When you googlesearch friedchicken, 17 million results come up. Fried Chicken, on the other hand, gives only 11 million results. That makes me wonder...