HYPHEN: Good or not?

[chewie49]

Hello!

I wonder if "hyphen" makes bad or not a domain name.

For example: www.forexample.com would be better than www.for-example.com?

If I search in google: for example (without ""); or "for example" (with "")it will return both domains?

What are your thoughts about this?

Regards,

Chewie.

 

[johname]

pretty much -=bad

especially if your looking to resell

 

[bmugford]

It depends on the use and place of hyphen. If there is 1 well placed dash, then it is not that bad. I own some hyphen domains, but most have high word trackers.

They index the exact same way as the non hyphenated version so they are good to develop at a fraction of the price. Obviously you won't get type in traffic with a hyphenated domain, but then again 2-3 word domains rarely get type in traffic anyway.

 

[chewie49]

... but then again 2-3 word domains rarely get type in traffic anyway.

How is that?

 

[weblord]

if your target is to resell better don't take the hyphens, for development and seo purposes hyphens are spacers.

 

[Krossat]

as weblord said, they are good for development.
But for resale their value is typically 3-7% of the non-hyphenated version (if in between words, and name being top generic), though usually resellers avoid hyphens.

 

[domaino]

Does a well placed hyphen not actually increase your favourability in the eyes of certain search engines? I'm sure I have read somewhere that this is the case.

As other have stated, where development is concerned it is excusable. But even there you may find that you lose some traffic to the non-hyphenated versions of your name. Depends on the term and really, it's a judgement call. Personally, (and this isn't a rule of thumb) I avoid them.

 

[bmugford]

As far as I know a well placed hyphen will never hurt for indexing, at least with Google. It provides a natural separation point.

I might be in the minority, but to me it makes more sense to develop a site with natural Word Tracker, even with a hyphen. It takes much less effort if the term is getting searches than to use a "Brandable" domain.

For instance I would way rather have a domain like Stock-Quotes.com than one like StockQuotesToday.com

I understand you will lose some traffic to the non hyphen version, but to me the actual search term is more valuable at least for development.

Brad

Does a well placed hyphen not actually increase your favourability in the eyes of certain search engines? I'm sure I have read somewhere that this is the case.

As other have stated, where development is concerned it is excusable. But even there you may find that you lose some traffic to the non-hyphenated versions of your name. Depends on the term and really, it's a judgement call. Personally, (and this isn't a rule of thumb) I avoid them.