Hyphens?

[tryin]

I have an idea for a web site, but of course all good names regd. I found the perfect name, but with hyphen MY-NAME.com. . I am going to develop this name, so my question is what affect does the hyphen have on search engines? Should I look for diff. name without hyphen.
Thanks
Frank :td:

 

[Adelante4]

not sure about what it does for search engines, but apparently the hyphen devalues the domain substantially.

 

[sukelis]

Think about it from the end-user's point of view - if the domain is sold and used for business, then someone will be trying to give out the email address over the phone to customers/clients/etc. Hyphens make that extremely difficult.

OTOH, if all you plan to do is park it - then most parking relys on type-in traffic and nobody types in the hyphen.

So, the only time I would use a hyphen is 1) when I have a known end-user, 2) they definately want a web site for their own business, 3) they have no plans for a big web presence and 4) they simply cannot get an acceptable name any other way. (And then get all the mis-placed hyphen typos and park them on top of the target.)

Just my 2 cents (as someone who owns 4 hyphenated domains).

 

[dan_Vt]

If it's just a single hyphen, don't worry about the search engines. You will not be penalized.

 

[Spade]

It wont hurt your SE ranking, but it will hurt resale value in the future. Hyphens are like buying a car that was in a major accident. It wouldve looked great if only it didnt get hit by a Semi Truck.

 

[dhscott]

hyphenated names perform as well as if the hyphen wasn't there in search engines, so you don't need to worry about that.

But as has been said, the hyphen will drastically cut the resale value of the name.

Unless its something like keyword-keyword, don't expect a huge sale.

 

[rocknrollo]

One of my highest traffic and best paying domain name has two hyphens.

free-online-tv.com

so you never know............ :imho:

 

[bluearrow]

There is nothing to worry about SEO and since you are the end user and you are going to develop a site nothing to bother about. you can sell the site with the domain if you want and if the site is a success and get enough traffic then you will find buyers too.

 

[WilliamKeller]

stay away from hyphens,
if you like the domain tho, and are not planning on selling, then its fine,
but keep in mind it might be hard to give people the domain verbally

 

[tryin]

Thanks for the info, I regged it.