The Zen of Hyphens

[spaceguru]

Hi All

A few questions for all you 'masters' out there!

Being a newbie to this whole domaining biz... I'm very interested to know your thoughts on the use of hyphens in a .com names.

1) When would it be a good idea to do this, that is, under what circumstances might you consider using the dreaded hyphen?

2) Do search engines see/read hyphenated words as two separates ones?

3) Does anyone have a list of the highest selling/ranking hyphenated .coms?

4) And... what have been some of your best hyphened sellers? Or do you have any other interesting hyphen related stories or insights?

 

[peaches017]

Hyphens are good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I'm far from a pro on the subject, but that seems to be the one real "plus" for hyphen domains.

There have been some strong hyphen sales, mostly in .COM. I believe there is a running thread in the Domain Name Discussion forum, it should show up pretty easily with a forum search.

I would only consider using a hyphen to connect two related words. For example, I would want Horse-Racing.com instead of Best-Racing.com. The connected terms should qualify each other.

You should (almost) never need to register a Word1--Word2.tld. Additionally, D-O-M-A-I-N-S-L-I-K-E-T-H-I-S-F-A-I-L.com

Hope this helps.

Peter

 

[spaceguru]

Hyphens are good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I'm far from a pro on the subject, but that seems to be the one real "plus" for hyphen domains.

There have been some strong hyphen sales, mostly in .COM. I believe there is a running thread in the Domain Name Discussion forum, it should show up pretty easily with a forum search.

I would only consider using a hyphen to connect two related words. For example, I would want Horse-Racing.com instead of Best-Racing.com. The connected terms should qualify each other.

You should (almost) never need to register a Word1--Word2.tld. Additionally, D-O-M-A-I-N-S-L-I-K-E-T-H-I-S-F-A-I-L.com

Hope this helps.

Peter

Thanks Peter

So it's not blasphemous to use them, great!
Keep the thoughts coming guys & gals.

 

[champ_rock]

but in resellers market u can hardly expect great prices for them. people have an aversion to hyphens because most resellers are buying those domains for reselling themselves and do not care about SEO at all

i would say if it for personal use then buy a hyphen domain , if for reselling then stay away from them until and unless they are gems like "hardcore-sex.com " etc

 

[RegFee]

http://www.namepros.com/domain-newbies/322397-how-bad-are-hyphens-domain-name.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/319825-hyphen-or-not.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/domain-newbies/304167-hyphens.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/276043-taking-gamble-hyphenated-mobi-have-you.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-tv/294048-tv-hypenated-double-keywords-good-bad.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/293686-hyphenated-mobis.html?highlight=hyphen

Welcome to the forum.

 

[spaceguru]

Cheers for the advice champ_rock.

I have a hyphen mobi in dev at the moment and wonder what you think. My name is fun-ny.mobi and I'm making it a guide to live comedy clubs in New York. Hope to throw a few ads on it at some stage in the future. I just couldn't resist the play on words. Fun New York & 'funny'. It's online if you wanna a peep. Yet another work in progress, lol.

Thanks

http://www.namepros.com/domain-newbies/322397-how-bad-are-hyphens-domain-name.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/319825-hyphen-or-not.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/domain-newbies/304167-hyphens.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/276043-taking-gamble-hyphenated-mobi-have-you.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-tv/294048-tv-hypenated-double-keywords-good-bad.html?highlight=hyphen
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/293686-hyphenated-mobis.html?highlight=hyphen

Welcome to the forum.

Awesome!!! Cheers RegFee. Should save me some time.

SG

 

[john's TLD Domain]

Hyphen domain's do not matter when it comes to search engines. they can help you when you want a name that is taken already. just remember that if you choose to use a name like that you have to tell people you talk to that it uses Hyphens and tell them out loud. this can confuse people and make it hard for people to remember you website name. best bet stay away unless you have to. their is no upside or SEO reason to use a name like that.

 

[Rhonda]

I was coming here to post on this exact topic. Lots of great information and I'm glad I recently stopped using hyphens for everything! Thanks everyone.

 

[justin-goldberg]

Hyphens are good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I'm far from a pro on the subject, but that seems to be the one real "plus" for hyphen domains.

There have been some strong hyphen sales, mostly in .COM. I believe there is a running thread in the Domain Name Discussion forum, it should show up pretty easily with a forum search.

I would only consider using a hyphen to connect two related words. For example, I would want Horse-Racing.com instead of Best-Racing.com. The connected terms should qualify each other.

You should (almost) never need to register a Word1--Word2.tld. Additionally, D-O-M-A-I-N-S-L-I-K-E-T-H-I-S-F-A-I-L.com

Hope this helps.

Peter

web2seo.info bucks that trend, although mdfeinx is doing some seo that's I can't make heads or tails of:
http://www.syndk8.net/forum/index.php/topic,8819.0.html