Hyphenated domain names are BAD

December 12, 2007

For those not familiar with this subject, let me give you a quick background summary.

Domain names can be purchased as “yourdomainname.com” or “your-domain-name.com” and you don’t automatically get both when making the purchase. Site owners have chosen to market their site this way for several reasons.

First, the domain name without the hyphens might not be available so the site owner opts to go with the next best thing.

Second, people have chosen to go this route to clearly place their specific keywords and key phrases in their domain name and separate them with hyphens to clearly spell out the words for the search engines. It’s not a bad idea to have your keywords in your domain name but the goal here is to target a very specific, high traffic key phrase and the practice has been abused. This technique has been popular for long, targeted key phrases that are commonly used by shady, spammy and illegal sites. For example, “buy-viagra-online-cheap.com”.

Google has said in 2005 that it doesn’t matter if you have hyphens but does this still stand up in 2008?

To answer a common question, Google doesn’t algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url. Of course I can only speak for Google, not other search engines. And bear in mind that if your domain looks like www.buy-cheap-viagra-online-while- consolidating-your-debt-so-you-can-play-texas- holdem-while-watching-porn.com, that may still attract attention for other reasons.

In 2008 it’s becoming clear that the search engines might be starting to consider domain names like this to be less relevant and spammy than domain names without the hyphen. Many prominent figures in the industry have said that more than 3 hyphens in a domain name can raise a red flag.

We’ll keep an eye on this subject and we welcome your participation in the comments below. As a general practice try to choose a domain name without hyphens. It’s easier to remember and it reduces the risk that you might rate with lower relevance in the SERP’s due to your domain name style. Of course there is nothing wrong with securing your domain name with and without the hyphens to reduce confusion but I would definitely recommend using the non-hyphenated name whenever possible.

Where’s a good place to register domain names? Check out GoDaddy.com and NameBargain.com



Related posts:

  1. Your web address (Part 1) How to choose a website domain name
  2. Tidbits: Underscores vs. Dashes
  3. Keywords in your domain name
  4. Tidbits and Advice 12.1.07 (Press Release SEO)
  5. What is SEO?

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Posted by Christopher Auman | Filed Under SEO News and Tidbits 

Comments

5 Responses to “Hyphenated domain names are BAD”

  1. geri on December 18th, 2007 12:51 am

    So then your article is simply speculation… And not based on fact. Other than needing something to write about or desiring to start a conversation… Why would you assert this positions about hyphens in URL’s?
    This part “As a general practice try to choose a domain name without hyphens” I strongly agree with… The use of multiple hyphens only stirs mistrust… And your viagra example is a good display of this abuse.
    Personally, I believe the search engines pay much attention at all to the URL, but I don’t have any evidence one way or the other… So it’s just an opinion. Just like yours! Just different.

  2. admin on December 26th, 2007 1:32 pm

    My point with this article is that it’s probably better to choose a domain name without hyphens for many reasons. But as you said, I don’t have any concrete proof of sites being penalized except for the people in the industry talking about the subject. I don’t see anything wrong with starting a discussion on the subject. It’s something we should continue to monitor and (as with most SEO topics) we’ll probably never know for sure unless Google comes out and admits it. Again, my points were to choose a domain without hyphens if at all possible. Google is very good about pulling out the words within your domain name without the use of hyphens plus it’s easier to remember. If you’re domain name is something like highqualitystuffcheap.com, people will probably type the domain without the hyphens first. If someone else owns this domain then you just lost out. If you find that you’re ideal domain name is secured without hyphens then you should probably choose a different domain name that allows you to secure the domain with and without the hyphens. Get creative! Plus, if the search engines do start penalizing for hyphenated domain names then you’ll be better positioned to compete as an added bonus.

  3. AllSux.com » An Idiots Guide to Finding Cool Domains on February 1st, 2008 4:27 am

    […] days? The days of strung together sequences of keywords is pretty much over, particularly of the hyphenated variety. There are still exceptions but they are almost all holdovers from the previous generation of […]

  4. Samantha - Website Marketing Newbie on March 13th, 2008 6:16 am

    I asked out loud in the office I work in. Does a hyphenated doamin names effect the website and would it effect SEO too. A colleague of mine was quick to send me this link! I read it and I thank you for the information but personally, I have replied to my client and told him, lets go without the hyphenation!

  5. Samantha - Website Marketing Newbie on March 13th, 2008 6:18 am

    Forgot to ad. I like this link very much as I am trying to cram as much information into SEO, marketing and just doing a better job at developing our websites so that our clients are satisfied with the results of turning a visitor into a client of there own!

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