For SEO: Use hyphens in Domain Name or Not??

[jj1]

hi all

For SEO purposes is it better to use hyphens to separate keywords in a domain or not? That is, for SEO purposes, would you use:

www.keyword1keyword2.co.uk
or
www.keyword1-keyword2.co.uk

The same question applies to info that I need to put in to make a domain name unique but is not really useful SEO stuff. For example, for a new website I've got coming up I could either have:

www.rlkeyword1keyword2.co.uk
or
www.rl-keyword1-keyword2.co.uk

Would appreciate any advice.

 

[newguy]

For SEO purposes the hyphens aren't a disadvantage. For type ins they may be. If the unhyphenated version is available go for it, if it isn't, adding a hyphen isn't the end of the world!

 

[retired_member13]

IMO,

Key1Key2 is better than Key1-Key2

I'm not sure if I'd bother spending time and money developing a domain prefixed by RL if it was a web only business (ie reliant on SERPs), as the RL negates the Exact Match search benefits, ie kills off the SEO advantage - otherwise any XYZKeyword.co.uk domain would be as good as Keyword.co.uk, which isn't the case.

If you're paying for the traffic then I guess the domain isn't so important.

For SEO purposes is it better to use hyphens to separate keywords in a domain or not? That is, for SEO purposes, would you use:

www.rlkeyword1keyword2.co.uk
or
www.rl-keyword1-keyword2.co.uk

 

[donreeco]

I agree with Ty_

It used to be that hyphens helped search engines separate the individual words in the domain, but this is no longer the case and imo the hyphen reduces the exact match boost.

Im not sure what your rl stands for, but for me www.rl-keyword1-keyword2.co.uk, looks spammy and wouldnt really be helping your seo either.

 

[newguy]

Yes, two hyphens and three keywords (well, a company name/initial, but for all intents and purposes..) is a tad spammy, and much f the value from having the keywords there is likely watered down.

 

[spondishy]

Non hyphen every time... I suggest you try an seo experiment and you'll see why.

 

[springer]

If the non-hyphen version of the domain I want is taken, I will look at other extensions such as .org.uk which can rank just as well in search engines.

 

[jj1]

Many thanks all. Have taken your comments on board.

The keyword1keyword2.co.uk is gone, but I can get:
keyword1keyword2.org
keyword1keyword2.info
keyword1keyword2.org.uk

Would any of these be as good as a .co.uk? Are any better or worse than others for seo purposes? It's a Uk company after a UK market.

 

[aZooZa]

Up to three keywords separated by hyphens works for .co.uk. As an aside, that's why this market has many legs to run. Just my 2p.

 

[retired_member12]

There's an element of domain owners snobbery to this arguement too, as any domainer who already owns 'superwords.co.uk' is obviously going to diss 'super-words.co.uk' as sh1t!

 

[iain123]

tbh if you look at some of those earn quick money sites etc they have around 4 in them,supposed to marked as spam sites with that many but they rank well in google
get-rich-quick-schemes-example.com
i would only be worried if you are concerned about type ins someone trying to find your site again might type without the hyphens ending up on the other site without hyphens
for seo purposes it will rank just the same as without
well thats my opinion

 

[newguy]

Non hyphen every time... I suggest you try an seo experiment and you'll see why.

You won't find out why, because for SEO purposes it doesn't make a difference. Okay, perhpas if you have several hyphens, but one or even two shouldn't hurt you at all.

 

[diablo]

Non hyphen every time... I suggest you try an seo experiment and you'll see why.

I have actually experimented with this and there is no disadvantage in terms of seo for a hyphenated domain name.

 

[HariSeldon]

Non hyphen every time... I suggest you try an seo experiment and you'll see why.

Do you have a reference for this?

The last time I checked it was the exact opposite. Matt Cutts from Google categorically stated that hyphens are treated as word separators which means from an SEO point of view you can accurately target your primary keywords.

 

[retired_member12]

Surely it is totally illogical for Google or any other search engine to penalise a web site because it contains a hyphen in the name? To rate the non-hyphened domain over the hyphen domain when the content at the latter may be far superior doesn’t hit the logic button for me! Isn't there an element of 'The Emperor’s New Clothes' about this from the domain community, hoping some unsuspecting muppet will come along and pick up the non-hyphened version just because he reads on the internet that this is better?

If you type in any one of millions of multi-word searches, you'll end up with a list of sites topped by domain names with no similarity whatsoever to the phrase you searched for, because:

1- It is the content that is king.
2- The phrased domain name, whether hyphened or not, is sitting unused in the portfolio of a domainer, and is therefore irrelevant!

 

[chatman2222]

1- It is the content that is king.
2- The phrased domain name, whether hyphened or not, is sitting unused in the portfolio of a domainer, and is therefore irrelevant!

Hear hear!

 

[oka7domain]

Depends on the keywords, hyphened or not? If It's a non hypens then could the name be read as exactly as the keywords You actually want [ex: offerme.co.uk, sometimes can be read as "of ferme" for some search engines or keyword estimation software rather than offer me, in this case it would be better to have the hypen one]. But I think google will not "discriminate" the hypens or non hypens .

But if You're going to target the type in traffics for Your name, hypened names will lose competition to non hypens as visitors tend to type the non hypen names. [ex. beveragebrand.com will always ranks higher than beverage-brand.com for the type in traffics as people tends to type beveragebrand with no hypens] except germans for Their own words, They tend to type hypens. CMIIW

but SEO for articles is always about content , content, and........ content

 

[mattjerry]

This is SEO on creating articles right? i uses both of the two...and don't think for any differences between them...
_____________
Vocher Codes

 

[spondishy]

Reference

Do you have a reference for this?

The last time I checked it was the exact opposite. Matt Cutts from Google categorically stated that hyphens are treated as word separators which means from an SEO point of view you can accurately target your primary keywords.

Well I have the google serps that back me up for millions of search queries and my own domains.

Obviously do your own research, but these are my findings.