hyphenated domains

[tafuta]

Some people love them, many hate them - but what do you think? Say for example: uk-loans.net (free to reg, so buy it if you want)

Would love the opinions of domainers and developers alike.

 

[dta]

depends on what your goal/purpose is. very few hyphenated domains make brandable domains but good hyphentated keyword domains can generate traffic and rank well. i often use them as complimentary domains to help push other sites/businesses.

 

[QualityNonsense]

They suck, period, for many and varied reasons. But primarily because your users don't remember them, and you leak traffic like nobobdys business to the non-hyphenated equivalent.

And, yes, I have stats to back it up but, no, I can't share them

 

[cm1975]

The fewer people on here that like them, the better in my opinion, as it drives the reseller price down.

 

[boxerdog]

For an affiliate site I dont mind them, I have some names with two hyphens in them and make good sales.

 

[Bailey]

As I mentioned on here before - the Germans really like them, even for workable adopted English terms. Obviously in .DE

I'd take them if the wording is strong enough or if the term actually 'looks' more natural with the hyphens (as opposed to natural spacing)

 

[Sound]

Its not about what people on the forum think its what end users think and are willing to pay.

Some people are making a nice profit selling hyphened domains to people who want them

 

[jlm16]

.

 

[willbon]

If it's a choice between a free to reg hyphenated and a non-hyphenated at £xxx I think most people wouldn't mind the hyphen....

However I think this is a good lesson for everyone... when you reg a two word name - get the bloody hyphenated version as well 'cos some swine will and could potentially undermine you're search engine optimisation results!

 

[sdsinc]

They can be valuable when the combo is very strong.
Problems as already outlined above:

• not good for branding
• not the most memorable
• do not pass the radio test
• potential for confusion/losing traffic to the non-hyphenated counterpart

Best is to own both versions.

Now I think one good way of assessing their resale potential is to look at reported sales and the proportion of hyphenated domains.

 

[cm1975]

I'd take them if the wording is strong enough or if the term actually 'looks' more natural with the hyphens (as opposed to natural spacing)

Yes, there are certainly times when the hyphenated version can look more natural, especially when the first word ends with the same letter as the second begins with.

For example, national-lottery.co.uk and business-systems.co.uk

(I had to shoehorn one of mine in .... mine is of course the latter! )

 

[Frog]

In general I hate hyphens and .org.uks - however you dress it up, they're the poor mans version of the "real" domain.

Its going to be near impossible to make the jump from an seo/affiliate play to a legitimate brand when you have such a shit domain that you leak loads of traffic from your-phrase.co.uk or yourphrase.org.uk to yourphrase.co.uk which you don't even own...

 

[Aiden Roberts]

Very interesting discussion for us newishbies.

Aiden

 

[newguy]

I'm sure most people would agree that the premium version of a domain name is an unhyphenated .co.uk . It doesn't follow that the others are worthless though. It depends on your budget, what you're trying to achieve etc.

 

[cm1975]

I'm sure most people would agree that the premium version of a domain name is an unhyphenated .co.uk . It doesn't follow that the others are worthless though. It depends on your budget, what you're trying to achieve etc.

Bingo. Out of the last 10 domains I've bought or hand regged, 8 of them have been hyphenated. 2 of which I've sold within 48 hours to end users.

So if anyone has any .co.uk hyphenated bargains they want rid of, then send them over!