Back to Hyphens?

[Lucky Luke]

The thread about making a living from flipping made me think again about hyphenated domains.

Someone here on AD (I can't remember who but their avatar was a rhino or big creature of somekind) argued very cogently about NOT buying hyphenated domains as Google penalises a hyphenated domain cf the unhyphenated one.

Does this ring true with the SEO specialists here?

And how much less if the hyphenated worth cf the unhyphenated?

Is still don't believe that there is a living to be made from flipping free to reg hypenated .co.uk domains, but I am happy to be corrected.

Cheers, Luke

 

[springer]

Although it has a lot of backlinks, the following domain is doing very well in Google rankings (number one)

grand-national.me.uk

So, basically doing well with a bottom of the pile (hyphenated and me.uk) UK domain.

Edit: This domain name owner's site is worth a look at for an interesting study in .me.uk domains (www.eddison-media.com)

 

[ScottJ]

I'm no specialist but Google does not penalise hyphens, they can rank well with one or two hyphens.

 

[anthony]

It does the National Lottery no harm in the ranking.

 

[anthony]

..........

 

[namealot]

I have a hyphenated and non same word the hyphenated has ranked higher for 8 years, Tried swapping sites, host, updating non first etc hyphenated does better..? Same Links, Unique content (although different on each have tried swapping around), same template, launched the same time and from what I could tell both cached/visited at the same time. The hyphenated was only there to stop traffic loss etc but it listed higher and always has …?

The only downside is other forms of marketing, advertising i.e radio, papers etc The hyphenated does not sound so good and some people don’t know what a hyphen is..?

 

[Nigel]

I think hyphenated domains can be a good investment and a useful part of a portfolio. They are much cheaper than the unhyphenated but if that domain is the best domain still available for a niche profitable sector then it can be sold on in the future - sometimes for a very decent price. Do you remember engagement-rings.co.uk selling for £7000 last year (see domainprices.co.uk - at the top of the acorn forum page entitled Domain Name Sales). If you go to domainprices.co.uk and type a hyphen into the keyword section you will find pages of hyphenated sales - some for very high prices. So don't listen to those who say there is no money in hyphenated domains. It's simply not true.

Now whether you could make a living from hyphenated domains is another story. I doubt it. Unless you were skilled in buying a hyphenated, ranking it and selling it for 10 times the purchase price. And doing this regularly. I know of one of our hyphenated sales that has been sold on for a much higher price and a number of our hyphenated sales are now developed sites.

I just took a quick look at our company's hyphenated sales since about July 08. 28 sales in total for approx £22705. Average sale £810 - top sale £3300. You couldn't live off that but nevertheless it's still a nice input to your total income i.e. it pays the reg fees on your total portfolio. We like really nice hyphenated domains. Not interested in average hyphenated domains. They have to be top ones i.e really good keywords otherwise you're wasting your time.

 

[cm1975]

I think it would be madness for Google to differential between hyphenated and unhyphenated domains. There are some domains that need hyphens!The old classics of pen-island, who-represents and experts-exchange leave no doubt to what they are.

Some names look better with hyphens, as it makes it more easily read. Which is easier to read -

businessservice or business-service?​

I'm not saying that the hyphenated versions are in any way better, but I'm led to believe that Google does not penalise them.

 

[Lucky Luke]

I read through the hyphen fan-club posts, and followed Nigel's advice and JUST registered a free to reg .co.uk, albeit with two hyphens and the potential confusion about 'advisor' and 'adviser':

independent-financial-advisor

2400 uk exacts at £5.21 average cpc

okay for £6.48 methinks....

cheers, Luke

(ps. Also posted on the ever popular thread "what's your last regg'd domain" on http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-research/54101-whats-your-last-reggd-domain-s-72.html )

 

[Nigel]

I read through the hyphen fan-club posts, and followed Nigel's advice and JUST registered a free to reg .co.uk, albeit with two hyphens:

independent-financial-advisor

2400 uk exacts at £8.48 average cpc

okay for £6.48 methinks....

cheers, Luke

(ps. Also posted on the ever popular thread "what's your last regg'd domain" on http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-research/54101-whats-your-last-reggd-domain-s-72.html )

And with the correct spelling of independent

 

[Lucky Luke]

Off to the appraisal thread next ....

 

[newguy]

I don't think there is any reason at all to think that one hyphen harm a site. It could be argued that people will type in the non hyphenated version instead, but for ranking purposes I don't think it matters at all. I know of a few sites with two hyphens that are doing really well. I'd draw the line at three because it looks kind really spammy and might deter people from linking to it, or visiting, in which case the ranking will be harmed via that angle. The same in some cases could be said for two. Not for one though.