Hyphens in Domain Names, an SEO No-No
This is a topic that has come up over and over again on WebProWorld– the use of hyphens in domain names for SEO. And it’s amazing it keeps coming up since the answer has been the same since Google was born. Hyphens in domain names are a bad idea, but, ironically, not because of the search engines, though there was a time back near the birth of the internet when they did actually do you some good from a Search Engine standpoint, though even then I would not have bought one.
It’s for one simple reason. People won’t remember to put them in when they’re trying to remember how to access your site. And since they are trying to remember your site, chances are you’ve just lost a qualified person who is interested enough in what you have to manually type in your domain name into the browser location bar. Which means they’ll end up at your competitor’s site, the domain name that has no hyphens in it, and if your competitor has what they want, you’ve just lost a sale.
It is much better to get an “off” TLD, such as dot net or dot info than to squander your dough on a domain name people will invariably screw up. It’s better to be a bit creative in coming up with domain names than it is to settle for the one that will lose you traffic. I’ve never had a problem finding great domain names, and most of my domain names are dot coms with just a few dot nets and a couple intentional dot orgs for my non-profit advocacy activities.
And since I’m all about making the most of the traffic I do get, no matter how it comes to me, I’m sure that I’ve eaten someone else’s lunch on a few occasions.
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