What is better for SEO purposes: domain name without or with "dash"?

[Michel32]

1. Wondering what will be best for SEO purposes: domain name without or with "dash", for example - "downloadfreesmileys.com" (= domain name without) or "download-free-smileys.com" (= domain with "dash")?

2. Also would like to know what you prefer: what is more beautiful/professional: domain name with or without "dash"?

Many thanks!

[khuldun]

Well, for reselling puposes and to make sure your visitors are type in as well, you need to go without dash but for SEO - can be a good divider between keywords in a domain... hope that helps!!

[joeny]

I never buy anything with a hyphen, but that me, most people (end user) when they here that domain just type with it,

and for seo, well yea the dash woint hurt..

[etech-peter]

Your keywords get separated by the hyphen(s) and I suppose they can be picked up by search engines easily, but whether hyphenated domain names still provide any significant advantage in the search engine's is unclear. In general, try and avoid hyphens in your domain as you tend to loose type-in traffic you may get on your site and most online users dont prefer remembering names with hyphens...