Hyphen-Phobia

[options]

Originally posted by MarkyMark
I think searchengines value exact match of dotcom address and specific search term pretty highly. I dont think hyphens is either bad or good (I think SE's can distinguish or "pull-out" words out of an URL without hyphens in it). When it comes to several hyphens in a row I think the SEs disqualify the domain/site for some reason.

Not true.
Put that on very simple test.
Narrow a search only on title or url (in Google) and ask for "photoprinters".

There is no single occurence of "photo printers".
Try "photo printers" and you will get a lot of hyphenated, sub domains, etc., results.

The nastiest hyphen trick is this (example just taken out of the air, no specific criticism of the site)

http://www-cars.com

Nice one.

[adoptabledomains]

hyphenated names are useful for search engine use, hyperlinked, and printed matter for ease of reading. But, in my opinion only if you already have the non-hyphenated version.

First verbally, you don't want to say "ice dash cream dash cones dot com" if you do anything at all verbally like take phone calls or use radio or tv advertising. Now if you can say icecreamcones.com and use ice-cream-cones.com for printed matter and search engine registration that's even better than having just the non-dashed version.

Secondly, if someone else has the non-dashed version, they will accidentally get a lot of your traffic since people have become accustomed to not putting dashes in URL's. No one want to pay for their competition to get the advantage of their advertising dollars. Now if you are a smaller regional business, and it's a choice between ice-cream.com and icecreamcones.tv or icecoldicecreamcones.com , I'd choose the hyphenated 2 word .com name.

Third, as for the phone number comparison, everyone in north america is used to the pattern of 123-123-1234 for phone numbers. in domain names sometimes it isn't clear. if you don't pronouce the dash is it icecream-cones.com or ice-cream-cones.com in the case of a compound word.

Some names are almost a must for promotion with the dash when they can be read as different words. If your product was gas-ex, I think gas-ex.com is better so it isn't read as ga sex.com (one being seen as someting to rid gas, the other as sex in Georgia). I would still want the non-dashed though so it wasn't used by someone else.

[GiantDomains]

Originally posted by adoptabledomains
First verbally, you don't want to say "ice dash cream dash cones dot com" if you do anything at all verbally like take phone calls or use radio or tv advertising. Now if you can say icecreamcones.com and use ice-cream-cones.com for printed matter and search engine registration that's even better than having just the non-dashed version.

Youre missing the point. Besides, who has money for TV and radio, lol.....

read back a few posts, you will get the jist of why (-) is good.

[MarkyMark]

options....

photoprinters wasnt such a good example (you may be right anyway)

only one active site has the word photoprinters in the domain,

photoprintersuk.com

you cant expect sites that doesnt exist turn up can you...

[options]

I am afraid I can't follow you clearly.
Have you tried this?

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=ph...h=&safe=images

[MarkyMark]

ok I missed one, photoprinters.us, so two active sites with photoprinters in the domain, still not the best example to prove your theory...

[options]

Mark, what are you talking about?
Using the above link there are 532 sites with "photoprinters" in url's regardless if they active or not.
The first one photoprinters.com is indeed inactive, pitty for them,
still being first.
The point is that you can't find "photo" and "printers" separated in any way, which many people think would be the case.

[RMF]

I think in some cases you should register domains with hyphens. If your going to have a business online, I think its important to have your domain with hyphens if there are more than two words. For the average joe, he might typein "your-name.com" instead of "yourname.com". I think the main reason of registering names with hyphen's is to protect yourself from someone else registering them.

RMF

[MarkyMark]

options, if you read my posts again you will see I am talking about DOMAINS not urls

[options]

Originally posted by MarkyMark
options, if you read my posts again you will see I am talking about DOMAINS not urls

Me too. This may surprise you, but SE matters sub domains and directories also.
Site like http://www.anything.com/pictures/free.html would have the same recognition as http://www.free-pictures.com, for the search term "free pictures".
This is a bit dissapointing for this group but that is a fact.