To hyphen or not?

[comcrazy]

Is it worth "doubling up" on two/three word domains?

e.g.

I register bigstuff.com,

Is it always worth registering:

big-stuff.com

bigstuff.net
big-stuff.net

bigstuff.co.uk
big-stuff.co.uk

I`m generally just keeping to .coms these days, but still
registering the hyphens too,


whaddya all think?

--
Mike

 

[system0]

if you are developing the site it can be worth it in my opinion

 

[Jack Gordon]

I agree - totally depends on if you are planning to do anything with it

 

[Anthony Ng]

Hyphens are simple.

A) If you've already got the non-hyphenated name, save your bucks unless the name itself is a hyphenated term like "web-based" or something like that.

B) If somebody else has got the non-hypenated name, don't bother registering the hyphenated version, unless it's a REALLY high-profile name like "new-york" or "united-states" because you will simply be sending your traffic their way.

Of course, DomainPairs will have something different to say.

 

[fizz]

I have the hyphenated and non-hyphenated version of a number of keyword phrases and have made identical submissions to the serach engines. Google ranks the hyphenated version much higher.

So in my limited experience, hyphens are good for SE stuff. Nameslave's comments above have merit.

 

[bidawinner]

agree ..Hyphens can ideed be worth while..keyword traffic .some engines seem to read and rank them better for 2 word phrases (everything else equal of course)

 

[DomainPairs]

It may be worth reg'ing the .co.uk if you are expecting UK surfers. There are a lot of myopic unsophisticated AOL users that go to the .co.uk names before the .coms.

 

[JMJ]

Yes, if you plan to develop, register. I made the mistake of procrastinating on registering jolt-host.com . I thought no logical person would waste their money since my site was already in place. Well BIG mistake. A month later some 15 year old kid registered and now trying to call himself Jolt Host.

I went as far as trying to buy him another name and paying $50 bucks for it. But he still insists on keeping it. So here I am with a good name and a 15 year old using a name just like it.

 

[fizz]

It's a bummer that $8.95 could have prevented the hassle JoltHost.

 

[Anthony Ng]

Originally posted by fizz
... Nameslave's comments above have merit.

fizz is a really nice person.

Okay, the days of hyphenated-domain-names getting better search engine ranking have looong gone; and there are many things that are at least equally important like not using a silly-looking-hyphenated.com. For example, many so-called search engine optimization professionals simply forget the FACT that people don't just click on search result #1.

I am doubtful about fizz's pair though. Did you submit both at the same time? Are they both fully hosted, or one of them is being forwarded or mirrored?

As for the jolthost.com/jolt-host.com twins, I really can't see the difficulty of resolving it, especially the other party is a 15-year-old.

 

[DomainPairs]

In these days of hosting and traffic problems it pays to have a mirror site. I use the hyphenated versions of some of my names for this.

 

[RON2]

Any dash domain is going to lose type-in traffic to the non-dashed version of the domain.

If someone registers the dash version of one of your domains and develops it, you stand to benefit because you will get fallover traffic...

...and eventually the owner will decide it was not wise to develop their business around a dash name and come to you wanting to buy.

 

[JMJ]

Originally posted by -RJ-


...and eventually the owner will decide it was not wise to develop their business around a dash name and come to you wanting to buy.

I tried to explain how hard it was going to be marketing the name. But anyone with kids understands that it went in one ear and out the other.

 

[fizz]

I've never underestimated the value of a good hyphenated domain name, and yesterday I learned a good lesson.

I received a call from a German marketing professional about one of my hyphenated domain names. He said in his country there are some phrases in English that they like using for business and advertising, and in this case they prefer to brand the hyphenated version as they're much easier to distinguish between two English words.

I asked him what his budget for my domain name was, he named an amount that I was very pleased with and accepted, and we have an excellent win-win situation.

 

[mole]

Good to hear that, flex

 

[Anthony Ng]

Originally posted by fizz
I've never underestimated the value of a good hyphenated domain name, and yesterday I learned a good lesson.

I received a call from a German marketing professional about one of my hyphenated domain names. He said in his country there are some phrases in English that they like using for business and advertising, and in this case they prefer to brand the hyphenated version as they're much easier to distinguish between two English words.

I asked him what his budget for my domain name was, he named an amount that I was very pleased with and accepted, and we have an excellent win-win situation.

Congratulations, fizz! It's always nice to hear a successful sale. I guess my bad experience with hyphens is stemmed from web-based.com, which I was not able to sell for some 3 years during the good old days for just $300! :dead:

 

[fizz]

Originally posted by mole
Good to hear that, flex

Thanks mole