29 replies to this topic

[polymon]

For domains without hypens, you can capitalize individual words, like this
MySpecialDomain.com

[littleking]

New to the forum!

Hyphens are not spammy unless there become too many words. As Matt Cuts puts it, more than 6 words or so it starts to look spammy. It's all about user readability, so if your domain is more easily read using hyphens.. all the better.

It depends on what you are doing. If you are trying to develop a brand and are doing a lot of of offline marketing, I would go with a branded url. If you are hoping to drive your sales and success through rankings, a keyword-rich url is better.

Hope this helps!

Ryan

[ForumEngine]

Domains with hyphens look spammy no matter how you slice it.

Um, could we maybe be sort of spinning out of control in our concerns about spam?

Domains with hyphens are user friendly and easy to read.

For a domain like yours, with only two words, not so important. But try stringing three or more words together without a hyphen and see if you can figure out what the domain name means. There are spaces in between words for a reason!

Regarding spam. SEO is a form of marketing. All those search result listings are little ads. We're all in the advertising business. Ok, maybe it's not a real glamorous and meaningful business, but it's what we've chosen, so we'd be wise to make peace with our choice.

Spam doesn't equal advertising. Advertising doesn't equal spam.

The word spam has a specific meaning. Unsolicited bulk commercial email.

We dilute the word spam, and the fight against it, if we start applying the word spam to everything that we don't like.

[Jill]

The word spam has a specific meaning. Unsolicited bulk commercial email.

That is email spam. There is also web spam. Search engines don't like it.

[ForumEngine]

Perhaps it would be helpful for us to define what web spam is? Do you have a definition that is as clear and concise as the definition for email spam?

To me, the word "spam" is so loaded with moral judgment that I'm having a hard time understanding how it applies to the web. But, I'm willing to learn if you're willing to teach.

[ganalon]

My GF, who is 10x the web pro I am, has had success with a domain containing a single hyphen. Recently she bought the non-hyphenated [<- is that a pun?] version that 301 redirects to the hyphenated version. The hyphen helps in her case because the URL is LASTNAME-BUSINESS. Her success has come through branding and social media.

That said 1 hyphen max, generally 0 is best... IMO.

[chrishirst]

Perhaps it would be helpful for us to define what web spam is? Do you have a definition that is as clear and concise as the definition for email spam?

To me, the word "spam" is so loaded with moral judgment that I'm having a hard time understanding how it applies to the web. But, I'm willing to learn if you're willing to teach.

The Classification of Search Engine Spam
Ten years old now, but probably still the most accurate definition you will find



Basically you can liken SE spam to agressive real world marketing,

forum signatures and blog commenting = telesales cold calling.

Abusing "social media" = "fly" posting or thrusting flyers in to your hand while walking along the street

[Jill]

Webspam as defined by Google.

"'Webspam' refers to pages that try to trick Google into ranking them highly. "

[ForumEngine]

"'Webspam' refers to pages that try to trick Google into ranking them highly. "

Ok, that's a concise definition, thanks.

I guess "trick" would be any web publishing technique that doesn't have the approval of the Google Corporation. By this reasoning, if Matt Cutts should write an article I don't agree with, his article could be called spam too.

Ok, I realize I'm semantic quibbling like an old lady English teacher. You got me there.

It just seems like the word spam has been so diluted, polluted, mangled and manipulated that we've reached the point where we'd be better off without it.

It seems the word spam has itself become spam, useless clutter clogging up conversations.

[colorado1]

Domains with hyphens are effective, but I would hold the hyphen down to using it one time. I have had domains with hyphens rank well and I have had .net rank as well as .com. The one thing that I think is a larger factor than hyphens in a domain is the domain length. In my experience any domain longer than about 20 characters is getting to look like spam and will be recognized by Google I believe.

One of the biggest problems is getting a good domain because so many brokers have gone out and bought up alot of good domains unfortunately.

[RWare1]

For domains without hypens, you can capitalize individual words, like this
MySpecialDomain.com

Please don't do that. Some webservers are case sensitive and if users would not use the exact case you do, they won't get to your site. The may be less of a problem today than years ago, but it's still to be avoided.

[chrishirst]

Please don't do that. Some webservers are case sensitive and if users would not use the exact case you do, they won't get to your site. The may be less of a problem today than years ago, but it's still to be avoided.

Domain names are case insensitive regardless of the server technologies used.

It is folder/directory and file names that are case sensitive on *nix servers.

[Alan Perkins]

The Classification of Search Engine Spam
Ten years old now, but probably still the most accurate definition you will find

Thanks for that Chris!

Hyphenated domains should be purchased and 301 redirected to the unhyphenated version. If you own the hyphenated domain and not the unhyphenated one, you have a marketing/branding problem. And so, to a lesser extent, does the owner of the unhyphenated domain.

The best hyphenated domain I ever bought (and it doesn't follow the above redirect advice) was upsh-tcreek.com but after three or four years I hadn't found a use for it, so let it go ...

[imbrod]

I am for hyphens. It's more human readable, and I think it's search-engine-readable.

[Jill]

Search engines do a remarkable job of parsing words that are smooshed together without hyphens these days. Which makes hyphens unnecessary in most cases.