Domain name...one word vs spaces in between words

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   Michael Willisposted 14 years ago

   I looked in the search through forums but couldn't find an answer for this so I decided to post a thread. Hope I didn't over look a thread. If I did, read my question and post the missed thread and I will read it.
   
   My question is:
   Is there any significance in a domain being one word (many words cluttered into one) or adding an underscore, hyphen or dot to separate the words?
   I am looking at purchasing a domain and using keywords in the domain. I don't want the keywords to get lost in a stretched out domain that might look like one word only.
   Any suggestions? Does it matter as far as SEO?

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   Ultimate Hubberposted 14 years ago

   Try not to add hyphens in your domain. And you can't have underscores in domains. Dots only for subdomains.

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      Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      So I take it the long single line of words is the way to go?  My keywords will still be recognized?

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         Ultimate Hubberposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         They will be. Speaking from an SEO perspective, you must not have those hyphens in domain names.

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            Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            OK, thanks a lot!!!  I have decided it is time to finally branch out and get a domain and a website for one of my writing niches. It will be a learning experience, but I am ready to give it a go.
            Is there a hubber that has hubs with easy information for "website rookies?"

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               alternate poetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I am going the same route with the same questions.  So, if I understand right - keywords can be found within a long string of text ?   so if I put up   LOVEPOETRYVERSES   Google will recognise
               
               LOVE : LOVE POETRY : LOVE VERSES : POETRY VERSES : POE : TRY : VERSE :
               
               ?

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                  Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  Good example of what I am asking.

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                     alternate poetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     interesting as it is confusing huh !!  ??

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                        Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        LOL, yes it is. I take from UH that the long strand name will be recognized by SEO. In the link I read from Thooghun, the writer says hyphens are far better than the underscore. But also that this was for Google.
                        I would prefer to have a website attracted to all SEO.
                        I know others have wondered about this. Maybe this can be figured out here in this post.

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            thooghunposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            I remember reading about this, and to date have found no evidence to back it up, apart from the hearsay and whispers of niche marketers.
            
            Many niche sites use hyphens to abuse targeted keywords, and thus marketers concluded that hyphens were somehow bad. But their content was to blame, and possible guilt by association (if you have more than 3 hyphens).
            
            With regards to dashes and underscores, Matt Cutts himself has openly favored hyphens, more info from here:  http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/
            
            This is an interesting subject, but as of now and without disrespect, there's no real reason to abandon the idea of a hyphenated domain.  If I'm wrong, correct me, that's why I'm here

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               Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               The reason I added Hyphen in the question is because HP adds hyphens to our url's we use for our hubs. So, I would think they were OK or preferred, but since I am not sure I am asking here. I know there are many here who have successful websites and am looking to learn from their experience and advice.

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                  thooghunposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  Michael, as far as I know Google ignores dashes entirely, rendering the whole debate moot

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                     Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     HP inserts dashes in our URL's on hubs. I have never seen a problem with this on this site. I am wondering about a personal website. 
                     LOL, it can get confusing.

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                        thooghunposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        I was referring to a personal website. From Google:
                        
                        "To answer a common question, Google doesn’t algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url. Of course I can only speak for Google, not other search engines."

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                           Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                           Thanks. BTW...just read your gifts for men hub 2010, loved it!!!

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                           alternate poetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                           Thanks twice
                           
                           do you have any idea if what I suggest above is right or wrong ?
                           
                           so if I put up   LOVEPOETRYVERSES   Google will recognise
                           
                           LOVE : LOVE POETRY : LOVE VERSES : POETRY VERSES : POE : TRY : VERSE :
                           
                           ?

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                              travelespressoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                              *bump*
                              I can't add anything BUT I am very interested in finding out the answer to this question.
                              
                              I recently bought a domain name with one keyword + another.  The domain name is one word and I have been wondering about this same thing.  Thanks for asking Michael.

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                                 Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                                 Thanks for bumping. Weekend can be slower around here.
                                 U.H. and Thooghun both gave good answers. I am hoping a few more of our Hubpage Website members can shed some light on this. Or maybe even a HP staff member.
                                 Of course I will use a website to send traffic to my hubs, but also some other hubbers that write in the same topic as my website would be about.

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                                    travelespressoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                                    You're very welcome.
                                    
                                    My website won't be of interest to very many people in the US/Canada.  It's about netball and so it will only appeal to Australia and New Zealand + the other Commonwealth countries.

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               Ultimate Hubberposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Matt Cutts have favored hyphens in file names. NOT the MAIN DOMAIN of your website!

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                  thooghunposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes he did, and why shouldn't that trust extent to root domain URLs? Do you have any evidence to the contrary?

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               Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I'm with Thoog on this. In fact I remember looking at research results from a reputable source a while ago that proved G does not favor or penalize hyphens.

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                  alternate poetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  SO  -  can anyone answer whether a name such as LOVEPOETRYVERSES   will be found by search engines as an assortment of keywords or not? ? ? ? 
                  
                  LOVE : LOVE POETRY : LOVE VERSES : POETRY VERSES : POE : TRY : VERSE :
                  
                  ?

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                     Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, it will - but not exactly as you described.
                     
                     LOVE POET R Y VERSES is one of the probable ways of tokenization.
                     
                     There is more than one way to process the string you give, and to the best of my knowledge SEs will use all of them.

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                        alternate poetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        wow - more research to do if I was thinking of making some super collocated wordy thingy !!    thanks Misha.
                        
                        Damn hard work learning this SEO stuff aint it.

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                           Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                           Sort of. The hardest part is to cut off all the misinformed crap you read on the net. The rest is easy.

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                              alternate poetposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                              Ohhhh  easy,  yeah right   I am at the point where Ihave put in around 20 solid hours of research on 'how to' and can see the light at the end of the tunnel that is the sign that says 'begin here'.

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                                 Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                                 LOL Yeah, it is certainly not a get rich overnight thingy.

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                                    thooghunposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                                    Amen Misha

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   kephriraposted 14 years ago

   I don't think dashes make any difference either way for seo, but people are likely to remember a one word domain name more easily and it just looks nicer, so it's better on a human level.

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   andygrantposted 14 years ago

   According to SEO point of view it is best to use a domain without hyphens. This also helps in people directly typing your keyword in browser.

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   livewithrichardposted 14 years ago

   It's been my experience that hyphenated domain names work just fine for targeting keywords.  The main problem with hyphenated domain names comes up when you audibly try to promote the domain.
   
   For example, if you were to call into a radio program and give your domain name, listeners would be confused if you said LOVE hyphen POETRY hyphen VERSES dot com but not so much if you just said LOVE POETRY VERSES dot com.
   
   Hyphenated domains are easier to read when doing offline promoting where you would place your domain name everywhere you can think of. However, like Misha said, SE's will see the string of words as long as the word is more than 3 letters long so LOVEPOETRYVERSES will read just the way you are looking for it to read.
   
   If you are like most people and will only be promoting online then it really doesn't matter since your keywords will be in a text link.

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      thooghunposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thats a good point richard!
      
      The corollary is that hypens can help clean up some dreaded misreads such as msexchange.com to ms-exchange.com. Or the infamous penisland.com might have been better off (or not given the publicity) being pen-island.com

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         Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         LOL That reminded me of one of my own bloppers. One of my first domains was malextech.com, which was meant to mean Mikhail ALEXandrov TECHnology. But when I realized it can be read as male-x-tech, too - I stopped using it for anything commercial

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            travelespressoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Misha -
            
            I bet there are many more bloopers too! 
            
            Thanks for the discussion and pointers everyone.  Even though Michael started this thread it's something I've been wondering about too. 
            
            My site (which still needs a TON of work since I set it up under blogger!) is netballwindow.  I couldn't get anything remotely connected to netball so I've combined it with window and I hope that'll do OK for me.

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