Domain name hyphens?

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 15:09

Looking at a domain name which consists of three short words but all the relevant combinations are taken unless I go for hyphens betweeen the words.

So the question is do you guys like hyphens in web domains (Yes/No/Don't care/Depends) ?

thanX in advance

Pauls9 · 07-09-2010, 15:13

If it's necessary. I can type a hyphen the same as any other letter.

Unless someone's reading it out: "A dash." "You mean a hyphen?" "What's a hyphen? I mean one of those lines at the bottom."

Sigh...

**Damien** · 07-09-2010, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Looking at a domain name which consists of three short words but all the relevant combinations are taken unless I go for hyphens betweeen the words.

So the question is do you guys like hyphens in web domains (Yes/No/Don't care/Depends) ?

thanX in advance

Not really. I am not to sure why but it seems unnatural to me to have hyphens in the name. Is it available as a different domain? Such as .co?

**Rob** · 07-09-2010, 15:18

These days it's unavoidable.

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 15:18

Not sure about .CO (especially as they're dearer) also I'm trying not to get this anywhere near a similar .com

**Damien** · 07-09-2010, 15:21

I think the hyphens disrupt the follow of the domain. People have to know the address is not the same as the name of the site. You can't go Cableforum.co.uk, you would have to say cablehyphenforum.co.uk...

DaiNasty · 07-09-2010, 15:36

I don't like them in principle, particularly with the possibility of confusion between hyphen and underscore. However, if that's all you can do..

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 15:41

LOL, looks like the name I had in mind with hyphens has a similar .net with a similar theme so better look elsewhere

ThanX for the answers everyone, I have now hopefully found one without hyphens

and/or similar oriented sites with the same name

**Rob** · 07-09-2010, 16:34

Go on tell us what it is, so we can nab it quick and make a profit selling it back to you

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 16:36

OK, it's

Meglomaniac-is.me

Oh, damn, Sorry I've given you the domain for my other project!!!

**Chris** · 07-09-2010, 16:49

I wouldn't worry about hyphens too much. You will presumably be wanting to generate traffic via search engines and they aren't put off by hyphens. It is more important to get good, relevant keywords in your URL than it is to get something obscure but fractionally neater on the human eye.

**Damien** · 07-09-2010, 17:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

I wouldn't worry about hyphens too much. You will presumably be wanting to generate traffic via search engines and they aren't put off by hyphens. It is more important to get good, relevant keywords in your URL than it is to get something obscure but fractionally neater on the human eye.

I would favour human readability (and the ease in which the name is spoken) over SEO.

**Chris** · 07-09-2010, 17:08

That all depends on where your traffic is going to come from. Hyphens are only a disadvantage if you're relying on word-of-mouth; all other means are either SEO - where the keyword is king - or read off a page whether printed, in email or on another website. In any of those instances the human eye, especially one used to the web, would tend to read the hyphen as a space anyway.

I think the human readability argument is a lot more important in the body text of your site, where a messy scattering of keywords can serve only to put off the people you worked so hard to attract via your google ranking.

**Damien** · 07-09-2010, 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

That all depends on where your traffic is going to come from. Hyphens are only a disadvantage if you're relying on word-of-mouth; all other means are either SEO - where the keyword is king - or read off a page whether printed, in email or on another website. In any of those instances the human eye, especially one used to the web, would tend to read the hyphen as a space anyway.

I think the human readability argument is a lot more important in the body text of your site, where a messy scattering of keywords can serve only to put off the people you worked so hard to attract via your google ranking.

Maybe but the URL for a site is important to be clear, it isn't simply a tool for search engines, it's the identity for your site. To many people it will be the name of your site and having a memorable name will serve you far better than one which is designed to give you a small, and it would be small, boost in search engines.

Even if your using Google as a front-end to your site, the best way to get top ranking is to produce content people will link too after all.

All that said it really depends on what kind of site your making.

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 17:59

Just purchased a name.. quite short (only 6 letters) and it's a dot com..

Will announce more once I get my idea sorted but in the end I decided to go with a name that was unique but still relevant