Domain Names Hyphenate Or Not?

Mike Finley

1) Which is better and why in your opinion? And don't say register both! Because often times one is already taken.

bathroomremodeling.com

or

bathroom-remodeling.com

Nathan

If your looking for search engine traffic ONLY go with the "-".... otherwise don't use the "-". People never remember to type in the -.

Just my opinion.

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Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Grumpy

I say register both... Unless one is taken, then the answer is easy

I agree with what nate said 100%.

hatchet

I'd personally go with bathremodeler.com or bathremodelers.com
keep it as short and to the point as possible. But what Nate says I also agree with. - will help seperate the words for search engine traffic.. but is more difficult for someone to remember as a business site.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Mike Finley

Seems to be the consensus that the hyph words are good for key word searches in search engines but suck for consumers. With googles page ranking algos isn't key words in the domain names really not as important any more or do you still think it holds that much power that it is the first choice when registering a domain name?

hatchet

IMO - the hyphenated domain names still add a little help to searches. I couldn't say how much with any authority but in todays web market any little thing helps. If your goal is to sell to consumers (a service or product) you're better off going without hyphens and focusing on a linking campaign. The more on target link text you have the higher you will rank for those keywords. The difficulty of ranking highly will depend on how competitive that particular keyword is.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

hatchet

hmm.. in direct response to your question.
I wouldn't make it a first choice when registering a domain name

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Thunder Johnson

You want your site to be listed when someone searches for "bathroom" or "remodeling" or "bathroom remodeling". Using a dash provides a small benefit over not using one. The search engine (Google etc) reads the domain name looking for keywords and recognizes the dash as separating the 2 words. If your URL uses an underscore or some other character the search engine wont see the words.

There are several factors that determine what web sites appear as "search results" when someone conducts a search. The domain name/URL is a small part of it.

"Search Engine Optimization for Dummies" is a good book that explains the basics. Even if you hire a service to handle all your web services this book will help you to understand what it is they should be doing to get your site to show up as a top listing for searches.

Mike Finley

Next question- plural or not?

Do you think it matters to register ******x-forums.com or ******x-forum.com?

Grumpy

If I am going for actual peope I'd register both. Pick one and use it, set the other to forwarding.


I have a site where you could commonly type in the S by mistake so I registered both and I forward all traffic from one site to the other. It's only $8 with godaddy.

MinConst

As for the - being hard to remember for customers. Think about it. If someone is searching for something and they find an interesting link they do not need to remember to type anything. It is a click. Something like 85-95% of people looking for something on the internet use search engins to find it. So a name isn't as important as it use to be when it comes to customers typing.
I ran a couple of ecommerce stores for a few years, and tried all the SE stuff. It changes from month to month. What works today on Google may not next month. It is a constant battle to get listed before the fold. Let alone 1 or 2.
I'm not sure how much business a contractor will get from Internet as most of us work locally and I for one don't care for unqualified leads anyway.
Of course I may be wrong in some fields but hey that's just my opinion.

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Paul
Minichillo's Construction
Website
I will never leave you hanging!

Grumpy

yeah the Internet sucks for contractors. Nobody from chicago should get a web site. This way all 5 of mine have no compitition!

At one point in time for "Chicago roofing", I had two three and four, then service magic opened their affilate program and everyone started spamming their affiliate sites

Teetorbilt

Personally, I often forget the -. Many times I'll pick up the name in traffic and only have a split second to remember it, it may be 10 mins. before I can write it down.

Mike Finley

Sorry guys should have been more specific, the plural is in regard to search engine traffic not directly typing in the domain name.

Basically it comes down to do people type in

"power tools" or "power tool" and does it matter to a search engine, if you have "power-tool.com" will you get the "power tools" searches or just the "power tool" searches?

Grumpy

Mike to answer your question where people are concerned, I would think "power tools" would be more common. I also think powertools.com would be easier to remember. I also think powertools.com and powertool.com should both be registered if you are hoping for people to manually enter your domain name into a browser.

As far as search engines go, I would think tool and tools shouldn't matter very much, but I am speculating. Also if the keyword is in question, I'd do some research into what is searched more... "powertools" or "power tools"? I'd register which ever was searched more often if my goal was to get better ranking in the engines.