The term "exact match" does NOT apply to hyphenated domains...

[Systreg]

Of course it's not a waste of money

It's just that if I see a domain name on TV or advertised anywhere else and it has a hyphen in it, I'm likely to remember it if it interests me, after all, joe public who isn't interested in domains and doesn't have thousands of domain names running around their heads to remember, they just have to remember that one domain they just saw, not difficult is it

 

[cc976a]

The topic is different to the thread post and digressing.

I WOULD expect someone to state a hyphen is an EMD because:

1. It is;

2. The market of people searching for that exact phrase - and looking for that exact product or service - is as important to me and others as the SEO benefits;

3. There IS a EMD bonus for hyphenated but the theory is it has less of a boost up the SERPs

This alone is why EMD would include hyphenated domains.


Digressing slightly I don't quite understand why Google would value non-hyphenated domains more than the hyphenated equivalent (as it doesn't make much sense)??

I can see why it would get a boost but surely the boost is about the name (and content) matching the searchers phrase - than the person with the deepest pockets - or early to the feeding table - taking the coveted non-hyphenated .co.uk or .com??

 

[BREWSTERS]

The graph does. It's restating what's been said many, many, many times over the years: there is less of an "SEO bonus" to be gained from hyphenated domains vs their unhyphenated counterparts.

BTW, that's not the source of my assertion (it's something that people who follow SEO "know" as it's been talked about so many times) but it happened to be a document I could find quickly. Here's another one...
http://www.seomoz.org/q/hyphens-in-domain-name (read the comments)

Hmm, and right below the graph it states that in some cases it's better to use hyphens.

Those "who 'know' as it's been talked about so many times" - 'believe' might have been a better word. A lot of people talk about alien abductions too.



Disclaimer: I know nothing about SEO...nothing. And I don't care much either. I'm just chipping in while I'm waiting for the roofer to show up! Bloody rain.

 

[Alien]

A lot of people talk about alien abductions too.

Hey, don't I know it!

 

[cm1975]

My view on hyphenated domains is that they are going to be slightly less easy to remember than unhyphehated, but still better than most others.

Let's use the lifeinsurance example -

40k people search for this term, so it's a phrase that is in common use and is one that is easily recognised and memorable.

Would you use joebloggslifeinsurance.co.uk or life-insurance.co.uk for offline advertising?

The first domain requires you to remember the brand and the keywords, but the second requires you to remember the keywords and hyphen. Which is more memorable?

Yes there will be leakage to the non-hyphenate domain, but I would think more people would remember the hyphenated popular keywords, rather than the branded keywords name if driving past at 50mph, or flicking through a paper.

I could of course be completely wrong!

 

[martin-s]

AlienAbductionInsurance.co.uk is registered sadly.

..

Alien-Abduction-Insurance.co.uk is FTR though!

 

[domainseller200]

Arguably, life-insurance.co.uk would be second best, but it's not going to be treated as equivalent to lifeinsurance.co.uk by Google for SEO purposes

There's a lot more to marketing than SEO if you're a "real" business.

Without getting into a debate and being totally impartial of my own views on domains and extensions -

1. For the purpose of the title of this thread / context in which it is being said, then surely lifeinsurance.org.uk would be second best as it IS an exact match ?

2. Which sounds best on radio / TV advert ?

Life hyphen insurance dot co dot uk

OR

Life insurance dot org dot uk

Don't worry I am not flying the .org.uk flag as that ship sailed a while back (apart from top names like lifeinsurance.org.uk etc) I am interested in hearing your thoughts all the same.

 

[Alien]

AlienAbductionInsurance.co.uk is registered sadly.

..

Alien-Abduction-Insurance.co.uk is FTR though!

Ha, ha! LOL. Post of the day!

 

[Brassneck]

Ha, ha! LOL. Post of the day!

Agreed - thanks for making me smile!

 

[Blossom]

I'd rather take what google say than a bunch of seo bible bashers.

S

I'd be careful about either extreme.

Google tells us things based on what they want us to do, not necessarily what's actually true.

 

[tifosi]

I'd be careful about either extreme.

Google tells us things based on what they want us to do, not necessarily what's actually true.

I didn't say I actually fully trusted what google say!

Only that the 'truth' is a pretty flexible thing in many situations and depends on perspective of what your starting point in the argument is... as Edwin, and others, are showing in this thread.

I can't say I've ever been particularly bothered with SEO apart from the common sense things when building a site that seo'ers seem to have taken as their own inventions.

Google's methodology is quite obviously making 'traditional' seo less relevent over proper site design and time-dependent site building & content.

This thread will just fade into irrelevence...

 

[BREWSTERS]

AlienAbductionInsurance.co.uk is registered sadly.

..

Alien-Abduction-Insurance.co.uk is FTR though!

But which one's better?

Only one way to find out...FIGHT!




PS. Roofer's just arrived - what kind of 11 o clock is that?

 

[JMOT]

what a load of old bollocks this thread is...

 

[Systreg]

@ Invincible, yes, of course, just my opinion, I don't see anything wrong with hyphens at all, it seems to be mostly domain snobs and seo types who don't like them, I just think that people not in any way related to the domain industry wouldn't be that bothered by them.

Also, rather than making a domain not as memorable with a hyphen in it, in a lot of cases a domain is actually much easier to read with a hyphen seperating the words, which to my mind, makes it easier to remember, more so if you see one fly past written on the side of a van or whatever.

[edit]

Just to add, even for domains written on any other sort of media, say if a domain is 2 words and the first word ends in the same/similar letters to the beginning of the first word, at first sight you might no be able to read it properly, the hyphen sorts that problem out.

 

[retired_member36]

I don't see anything wrong with hyphens at all, it seems to be mostly domain snobs and seo types who don't like them, I just think that people not in any way related to the domain industry wouldn't be that bothered by them.

I agree with this statement, ive ran a few sites my self in the past with hyphens and they ranked well.

say if a domain is 2 words and the first word ends in the same/similar letters to the beginning of the first word, at first sight you might no be able to read it properly, the hyphen sorts that problem out.

National-Lottery.co.uk
nationallottery.co.uk

I know which of the two are easier to read / type.

 

[newguy]

My favourite horror site, bloody-disgusting.com, defaults to the hyphenated version of the domain name even though they own both. Not specifically relating to the exact match question of course, but interesting none the less.

 

[namealot]

Lots of bollocks about hyphens does anyone apart from “G” know and they seem to change there mind for sure,,,

Word of mouth “meet me here dot COM” is easier to remember than "meet hyphen me hyphen here dot com!" *(same could be argued for com over any cctld etc) People forget the hyphen, put it in the wrong place, if they even know what it is and were it is on the keyboard

Some its “All top search results are non hyphenated that means there better” The result will show more because there are more regged and developers etc have by in large gone for them, The SERPs can also show multi-hyphenated domains that you can argue is evidence that there not being penalized for having hyphen..?

You also have the search engines that can’t differentiate words beesexchange.com, Bee’s exchange, COM
, Bee sex change etc (I know they can use site text etc also)

A good site with good content etc makes little if any difference serp wise selling them it could but that’s down to preference rather than anything else I’d say...

 

[philiporchard]

I'm sorry, but that SEOmoz article is simply complete misinformation. Not only does Google formally endorse hyphens, they encourage their use when appropriate in any URL (although they discourage the over-use of them):

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76329


From an SEO point of view it is not in any way a detractor to have a hyphen in a domain name, I myself have several sites at the top of Google with hyphens. Google accepts a hyphen as a formal seperator and will not count the hyphen as part of the letter structure of the domain.

For real world useability in business, obviously having a hyphen in your domain name could cause problems if you expect people to type the domain in.

The Google link you refer to is helpful when planning your site structure and URL structure - (we referred to it when installing a re-writer). From my understanding, it's not about Google endorsing hyphens in domain names.

 

[Edwin]

The Google link you refer to is helpful when planning your site structure and URL structure - (we referred to it when installing a re-writer). From my understanding, it's not about Google endorsing hyphens in domain names.

Correct, it's about the portion of the URL after the "/" that ends the domain part.

 

[Silverz]

What I find interesting about the seomoz link Edwin pointed out is how low Bing values hyphenated domain names in comparison too those with 'query terms in domain names'...much lower than I expected that for sure.