Hyphenated domains – good or bad?
-
I have a client who will be changing their domain name from www.brand.co.uk to www.brandglobal.com. There are concerns however that this might affect the searches for brand terms and variants. Hence, there is a suggestion for going for www.brand-global.com. I’m aware that search engines are smart enough to discern the brand name in most cases, but I’m wary if it would impact highly on the brand search terms and would it be a better option to go for www.brand-global.com instead of www.brandglobal.com? Any advice (or reference to discussions around this) would be much appreciated. Thanks
-
Hey Keri,
I do not have hard data to prove this claim, it's purely my opinion and I should have marked it as such. I had a few presentations to customers recently and most of the time when I asked them to go to a specific page the person would use a hyphenated (spelling?) version or search brand1 keyword1 instead of brand1keyword1.
I personally first try a hyphenated version (e.g. -online.com).So I updated my response to the question to reflect this.
Sebastian
-
Hi Sebastian,
Can you share more information about most people tending to use hyphens when typing in a name? I haven't seen studies on that before and it sounds like really valuable information to have. Most of the advice I see is to avoid hyphens in the domain name itself as multiple hyphens can look spammy and it's more difficult to say verbally.
In any case, if you do opt for the hyphen, ALSO get the non-hyphenated domain. Otherwise someone else will get brandglobal.com and capture a ton of your traffic from when people don't type in the hyphen.
-
I don't like using a www.brand-global.com if you have a www.brandglobal.com it looks a tad spammy and second rate in my opinion. I don't think it will impact highly on the brand search terms.
If you do choose www.brand-global.com i would for sure buy www.brandglobal.com and 301 redirect it
-Take a look at domain values the - is always a cheaper domain
-
There are two opinions on this in the SEO world and mine is that it is good. I like the readability and believe for that alone it is beneficial. To date, I have seen nothing proving it is a negative.
But, here is a question: Why change from the brand.co.uk to brand-global.com? Does adding global assist your client's needs in any way. They may be a global company, but why would you not simply leave out global and go with brand.com or .net?
Just wondering,
-
I don't think it maters to Google, but it does maters to the person searching. I think that using a hyphenated domain increases the readability of the URL and therefore leads to better CTRs (and thus to a tiny advantage in rankings).
Also if someone misspells your brand name it's easier to scan in the SERPS what you were looking for (e.g. searching for "brant product" leads to brand-global.com, which I think is a lot easier to read then brandglobal.com)Personat opinion, withouth any data: most ppl. tend to use hyphens when typing in a name.[edited]
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
EMD's How much should you offer for a good one?
Hi Everyone, I am launching out into an e-commerce site and I am looking at purchasing an EMD as my brand. The brand of product I am selling is different "brand" but the e-commerce brand I will be building will be for a three word keyword that is competitive and gets great traffic. My questions are these: 1. Is an EMD worth it? The asking price is $42k for a site that is a keyword that gets 60k searches per month. 2. How much should offer without being rude to the seller? 3. The $42k represents a significant portion of my start up cash. Forget converting, (that will be an ongoing tweak that I am committed to perform) will a good EMD help brand the site and drive the traffic? My thinking is that with social media and ppc you could burn through that money and not be any further ahead. Thanks a ton in advance for the weigh in. Happy Holidays everyone. Gary
Industry News | | gdavey1 -
Where to find good SEO job applicants?
We're located in South Dakota, and I'm having a hard time getting qualified job applicants for an advanced SEO position. The ad has been placed on local job sites as well as careerbuilder.com and indeed.com. What other places do you recommend?
Industry News | | CFSSEO0 -
I have a new domain, how should i best use it?
Hi all, Recently signed upto Moz and loving what i am seeing at the moment.I do alot of microsites and push both adwords and affiliate programmes and products and earn enough to give me some fun money. For a long time i have wanted to get into the mobile phone market as i have spoken to alot of people who get anything upto £100 a time from affiliate programmes. I have just purchased a new domain after doing some digging around and though that before i dive into doing things how i normally would , i thought id ask advice on how to best utilise the domain i have bought. Ive just purchased newiphone.co.uk and will put up a holding page once all of the registration has gone through and i have access to everything. According to Google keyword planner the term 'new iphone' gets around 368k searches a month. Moz says this is an extremely difficult keyword to rank for with a 80% difficulty rating so i appreciate i wont be at number 1 in a couple of weeks. Id appreciate your ideas and suggestions as a community to see how i go forward. Many tanks in advancePaul
Industry News | | Wilkesy0 -
Is there a really good place to find high end, cutting edge web developers online.
My issue is that I know there are a lot of web developers in the world and all of them are great just like all the great SEO's in the world. Does anyone know of a great place to find really top talent that is the kind where the people are constantly stretching and trying new things, etc.
Industry News | | RobertFisher
Is there a web dev board the better ones are on, etc. Any luck in other areas? We have a position available, but will not fill it with anyone average or above average. I really would love to know what boards, forums, etc. I can find them on, but every search lists 50 boards and, the is not my everyday world. I just do not know which are the ones that will put me in front of the best in the world. Any help is appreciated. Robert0 -
Changing Domains - How much link juice is lost with 301 redirect?
My company is thinking about rebranding and moving over to a new domain. While we dont have a lot of backlinks, we do have some very valuable ones that we hate to lose. That being said, I think we are in such an infancy that the backlinks we have shouldnt prevent us from rebranding if thats what we choose to do. I am just trying to get an idea of how moving to a new domain will effect the domain authority if we redirect all the pages? Is the best thing to do simply re-direct, or should we reach out to our most valuable links and let them know the domain/link has changed and hopefully they change their link to us? How much is lost by simply 301 every page? We are getting around 70 organic clicks per day and would rather not start from zero again 🙂
Industry News | | DemiGR0 -
What is the best way to share good content (and help myself in the process)
i spend a decent amount of my spare time browsing quora, stumbleupon, google reader, pulse, etc keeping up with all the different aspects of internet marketing when i come across a particuarly valuable piece of content i take a few seconds and share it using hootsuite on my linked, twitter, facebook (i spread them out so there is only one post a day) this rewards those who write valuable content but im not doing anything to benefit my site - www.sawwebmarketing.com im establishing myself as somebody who has good stuff to share to my potential clients.... what a quick, easy way to share the high quality things i come across that will create links for me as well? (short of writing my own blog post listing the high quality articles i found with my thoughts on each) thoughts? opinions? thanks everybody! Matthew
Industry News | | Mrupp440 -
What's a good host for wordpress?
I've been using A2Hosting.com for a few years and am looking for something more reliable and better tech support. I've looked at WP Engine, but would like something less expensive or someone to convince me that it's worth the cost I have 10 domains using Wordpress (clients sites) that need hosting. What are your recommendations, and what would be the ideal set up?
Industry News | | WilliamCarr0 -
Good time to start a niche site?
I am wondering, with all the recent changes in the algorithm, is this a good time to start a niche site? I know this can be fairly subjective, depending on the niche. But, anyone think this is a good opportunity?
Industry News | | inhouseseo0