Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Domain name with a hyphen
-
I am looking at starting a brand new website and purchasing a domain to see my hair product. My question is that domain i am wanting to purchase if a 2 word .com domain but it is not being currently used and it is up for auction for 10K.
I am looking a purchasing a domain name that is the same 2 words but a has a hyphen between the 2 works.
My assumption is that if I start building content, concentrating on seo (keywords, link building, etc) and brand building that I should not have any problems with my hyphen in the domain.
I am looking for feedback and insight from the SEO professionals! Thank you guys in advance.
UPDATED 1-29-13
Here is the scenario and I am looking on how you would handle it.
**name = my brand name
I am looking to purchase a domain within the year: namehair.com
I currently am using: namehairbrand.com
I have purchased: name-hair.com
My concern is if I began my SEO efforts and the brand grows extensively then the person who owns "namehair.com" will raise the price even more than the current price of 10k. I plan on purchasing that domain name within the next 18 months or so and then direct the traffic to the domain "namehair.com".
If I put all my efforts into "namehairbrand.com" and then submit to Google that I have changed domains - will I get my butt kicked by Google? Thank you guys - you are really helpful!
-
Here is the scenario and I am looking on how you would handle it.
**name = my brand name
I am looking to purchase a domain within the year: namehair.com
I currently am using: namehairbrand.com
I have purchased: name-hair.com
My concern is if I began my SEO efforts and the brand grows extensively then the person who owns "namehair.com" will raise the price even more than the current price of 10k. I plan on purchasing that domain name within the next 18 months or so and then direct the traffic to the domain "namehair.com".
If I put all my efforts into "namehairbrand.com" and then submit to Google that I have changed domains - will I get my butt kicked by Google? Thank you guys - you are really helpful!
Denny
-
I started a site ten years ago with a hyphen in the domain. The domain without the hyphen was owned by a domainer. The harder I worked the more traffic he received when my customers typed the domain without the hyphen.
I finally paid a lot of money to get the domain without the hyphen.
On another project I had a domain with a hyphen. Within a year I was able to obtain the domain without the hyphen in an auction. When I redirected the hyphen domain to the non-hyphen domain the rankings went up immediately. Immediately.
-
It's totally not a problem for SEO.
Just weird from a user perspective when you tell people www.my "hyphen" site.com and type thru traffic.
I personally don't like hyphens for that reason, but i would rather a hyphen and having a much longer available domain name.
What are the two words, keywords or brand name?
-
I have never had any issues with hyphenated domain names and I have used them many times.
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
-
When Company names confuse search
I am currently perplexed over a client's search results. They are an established company and well known in their field. (Unfortunately, I am not comfortable providing a link or their name.) The company is a consulting firm and let's assume it is an accounting firm, which it is not. When you search on BSC Accounting the results give them the first result but the next 18 results are around education - BSc Accounting. Consider the DA on the site is 34 and the PA for homepage is 39. Is there a chance that when someone is searching on accounting firms that having the BSC in the name skews what they are able to rank for? Forget about searches for their exact name, I am more interested in thoughts as to how the BSC effects general searches for their specialties.
Branding | | RobertFisher1 -
Passing "link juice" from old domain to new domain
I am purchasing several websites from the company I work for and starting my own company. 1.The websites have not been updated in several years
Branding | | RoxBrock
2. The websites have poor SEO rankings
3. Though bad inbound links have been removed, there may still be some added by a black-hat SEO company I would like to start a new website and move all the content to that site. My questions are: 1. Will it hurt my new website rankings if I redirect the old site content to my new site and delete the old sites--due to possible bad inbound links, losing rank due to redirects (I have lost rank from redirecting in the past)? 2. If related, isn't it better to put all the content on one website? Thank you.0 -
Avoid Keyword in New Domain Name?
We are looking to rebrand our domain name. Our existing domain is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com. We own www.metro-manhattan.com and were hoping to use this domain. The company name is Metro Manhattan Office Space, Inc. Is the fact that the new domain contains "Manhattan" a negative? I know that the fact that it has a hyphen is weak. Manhattan is part of such keywords as "Manhattan office space". Regarding the company name, is the fact that it contains the target phrase "Manhattan office space" bad? Our company name may sound like exact match anchor text and I am not sure what to do about this if anything. I would really prefer to keep our name but it is necessary to change it to improve SEO we will do so. Would it be better to change to a new name like "Integrity Real Estate" which does not contain target phrases or keywords ("real estate" is not a major target phrase as it is to generic) ? Or how something like www.mmos.com for the domain and leave the company name alone? How would I go about finding a company that would assist is in creating an SEO friendly domain name and perhaps a new corporate name if necessary? Thanks, Alan
Branding | | Kingalan10 -
Best use for a second domain?
Hi, I have a client who has a website with its brand name in its URL and this is not very keyword friendly as it is just numbers http://www.44-16.com/ -- the website has been up for a few months and is starting to see it traffic increase (mainly due to PPC). The client has told me that they also have another URL which is directly relevant to the industry they are in and they have asked me for advice on the best way to use the second domain. Would it be best to create a second website that has several links to the main site (although new content, not duplicated content) or would a blog be the best option for the new site? The existing site does have a blog that generates some good traffic so they'd have to be writing two blogs I assume? The client doesn't want to stop using the first site and I want to give them the best advice to make the best use of this second domain. Thanks!
Branding | | bendyman0 -
1 Website, 2 Business Names, 2 Locations
I took on a dentist office as an SEO client. They have 1 website, 2 business names and 2 locations. Each location has it's own business name. They are both within the same city as well. I'm not exactly sure where to start with them since they have 2 different business names. If it were 1 name with multiple locations I would just create a Contact Us page for each one, but is that the best thing to do when the location names are different? Should I create a different website for each location or is that smart because then they are competing against each other? Any help from the community on the direction I should take would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | SilhouetteBS0 -
How to improve the quality score (QS) when bidding on competitor brand names in Google Adwords?
Hi, I have researched few sites on this topic and I could see that the competitor keyword should match with the add text relevance, landing page relevance and CTR. Any other factors more to be included to improve the quality score? Reference: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2285536/Google-Updates-How-AdWords-Quality-Score-is-Reported
Branding | | zco_seo0 -
Two domains for different countries? or one big domain with folders?
I know this might sound as a newbie question or maybe not, here it goes. I've had a client for the past 2 years, and we have accomplish many good things for his local website .com.ve (venezuela). It's been so good that he is opening a branch in Dominican republic .com.do. The content, strategy and even the services are exactly the same, but the owner wants to have different site for each country. Of course he only wants to pay for one domain. I do want to share our success ont the .com.ve with the other domains and he actually owns the "global" domain .com with his brand name. So, what should I reccomend... Develop a second site and start from scratch? Migrate my blog from the .com.ve site to the .com site and give each country a separate folder? /ve /do?. What it's the best scenario for me to have all the traffic we have earned transfer to the global brand and to have separate info for each country... Thank you so much for your answer that I kno would be great. Dan
Branding | | daniel.alvarez0 -
Dental Office With Two Locations And Same Practice Name
Dentists buy other practices all the time. Sometimes they change the name of the practice and other times they keep the name. I am working with a dentist on a new website because their old one is riddled with flash (and is ugly too) She has two practices but they have the same practice name. One of them caters to half English speaking and half Spanish speaking patients. I'm thinking I should create a separate website for each practice mainly because we may want to design the graphics and text for the appropriate patient language probably with a English/Spanish translation button on the website? For localization, wouldn't it be better to have a url for each physical site? Suggestions?
Branding | | Czubmeister0