A "hyphen" domain has overtaken my site rank

[memaggiem]

I've heard that one should never buy a domain name with hyphens in it. Hyphens are bad everyone says and won't get rankings or top placements in SEO. Well, a hyphenated domain just kicked me from #1 for a search trm to #2! *hrmpf* The term is a search phrase and I'm certain that is why the dropdown for my site.

However, the site has less backlinks, lower PR etc and so on and therefore I am convinced that the domain name has allowed the site to get to #1.

My question is, I bought a new domain name with all 3 search terms in it (no hyphens!) and am wondering if it is worth it to move my site to this new name? I think not as I rank #1 for 95% of the top search terms. But, I'm just so darn phlummoxed over this.......and it's a hyphenated domain!!!!

Should I move to the new domain name? I've had my site for almost 5 years now and would no doubt loose a lot of backlinks etc.... When I started this site, I had NO idea about SEO and by luck, my site has just been fortunate to rank and place 1,2,3 for major search terms!

Thanks for the advice!
Maggie

[doj464]

Should I move to the new domain name? I've had my site for almost 5 years now and would no doubt loose a lot of backlinks etc.... When I started this site, I had NO idea about SEO and by luck, my site has just been fortunate to rank and place 1,2,3 for major search terms!

I wouldn't move all of the content over to the new domain. You'd lose all of the domain age, and have to start all over on that.

The domain name definitely does matter. Where I work, the compay stupidly left a key domain name .org URL expire, and had a squatter pick it up... they wanted $35k to get it back!

Anyways, instead of moving it, just add content with backlinks to the home page and deeplinks into subpages on your keyword URL. Also, go to blogspots (blogger), wordpress and squidoo, take out pages with your keyword URL, and create a couple of pages of content and link back to your original site.

Need ideas? Just use some of your old pages concepts, rewrite them, and link to those same pages in the article.

[WDC]

Keep working on your website rather than going for new domain there are lots of issues with new domains like sandbox etc. Do a competitor analysis and find out what your site is lacking, you will definitely get back to number one position.

[freedomrulz]

hello. i would have to agree with the others that you should not move to a new domain. work with what you have already. since you were already #1 it shouldn't take a lot to get back to that position. just stay focused on building quality content & backlinks. according to what i've learned about hyphen names, it's my understanding this helps SE's pick up the different words in the name. so in my case i'm getting people who look for 1 or 2 of my three keywords or any combination. & yes i'm #1 on google, msn. #2 on yahoo for my keywords. please don't hate

[memaggiem]

Thanks for all your replies! The only thing my site is lacking is one of the domain name keywords. I have higher PRs for my pages, more quality backlinks, more pages of quality content added daily etc and so on! I figured it was NOT a good idea to move it to a new domain name with the "missing" keyword........

I'll just keep adding my content, doing more linking within my pages and trying to use the keyword phrase in more of my pages. My traffic is not affected at all and it keeps climbing so all in all, what's so bad about #2 right? I'm sure i won't move back to #1 due to the domain name.

So it would appear that having a hyphenated domain name is OK and not bad as a lot of people insist.

Again, thanks for your replies and suggestions

[mjtaylor]

Nothing wrong with one or two hyphens for SEO and there is no reason why a hyphenated domain can't rank in the top ten. One of the main reasons you don't want hyphens in domains is because people will forget they are there and won't be able to return to your page or share your domain from memory.

[bj]

There are SO MANY other reasons other than the domain name for a possible change in rank. First one that occurs is are you purchasing links and they're not? Second one is how much content do they have compared to you? Are their onsite factors better than yours? Do they have more one way inbound links than you do? Do they have more authority on this subject than you do? Are their one way inbound links of better quality from higher PR sites than yours?

Pointing at the domain name and saying that's the reason is akin to blaming the full moon . . .

[DrTandem1]

A domain name has very little weight with regards to SERP positioning. They may be using the words that are hyphenated in their domain name as anchor text on IBLs. However, they could have any domain name and use the anchor text that applies to a specific search term. In other words, the domain name is not the reason for their SERP position. It is possible that Google, if that's where you are searching, has picked up this as a new site and all that's in the Google data base is the URL. This would leave nothing to index, however, that effect is very short lived.

Domain names are for humans. Hyphenated names are difficult for humans to remember to include the hyphen. About the only effect they have in SEO are negative, if there are too many and the domain name looks like spam-spam-spam-spam.com.

[memaggiem]

thanks for the reply. I'll answer below:

are you purchasing links and they're not - No, I have never purchased links nor have I ever purchased advertising. I do not link to any site that is not related to my content or otherwise iffy.

how much content do they have compared to you - I have 447 pages indexed and the other site has 294. My site has all original content, none has been purchased nor has any content ben taken from ezines or whatnot. **Just a thought, I recently removed some content/directories that were linked to subdomains I created. I had these subdomains for 5 years and total pages indexed was far higher, about 700+**

Are their onsite factors better than yours? - I am not sure what this is(?) Do you mean how many people visit? I have over 6000 uniques per day on average

Do they have more one way inbound links than you do? - i don't think so.

Do they have more authority on this subject than you do? Not sure what more authority is(?) But many "authoritative" agencies like government, universities etc. use my site for their classes.

Are their one way inbound links of better quality from higher PR sites than yours? I'd have to say either no, or possible it is equal but more likely no, my inbounds are of higher PR sites and better quality.

Sorry I can't really answer properly. As I mentioned, I did not develop this site with SEO in mind, it just happened that i got lucky.

Thanks again!

[bj]

Sorry I can't really answer properly. As I mentioned, I did not develop this site with SEO in mind, it just happened that i got lucky.

Well, if you care about whether they're first or you are first for this keyphrase, which I assume you do, since you posted to ask, you better start caring.

Onsite factors-- Metatags, use of chosen keyphrases in a natural way within text, links using those keyphrases in the linktext on your site, use of chosen keyphrases within the appropriate h tag, etc.

But many "authoritative" agencies like government, universities etc. use my site for their classes.

But do those sites link to your site or theirs? One link into their site from a place like Wikipedia could be the reason for this. Or an .edu site, especially if it's Harvard or MIT or an equally top school.

**Just a thought, I recently removed some content/directories that were linked to subdomains I created. I had these subdomains for 5 years and total pages indexed was far higher, about 700+**

Yes, that could very well be the reason, especially if you didn't insert 301 redirects for all those pages to their new locations or alternative relevant content, and links into them are now 404s. Oops.

[memaggiem]

you better start caring HeeHee I guess I am now!

Meta tags do contain all the keywords and are "natural" as well as within the links to pages within my site.

Yes, Harvard, South Carolina Med School, Texas A&M and other schools do link directly to my site (I only have one link to Harvard and no links to other schools) as does the WIC and other govt agencies, physicians offices etc.. I do link to a few authoratative doctors websites and medical related governmental agencies.

Hmm...I am going to put back those directories then! i thought it would be good to do some clean up! The directories however did not contain content that mentioned my keyword phrase tho.....Hmm again but I will still put them back!

I guess I should begin to delve deeper into this SEO stuff but, I'm afraid I will jinx myself as I never have done it before KWIM?

Thanks again for your help! I love coming here and reading all this nifty stuff!
Maggie

[bj]

Hmm...I am going to put back those directories then! i thought it would be good to do some clean up! The directories however did not contain content that mentioned my keyword phrase tho.....Hmm again but I will still put them back!

I can't swear that's it, but I can tell you that Goog hates to 404 on a page they've indexed and will penalize for that. People tend to get annoyed as well, both those who have linked to you and now find their page contains a link to your 404, and those who click that link and arrive at your 404.

Major changes such as this need to be planned for. Cleanup isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you have to be considerate of those who have bestowed a link by making sure the link doesn't break when you do that cleanup.

And you're very welcome, Maggie.

[Toni Anicic]

Don't move your site to the new domain. In my expirience, you will get more from the domain age factor then from an extra keyword in domain name.

[Orion]

The #1 reason that hyphens are not good is because when someone (in the real world) asks you what your domain is, saying domain(dash)name.com is hardly near as memorable as domainname.com.

IF you do have a hyphen never more than two as many of the search engines will penalize that.

Sometimes you have to get the hyphens to get your company name in a global market.

[seo4china]

Take it on a bright side, #2 ain't a bad result, could have been worse (like dropped out of the top 100...)

[simonm]

Hyphens bad?? Not in my book!

try a search (on google - no luck on live, yahoo shows my site at No2) for : web management uk

(I've just tried using keyword tracker and it shows my site as No1 so its not just Google showing me what I want to see)

Okay a pretty poor site, but its just my toolbox, maybe I should do more with it.

Simon

[DrTandem1]

Originally Posted by simonm

Hyphens bad?? Not in my book!

try a search (on google - no luck on live, yahoo shows my site at No2) for : web management uk

(I've just tried using keyword tracker and it shows my site as No1 so its not just Google showing me what I want to see)

Okay a pretty poor site, but its just my toolbox, maybe I should do more with it.

Simon

Hyphens are not bad for search. However, domain names are for people. People have a difficult time remembering domain names, let alone a hyphen and where it belongs. Whenever possible, don't hyphenate a domain name. This has nothing to do with SEO. A domain name is for people because remembering an IP address is very difficult. Besides, with many shared IP hosting, you need a domain name for resolution.

If your site is only going to get traffic from links such as Google or other sites, it really doesn't matter what you call it. You could name it dskyoedncie.com and it will still appear where it does now in the SERPs with all other factors being the same. Yet, most people want a domain name that can be spread via word-of-mouth and print.

[morestar]

i wouldnt move everything to the domain name, just work on getting a few more links to your site with some nice anchor text...that should get you back to the top