Domains with a dash

[rickanderson]

Do domains with a dash appear to be cheesy or is it something a lot of people are going too because the name my be taken and a way to get it is to add a dash to it. I know in terms of seo it does not hurt or help, just with people remembering the domain might be an issue? what is your thought on that?

What's a "dash"? you mean a "hyphen"? I use to own www.worlds-best-athlete.com and it was a pain to explain to people what a hyphen was and if I said "dash" some would say "forward or backwards" (wtf)....

so I switched to Rick Anderson's World's Best Athlete International Skills Competition (worldsbestathlete dot net) ez peezy.

.com would have been better but it wasn't available but .net is still better than a hyphen or two, imo.

Regards
Rick

[qh4dotcom]

I would get both the hyphenated version of a domain and non-hyphenated version and redirect the hyphenated domain to the non-hyphenated

[digitalseo]

well using 1-2 dash is ok...but i prefer not to use dash the fact that people might forget my site...and its harder to

remember a hyphenated domain...

[uberanimal]

so one dash should be good. I know with seo it really should not matter. but with people remembering like you all said, it is hard to remember www dot my dash web site dot come vs. www dot my web site dot com.

[aawhois]

Dash in domain is fine in case you cannot find a good name with no dash. My opinion is having dash (1 or 2) in the name is ok. Building brand base on such those domains is ok, ex. online-learning.com, pandora-jewelry.com,...

And if you are going to do the SEO for your bussiness, dashed domains will be good for that.

[snowman]

I say never, ever use a domain name with a dash between the words in that domain.
You make it that little bit harder to remember and you only end up sending traffic to the owner of the domain without the dash.

[chowell]

Be practical and reasonable...

Do you really think a visitor is going to remember or type in a 5 word domain with hyphens between each word?

incrediblehelp was on target = keep your domains to a maximum of 2 dashes.

[FoundByDesign]

I think it depends on your brandability desires.
If you want word of mouth or traditional advertising to be a factor, then try to avoid hyphens. However, if you are using strictly online marketing (such as affiliate marketing) then 1 or 2 hyphens would be max. After all, if I visit your website and it has 6 words and 5 hyphens I am not going to consider you legit, even if it is an affiliate site. However, one clever hyphen may look legit and professional.

[gareth_esutera]

one dash is ok. anything more will look unnecessarily long, spammy and difficult to memorize, but I suggest just put the two words together without dash in between.

[midnightshow22]

one dash is ok. anything more will look unnecessarily long, spammy and difficult to memorize, but I suggest just put the two words together without dash in between.

agreed, but no dash is even better. And make sure that there is no site with the non-dashed name. You don't want to compete with greenwidget.com when you are green-widget.com