domain names and hyphons.

**rdunton** · 22-02-09

ok so take a niche site for example say the target keyphrase is "red golf" (just as an example) and iwanted to move into this niche but say redgolf.co.uk was gone and so was redgolf.org.uk would red-golf.co.uk (given the SEO time and effort applie to both was equal) still rank high for people searching for "red golf" ?

also using the same example, would golfred.co.uk rank for the term "red golf" as easily?

and again would say "fastredgolf.co.uk" rank for the term red golf

I ask because from what iv learnt the idea with niche sites is to get the keywords in the URL to improve the chances of ranking right?

1 last thing, .org.uk just as good as .co.uk?

Thanks in advance !

**accelerator** · 22-02-09

Originally Posted by rdunton

1) ok so take a niche site for example say the target keyphrase is "red golf" (just as an example) and iwanted to move into this niche but say redgolf.co.uk was gone and so was redgolf.org.uk would red-golf.co.uk (given the SEO time and effort applie to both was equal) still rank high for people searching for "red golf" ?

2) also using the same example, would golfred.co.uk rank for the term "red golf"

1) Yes, you could still get this domain to rank. I buy the hyphen separated if the non-hyphenated is not available.

2) My own non-researched view is no, as SEO is word order sensitive.

Rgds

**rdunton** · 22-02-09

thanks for the reply, what im asking may sound idiotic to some, but the current affiliate marketing i do is 90% PPC.

so with any hyphen seperated domains you have, does google treat them the same as non-seperated for keyword weighting in the url? or does it frown upon hyphens and the such

**rdunton** · 22-02-09

speaking of idiotic... double post =P

**accelerator** · 23-02-09

Originally Posted by rdunton

so with any hyphen seperated domains you have, does google treat them the same as non-seperated for keyword weighting in the url? or does it frown upon hyphens and the such

I'd say you'll be fine using the hyphen separated, and in terms of domain weighting it will be very similar to the non-hyphen. Natural SEO has so many other factors, many of which are way more significant than the url (like off-page SEO for instance) that I would say go with the hyphen separated and then focus on what really matters for SEO (mainly off page SEO, and lots of good content on your site).

Rgds

**trooperbill** · 23-02-09

Originally Posted by accelerator

1) Yes, you could still get this domain to rank. I buy the hyphen separated if the non-hyphenated is not available.

2) My own non-researched view is no, as SEO is word order sensitive.

Rgds

s. can be combatted easily via IBL's

googles algo (just like with adwords) operates based on this.

**mtuffin** · 23-02-09

Originally Posted by accelerator

I'd say you'll be fine using the hyphen separated, and in terms of domain weighting it will be very similar to the non-hyphen. Natural SEO has so many other factors, many of which are way more significant than the url (like off-page SEO for instance) that I would say go with the hyphen separated and then focus on what really matters for SEO (mainly off page SEO, and lots of good content on your site).

Rgds

I don't think this is true from personal experience. I bught a domain with a hyphen in it the same day as someone created one without the hyphen. We had the same on page SEO pretty much (both used a default Wordpress install by the looks of things) and the non hyphened domain dropped in around 50 places higher than the hyphened domain.

I actually have a bunch of links now but am still around 10 or so places down on the non hyphened domain. Will be interesting to follow to see how it goes.

Mike