using a domain with a - (hyphen) in it - good, bad, indifferent...

[bunder]

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In the past I have always used domain names without a - (hyphen), but for a new project, I am looking a number of potential names and of course, the full name of what I am looking at is taken. But.. the hyphen version is not.

The question is...

Hyphen or not? Are there any successful sites using hyphens, or does having a hyphen give chance that people will not enter it and so go to the other site?


Leslie

[adigaskell]

Hyphens used to help in the search engines, not sure if they still do or not.

If most of your traffic will be coming from the search engines then they obviously won't be typing in the domain so it doesn't matter.

If however people are responding to print advertising, word of mouth etch where the domain will need to be typed in it may prove a hinderance, but even then it shouldn't be that hard to type in



If its a great domain then go for it. Suck it and see.

[lowndsy]

Remember that if the hyphen free domian name is established you might get in trouble for jumping on the bandwagon - depends how official they are.
Also, you might lose type-in traffic when people remember your URL wrong. If it's a big project I'd be tempted to get the name with and without hyphens, so you need to decide if the name really is good enough to justify the potentially higher risks.