Selecting a new domain name
-
If a two word domain is already taken (e.g. onetwo.com), which of the following is a better alternative?
1. one-two.com
2. onetwo.org
Best,
Christopher -
Hi Robert, thank you.
Indeed, it would be great to have some research to validate the actual answer, if indeed there is a definitive answer.
From reading my original answer and your reply above, it seems that we are both in general agreement that hyphens in domain names tend to have no bearing on SEO. User Experience is key to choosing the better option rather than SEO. We've just gone about explaining the same thing in a different way.
From my experience and knowledge, hyphens in a domain name have Zero Direct Impact on SEO and search rankings, they make no difference either way.
However, there are Usability factors such as User Engagement that do affect SEO; if having a hyphen in a domain name or not affects the click through rate one way or the other, that could well have a small part to play in the overall ranking algorithm, thus in search rankings.
Personally, like yourself, I like to see hyphens in domain names because it does often read better.
So to summarise, I believe there is No Direct Impact when it comes to hyphens in a domain name, however I believe there Is In-Direct Impact through User Experience factors.
With best regards,
Simon
-
Well laid out as usual Simon. Question,
From your response: Having a hyphen/dash in the domain name can cause confusion and memory issues for some, usually without it reads just fine in search results.
From my response: ..._One-Two.com as it is more readable to the searcher or client. _
I found in WMT that hyphen in domain has no bearing on SEO, but after your response I started looking for anything to support you or me. I remember there was a response a while back from someone on Q&A where they put in some non-hyphen domains that when you first read them you actually read them wrong (spelling read exactly for two different names). I could not find that response again (though it too was an educated opinion only).
So, it appears there are two schools of thought. It would be nice to find anyone who had seriously looked at this and found it to be one way or the other. There were a few blogs on the subject claiming to have tested it...and they were split 50/50.
We need to team up with someone strong in test validation and really test it. I am fine with either, would just like to be able to say yes/no with more confidence.
Best to you,
-
Hi Christopher
There are pros and cons to both options.
Really, it's down to factors such as how the actual words read, brand or non-brand preferences, how it's going to be marketed, any surveys carried out...
When talking about your business/website and marketing offline, how would the web address be conveyed; "one dash two dot com" or "one two dot com".
Having a hyphen/dash in the domain name can cause confusion and memory issues for some, usually without it reads just fine in search results.
Some examples:
Well known brands indeed, however the concept of not having to rely on a hyphen/dash can be seen here, it can and does work for some, though granted not for all.
So another option if your preferred choice is taken ( e.g. onetwo.com ) is to choose something else, such as onefive.com if you'd like an option rather than a hyphen/dash.
Obviously this depends on Branding, could be that you really need the words "one two" in there.
Bear in mind that exact match domains don't matter so much for SEO as they once did.
So a tough call, go with what you believe to be best for the combination of both User Experience and your Brand.
Hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
-
Also remember that it's not just about search ranking but getting the click through from the SERPS. Even if hyphens may not be a factor as far as Google is concerned - remember to think about how the human being will think when deciding which link to click in the SERPS.
A long generic, keyword rich URL with no brand identity and lots of hyphens is going to look pretty spammy to me. (It's not JUST about the hyphens!)
That said, for a two word domain the hyphen can really help with readability.
Another thing you may also have to factor in is any brand guidelines or brand consistency requirements. Depending on the customer they may have guidelines that constrain your use of hyphens or what words you can join together or even the order of words/brand names.
-
If the correct spelling is "one two" then one-two is the clear winner. If the correct spelling is "onetwo" i would consider both domains equal, but as Robert pointed out "one-two" is a lot easier to read and therefore "better".
BTW: Get both names and also every combination of "one-two" onetwo and .net .com .org You might even consider plurals and the like.
-
I think that multiple hyphened words in the domain would be considered a spam signal.
-
I would personally choose One-Two.com as it is more readable to the searcher or client. According to Google the hyphen is simply a word separator and has no effect on ranking. There are certainly sites that are helped by having it. As to .org, since there is already a massive bastardization (in that not all .orgs are non commercial as was the original intent) I don't think it adds anything.
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
-
Does "google selected canonical" pass link juice the same as "user selected canonical"?
We are in a bit of a tricky situation since a key top-level page with lots of external links has been selected as a duplicate by Google. We do not have any canonical tag in place. Now this is fine if Google passes the link juice towards the page they have selected as canonical (an identical top-level page)- does anyone know the answer to this question? Due to various reasons, we can't put a canonical tag ourselves at this moment in time. So my question is, does a Google selected canonical work the same way and pass link juice as a user selected canonical? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Lewald10 -
Spammers created bad links to old hacked domain, now redirected to our new domain. Advice?
My client had an old site hacked (let's call it "myolddomain.com") and the hackers created many links in other hacked sites with links such as http://myolddomain.com/styless.asp?jordan-12-taxi-kids-cheap-T8927.html The old myolddomain.com site was redirected to a different new site since then, but we still see over a thousand spam links showing up in the new site's Search Console 404 crawl errors report. Also, using the links: operator in google search, we see many results of spam links. Should we be worried about these bad links pointing to our old site and redirecting to 404s on the new site? What is the best recommendation to clean them up? Ignore? 410s? Other? I'm seeing conflicting advice out there. The old site is hosted by the client's previous web developer who doesn't want to clean anything up on their end without an ongoing hosting contract. So beyond turning redirects on or off, the client doesn't want to pay for any additional hosting. So we don't have much control over anything related to "myolddomain.com". 😞 Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Technical SEO | | usDragons0 -
How many serp results for a domain.
I thought this one was carved into stone, max number of results from the same domain in SERP is... two. Or... three?! I was searching for some familiar keywords and found three results from the same domain, isn't that... unusual?
Technical SEO | | max.favilli1 -
Redirect to new domain
We are moving our website from http://mysyncpad.com to http://syncpadapp.com The old site ranks pretty well for some specific keywords, will a 301 allow the new site to rank as well or will it be penalized by good for the transfer?
Technical SEO | | fifthlayer0 -
New EMD update effected my mom's legit author page? From page 1 in SERP to nowhere for her name
I think my mom's site, MargaretTerry.com was hit by this update for her name "Margaret Terry". Went from bouncing around the first page on google.com and .ca all the time to nowhere on the index. The results are now very strange, a mix of Youtube, linked in, and small book stores that she has done events at recently to promote her first book. I was checking after some of my SEO buddys were freaking out about their EMD's getting hit on Sunday. She is an aspiring author with a book coming out this month. There is obviously no ads or spam content on the site... I have never done SEO for it either except a bit of on page I guess. It sucks that people might be grabbing her book soon and when they Google her name nothing shows up. This couldn't have really happened at a worse time. Not to mention the hours spent building the site to her liking, free of charge of course 🙂 Is there anyone I can contact there to help me out? Shouldn't and EMD that is someones name still rank when you search their name?
Technical SEO | | Operatic0 -
.ca and. com domains
Hello, currently the main site im working on is a .com, but have the .ca version purchased from register.com. should i have this setup to redirect to the .com site. will google see these as dup content. We have the .ca for our canadian customers but both sites are identical. Thank you
Technical SEO | | TP_Marketing0 -
Multiple Domains for One Site
We are building a site for a new miniature golf course. They have a long name, which they don't want me to mention, but it's equivalent to a name like Golden State Golf and Putt. They also have a restaurant with its own name and brand that will be a part of the mini golf course and its website, much how Hotel websites have their restaurants on their sites. Before becoming our client they purchased golfandputt.com and want to go with this domain for simplicity sake. In addition to this domain name they purchased 7 others that contain the bussiness' full name in some way, such as: goldenstategolfandputt.com goldenstategolfandputt.net, goldenstategolf-guitar.com etc., As well as: 3 variations of the golfandputt.com domain 3 variations of the restaurants name They wish to have all of these redirect to the main website or the restaurant page to "help with SEO," as they told me. From what I have researched on SEOmoz it seems better to simply optimize the website for Golden State Golf and Putt and the restaurant page for the restaurant's name. Additionally, I'm worried that redirecting the domains to the site will actually hurt them in rankings. If someone can shed some light on what the best practices for this sort of situation are I'd be much appreciative. Apologies in advance for the lengthy explanation but its a bit of a unique situation.
Technical SEO | | TVI0 -
New domain
Hi, I have a domain with no keywords on it, and I´ve been using it for years. Now I bought another domain with the keyword on it. I whant to work on seo for the second domain, with the keyword. What is the better way to work this out? 301? Duplicate de site? redirect in another way?
Technical SEO | | mgfarte0