Use - or not for domain names
-
Hi there what is the best type of domain name if i have a keyword im targetting. Lets use 'very cool' as an example:
I am led to believe the .co.uk would be better in a UK index. I also got told - count as a space, therefore the best one above for Google UK is www.very-cool.co.uk ?
-
Normaly I hear without, but have not seen any conclusive studys. I normaly see the non - outranking the same phrase with, but thats antidotal evidence.
This is where I would go with best practices for usability/branding, where at the very least short urls tend to work better.
Having an exact match via -'s can also look spammy at times. Though that might just be because of the sheer number of spammy sites that do.
-
Thanks everyone. Putting usability aside is it better seo for the - or without?
-
Hi Paul,
From personal experience I would say get the TLD that is relevant to you, so if you want to rank on Google.co.uk I would go with www.verycool.co.uk. Of course ultimately you can rank in other languages but as standard practice we always start with the local extension that is most important to us
-
If your /just/ targeting the UK, all the advice I have seen, along with the expectation is a .co.uk.
Personaly, I would avoid -'s in the url just due to the sheer number of people who struggle to work out which is the right 'line thing'.
-
Hi pauledwards
for this example, i'll use www.verycool.com. It's better not to use -, because google finds your keyword as well if you write all off your words together. And .com is allways a better option than .*.uk.
you can selected your target area at google webmasters tools.
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
-
Abnormally high number of root domains linking to root domains
My client runs a very small business hiring out space in a single warehouse and rarely adds content to his incredibly badly optimised wordpress site. Can anyone make any wild guesses as to why my client has 2.9 million root domains linking to root domains? He also has a domain authority of 100. Strange when the number one competitor in warehouse space in this part of the world is Gumtree (equivalent of Craig's List) and that only has 9.25k root domains linking to root domains and site authority of 80. Is there any way of finding out where these links are coming from via Moz? Thanks
Competitive Research | | SocialStreets.Co0 -
What are the pros and cons of putting all content under directory named after target keyword?
The question sounds complicated but is actually quite simple. We want to rank high for the keyword "publicity". Here are some facts: Google Keyword Research: Competition 0.02 & Global monthly searches: 22,200 SEOMoz Keyword Difficulty Tool: highly competitive We are producing plenty of editorial content every day on our online magazine which right now resides under http://mag.publiseek.com and we are thinking of renaming the magazine: "Publicity" and moving it to http://publiseek.com/publicity That way every new article will be under the publicity subdirectory. Of course we would redirect all the existing articles under the old structure to the new one using 301's. And we're hoping that with time we get the top position for the keyword publicity. I am interested to hear from the experts out there what are the pros and cons of this approach?
Competitive Research | | davhad0 -
What's the difference between 'external links' and 'linking domains to this domain' in my report?
I'm looking at a competitor analysis report. The number provided for 'external links' is 150. The number for 'external links to this domain' is 4860 and 'linking domains to this domain' is 232. What are the differences between these numbers?
Competitive Research | | lthompsonon0 -
Advice on using google analytics and webmaster tools....for noobs?
I was wondering if anyone could suggest any resources on how to use GA and webmaster tools? I just sort of look and see my stats, etc...but I'd like to learn how to find my low hanging fruit, and try to help it rank better. I don't really use those tools as well as I should. I know there various spreadsheet's you can use, etc, but I haven't found a good (and easy to understand) resource that helps you learn how to use those tools together well. Thanks
Competitive Research | | NoahsDad0 -
Page Linking Root Domains and Root Domain Linking Root Domains?
hi, i want to know if Page Linking Root Domains is less and Root Domain Linking Root Domains is higher in number, at that time your keyword is highly competitive or less competitive? for example if a keyword having this information:- Page Authority is:-83 Page Linking Root Domains:- 295 Domain Authority is :- 94 Root Domain Linking Root Domains:- 42,399 which point is more important to consider? if you want to bring your keyword on the first page of the Google ?
Competitive Research | | parallelseo0 -
Possibility to see which domain carries contribute the most links?
Dear, From the linkexplorer tool, you can see: Total links Linking Root Domains Is it possible to see which domain(s) have the MOST links pointing to the website you are exploring (the URL typed in)? Thanks.
Competitive Research | | waidohuy0 -
Competitor Ranking High has 2 Domains, But Duplicate Website ?
I was using OSE and noticed all the backlinks to one of our competitors is there other domain name, which is the EXACT SAME website. You can enter both url's and they display the same content. They are not useing any canonical tags either. Why are they not penalized for duplicate content? And for using there own website for backlinks ? We try to do everything right, but still cannot beat them. Any thoughts on this?
Competitive Research | | hfranz0 -
What tools do you use for competitive link analysis?
I have been using SEO Spyglass lately but it can be very slow at times. Wondering if there are any other accurate/robust tools out there.
Competitive Research | | rmteamseo0