What's better .NET or a hyphenated.COM domain
-
What's better .NET or a hyphenated .COM domain
I know this is simple but in selecting a domain for my current project and I only have two options.
firstname-lastname.COM or
firstnamelastname.NETI'm leaning to the .COM as after reading the how to choose a domain name post.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name
Thanks
-
Thanks for the responses, its sounds like the SEO programatic stuff is all about even.
It the human factor that is really up for grabs here, what's easier to read, remember, speak, and trust.
In my case its all about personal brand so a hyphenated .com maybe easier to remember and trust then a non-hyphenated .net which could get confused for a .com
Sounds like i'm still choicing between two good options but not the best option
And yes I'm looking at ronsparks.net vs ron-sparks.com and other future domains with a simliar issue.
ps @EGOL ronskickasssite.com is available tho its a bit hard to read with all those S's
-
I have really strong feelings about hyphen domains and domains other than .com. Most of this is from running retail sites on hyphen domains and trying to explain to people by phone about the hyphen and hearing from them how they went to the wrong domain when trying to visit. The last customers I want going to the wrong domain are the people who are typing it in!
So, after hearing this stuff for a long time I paid hideous sums to get the unhypenated domains and the guys who I bought them from told me that their typein traffic was rising every year.
But, I have those domains now and am happy... well... there is one more that I would like to get.
They say that converts are the worst type of fanatic.
-
EGOL,
While I do not think your response is without merit and I do sometimes consider the issue of which is easier to remember, I am not sure it is as relevant as it was when Rand made that post in 2007. As we see so many sites today with hyphens, I think more people are used to them. But, that does not mean it won't happen.
I think, once someone has seen it visually it is not an issue. If I am doing radio it is. With a non visual medium, you are forced to spell it out and say something like (remember to put in a hyphen between Rons and kickass and Site.net!) That is not a great option.
With most of our sites, people are clicking the link organically for our eCommerce where there are return customers, we are leaving cookies and bookmark options.
As to spending money to get the site you want, it is relative depending on the client. If a client is new (I have a small client who came from a relative that is two ladies who do baby sitting and pet sitting and we are building a 5 to 6 page site for) to business and has a low budget, getting the dream domain is sometimes not possible. Yes, for Fortune 500 they will likely blow a bunch for insuring a branding option.
But, again, it is two sides to a very interesting coin.
Always appreciate your opinions as you think before you write.
Best -
I agree they are equal in SEO, but I also agree you will get differing opinion about looking spammy. i think hythens look spammy, but are coming a bit more normalized as time goes on, but anouther reason is that they are hard to say, image a radio ad, the reader having to explained the hythens
at coca hythen cola dot com
-
I used to have sites with hyphens... and all of my hard work was enriching the guys who owned the domains without a hyphen. The harder I worked to make my site popular the more they enjoyed it. I finally gave in and paid big bucks to get those domains.
So when you are workin hard to make Rons-KickAss-Site.com AND RonsKickAssSite.net huge successes they guy who owns RonsKickAssSite.com will be smiling as lots of your customers land on his spammy site and click ads to sorry domains. Not a good customer experience and not good for your wallet - because the people who remember the name of your site well enough to type it in without a hyphen were probably going to buy something. Nice you just lost that $2000 sale to someone else - and he thinks you went out of business.
So, spend a little more time coming up with a kickass domain or be willing to spend some money to get the domain that you want. Because if you own RonsKickAssSite.com I doubt that anyone is going to look for you at Rons-KickAss-Site.com
Here's a couple of quotes from Rand's post..... at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name
and while directing traffic to a .net or .org (as SEOmoz does) is fine, owning and 301'ing the .com is critical.
Both hyphens and numbers make it hard to give your domain name verbally and falls down on being easy to remember or type.
-
I agree with Robert. The ranking difference between .com / .net and no-hyphen / one-hyphen is going to be minimal. So go for the domain that is easier to read. That will probably benefit you in the long run.
-
My personal opinion is that you can do either, but I would go with the hyphen.com. The reason for me is simple it is easier to read. That said, you will shortly have other opinions and they will revolve around being spammy. There is no increase or decrease in SEO value and I have yet to see any quantification of the spammy factor and any effect on CTR or conversions. But, I don't think the hyphen will out perform the non hyphen.net. I think all things being equal, they will be equal.
Best
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
-
Ranking impact: Traffic in website pages vs sub directory vs sub domain
Hi all, I need clarification on this. Not every time website main pages rank, some times even pages from sub directories or sub domains like blogs or guides; especially for branded keywords. I just wonder what happens when so much traffic is generating in sub directories and sub domains just because of limited landing pages in main website. Will this traffic be counted as traffic in main website as per Google? Traffic increase in main website really an ranking factor? Will the "brand + topic" related keywords' traffic is more for a website; will it ranking improves even for "topic keywords"? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Anyone Notice Google's Latest Change Seems to Favor Google Books?
I've noticed a change in the search results lately. As I search around I notice a lot of results from books.google.com Seems a little (ok a lot) self serving... JMHO
Algorithm Updates | | get4it1 -
Is having an identical title, h1 and url considered "over optimization"? Is it better to vary?
To get some new pages out without over-thinking things, I decided to line up the title tag, h1 tag and URLs of my pages exactly. They are dynamically generated based on the content the user is viewing (internal search results pages) They're not ranking very well at the moment, but there are a number of factors that are likely to blame. But, in particular, does anyone know if varying the text in these elements tends to perform better vs. having them all identical? Has there been any information from Google about this? Most if not all of the "over optimization" content I have seen online pertains to backlinks, not on-page content. It's easy to say, "test it!" And of course, that's just what I'm planning to do. But I thought I would leverage the combined knowledge of this forum to see what information I could obtain first, so I can do some informed testing, as tests can take a while to see results. Thanks 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | ntcma0 -
Google's Local Search Results for Broad Keywords
I have a question regarding Google's local search results for broad keywords. Since Google is changing their algo to reflect local results for broad words, would it be beneficial now to start going after those words as well? For example: we have a client ranking for 'miami security alarm', but I would like to know if it would be beneficial to start optimizing for 'security alarm' as well. Also, since Google's keyword research tool reflects searches on a national level, how would I be able to find out how many searches a broad keyword is receiving on a local level? Thank you in advanced!
Algorithm Updates | | POPCreative0 -
With Google's Location Based Searches, Should I Include a City Name with My Keywords?
What I mean is when you search on Google it seems to pull information by your location so would it be helpful including the city name + keyword still for SEO or would it be just as helpful using just the keyword? For example, a client is in Alexandria, VA and has a computer repair shop so would "Alexandria computer repair" be as good or better than "computer repair"? Just a little curious. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | CodyOelker-AMICreativeStudio2 -
Non .Com or .Co Versus .ca or .fm sites - In terms of SEO value
We are launching a new site with a non traditional top level domain . We were looking at either .ca or .in as we are not able to get the traditional .com or .co or .net etc . I was wondering if this has any SEO effect ? Does Google/Bing treat this domain differently .Will it be penalized ? Note : My site is a US based site targeting US audience
Algorithm Updates | | Chaits0 -
No-follow tags on links in the footer...do it or don't do it?
With some of the great reports SEOMoz has provided I've been able to start to take the correct steps towards fixing crawl issues, on-page issues, etc. One of my websites allows a customer to drill down to their specific state and then their city to apply for an auto loan. The SEOMoz reports told me I had too many links on these pages specifically. One of my ways to remedy this would be to add "no-follow" tags on the links in the footer as well as the links to the cities. Am I steering myself in the right/wrong direction? Should I be approaching this problem from a different perspective? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Algorithm Updates | | fergseo0 -
Why google index ip address instead of the domain name?
I have a website ,now google index ip address of it instead of the domain name,I have used 301 redirected to the domain name,but how to change the index IP to its domain name? And why google index the IP address?
Algorithm Updates | | frankfans1170