Is this the current recommendation for hyphen(s) in domain name?

[kqkq]

Let's say your customers company name in the real world is

"Foo Bar Baz Inc."

and if it is read (and understood) as "foobarbaz inc." by someone hearing the name it does also make semantically sense (like "Dog Food Market").

Customer owns a lot of domain combinations, but notably

• foobarbaz.com
• foo-bar-baz.com

Would you recommend to dedicate "foobarbaz.com" as main brand and domain for all SEO efforts and do the proper redirects from the other domains?

Or would you do it the other way around, redirecting to the foo-bar-baz.com domain?

Thanks!

[mrdavidingram]

Hi,

Hyphenated domains tend to look more spammy, and consequently receive lower CTR's from the search results. A lot of it is down to perseption of trust.

The 2011 SeoMoz ranking factors show a negative correlation between hyphenated domains and rank performance, and although it's hard to say if this is causation, it certainly suggests that if you have the choice between the two then it would be a smarter marketing move to go without the hyphens.

Thanks,

David

[influxmedia]

I would use the foobarbaz.com without hyphens and Google as well as the other search engines would definitely distinct if you make sure that at least the title of the page is Foo Bar Baz. I have a similar case from a client which was at the end very successful with his website and he owns both domains.