SEO Test: Domain Hyphenation [Update]
-
In May I announced test results for domain hyphenation but after a 3 month followup the results have changed and the hyphenated domain now wins on what seems to be the first link instance advantage. I was unable to discover any other factors which may have influenced this test but if anyone has any ideas I would like to hear about it.
Here are the details of the SEO test and revealed URLs.
-
Yes that's my thoughts too. What's interesting is that they made a switch after a while.
-
Very nice find - thanks!
-
Maybe one of the factors why the hyphenated one ranks better is that it was indexed 1st and then the non-hyphenated one was indexed after.
Having 1 line of text that only the domain name is different could be considered duplicate content by Google thus the rankings.
-
to make a test I guess you would have to make two pages, with different gibberish on them and then place the keyphrase 2 times on the same char positions (on in the beginning of the document and one at the end.) on each page, but otherwise exactly the same (title exc..). that way we can rule duplicate content out.
I mean something like this:
page 1:
<title>key-phrase bla bla</title>
asd fgh key-phrace jhjd hjd lkd skl ælkjh ghsd sdf fsd key-phrase asdpage 2:
<title>key-phrase poi ert</title>
dsa qwe key-phrace kjhg tyu poi ert mnbvc asdf qwe tyu key-phrase qwehope I made sence
-
Hmm anyone notices ? that when i search 'Dejan Seo love' , the one without hyphenation scored better... while 'Dejan seo love_s_' gives a different result ...
And when we searched 'dejan seo testing' although the hyphenation scored better but the result for the one without hyphenation has all words BOLDED out like this 'Did you know that dejanseolovestesting.com.'
Hmm google indeed works in mysterious way xD
PS : It is too bad that your title is "Dejan Love Testing" i wonder if you have a "Dejan Loves Testing" that the result would be different?
-
Thank you. That explains it!
-
When you view the SERPs, and then click on the cache link there is a second line of text which says "These search terms are highlighted: dejan seo loves testing". In the cache results with the hyphens, all the key words are highlighted on the page. That does not happen on the result without the hyphens.
I believe that is the difference James is referring to.
-
Hi James,
No link building was done for these two domains. If they have links they would be random and automated from various places such as whois services scrapers etc.
Not sure I understand this part:
"a funny thing is if you view the cache version of the website Google notes that the hyphen domain as splitting up the text with spaces."
Are you talking about these two:
-
I was looking at the URL mentions within SERP results,
The non hyphen seems to have 126 mentions compared with the hyphen domain at 76, don't know about the quality of these links what link building tactics were employed.
Both seem to only pick up one link via OSE been on your main website.
I would also question the hosting/who is data and any other common areas for the website, a funny thing is if you view the cache version of the website Google notes that the hyphen domain as splitting up the text with spaces.
When comparing IP data from the host, seems as though they are on a similar server yet not the same correct?
IP Address 174.121.38.186
IP Address 174.121.38.162But overall very interesting test, and thank you for sharing.
-
I enjoyed reviewing the test results and this follow up. My two curiosities are:
-
what would be the result with different C blocks
-
are the two results dead even in SERP to where any factor can tip one result above the other. It could be that neither is winning but are equal, and Google has to place one ahead of the other based on a random factor such as which was crawled first.
-
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
-
Google's Importance on usability issues in sub directories or sub domains?
Hi Moz community, As the different usability issues like pagespeed or mobile responsiveness are playing a key role in website rankings; I wonder how much the same factors are important for sub directories or sub domain pages? Do each and every page of sub directory or sub domain must be optimised like website pages? Does Google gives same importance? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Rerouting and SEO
I have the urls urlA.com (est 2010) and urlB.com (est 2015). The newest (siteB.com) is currently redirected to urlA.com. For branding purposes, I think it is important to market and direct traffic to urlB.com (the newest). What effect will it have on SEO if I make a change to switch those...and have urlA.com (which older site - 2015) redirected to urlB.com?.
Algorithm Updates | | Michelle08210 -
Giving Follow Links is good for SEO ?
Hi Friends, In my website I am having PR 5 for my home page and I am giving 25 external links as follow link. Reason is all links are natural links so I gave as follow links. Will my website will be decrease PR in future. 1) Should I need to give as nofollow links? 2) Can I update only for reciprocal links as nofollow? In total 25 links I have 3 reciprocal links only. Your suggestions on this are important for me. I had watched couple of videos from Matt Cutts on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4UJS-LFRTU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37bwBlifnk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg1A5wF3Ac4 Thanks for your valuable time.
Algorithm Updates | | zco_seo0 -
Next big Google update. Andy ideas when?
I'm interested to find out if anyone has and idea of when it will be or good guesses I would be interested to hear your thoughts. I have put a big effort into an SEO upgrade on my site and I'm interested in what impact I can expect when the next big update comes. Assuming I have fixed the issues that had been causing my traffic drop.
Algorithm Updates | | mark_baird0 -
Multiple Listings in Results fading Local SEO
Lately I am noticing multiple listings for results seem to be fading away. Example is one domain being listed twice for a search phrase The Home page for example and an Internal Page. Is anyone else seeing this? Safe to say Google wants to see 10+ individual domains per results page?
Algorithm Updates | | bozzie3110 -
Do we need to worry about where our domain is hosted anymore?does it make a difference anymore?
I went to a really interesting conference last week and one of the speakers who has been working in the SEO industry for 15 years now said that it doesn't make a difference anymore ranking wise. I would like to see what the community thinks on this subject? Thanks Ari
Algorithm Updates | | dublinbet0 -
Were you affected by the "Farmer Update?" What are you doing about it?
I woke up on Friday morning to see that my traffic from Google on Thursday was down 30% on one of my sites. Traffic hasn't bounced back, and I'm wondering why I've been lumped in with the content farms. My site only has original, high quality content. It has a great link profile with tons of links from .edu page, and I've always played by Google's rules. I can't understand why my site has been negatively affected, which makes it hard to do something about it. Right now, the only thing that I can come up with is to work really hard at building more links. Were you affected? What are you doing about it?
Algorithm Updates | | WillyF0