Well,

Sorry, your understanding is incorrect. Domain authority is just that, an overall value for the domain. So, if you go to a site where the links all come to a home page or the vast majority do, you are going to see a high PA for the home page PA. If that same site has 50 pages with few links you are going to see a lot of PA=1.

So, while the home page is important it does not outweigh the fact that overall the site is not that highly trafficked. This is a reason sites have trouble with conversions of inner pages sometimes.  All the value is placed on the home page and someone then has 500 internal links from that page so it does not even help the inner pages.

Remember this in the search engine world pages are ranked and not sites. So, PA is more important from that point of view.

Hope this clarifies,

Best

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

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