Hi C nature,

OK, there are many schools of thought on this, so many SEO's will have different views. Nothing wrong with that Sure, Search engines and research speculates now that exact match domain names are no longer the be-all, end all of SEO relative positioning.

I have done several tests with regards to this, building test sites that are exact vs non-exact match domains based on market research. The exact match always (90%) of the time, beat out the other versions.

All my hyphenated domains tests have always taken longer (ave 44% longer) to start ranking, gathering rankings based on KW research than the non-hyphenated counterpart.

One other thing to consider is how search engines perceive hyphenated domains. Because they have been known to be used/abused by spammers (which ultimately made them less credible from a trust perspective). This in turn was a direct correlation to the amount of time I mentioned (ave 44% longer) to get ranking.. search engines have a tendency to take longer authenticating these domain types, vs their non-hyphenated cousins.

If your looking for quicker results, perhaps focused around 1-2 main keywords, then the exact match domain (non-hyphenated) would be your best bet, to build the site/domain around. For that specific keyword or 2, it will yield the quickest results over time. Link building, social profiles etc will still need to be built out to get signals moving in the domains favor to establish itself within the SERP's.  It will be up to you to build out a more structured plan around other keywords/terms to focus on for short and long tail search through content development and on-site optimization.

The competitiveness of the 'target' keyword can also play a factor into the domains non-hyphenated domain and ranking performance. If the domain also has brand level keywords (something like coca-cola-softdrinks.com might be difficult (if not near impossible) to even begin to rank for due to the brand authority recognized online of the actually coca-cola company site). It really depends on the scenario.

If your looking to build something long term, that could eventually be recognized, your best bet would be to build a site/domain out with a brand' style domain using a 'company brand name' and optimize it around that. It won't be exact match, and may take longer, but over time will build the trust using brand authority will yield better results.

If you think about it, typing in something like your example above (business-broker-alabama.com) would be a real pain in the a#$, LOL. It would either be the non-hyphenated or a brand level domain optimized around the focus on your domain example which would yield a better user experience from the get-go.

I'm thinking about re-doing my test/thesis over to determine if recent statements on exact match domains has changed in value. I think I feel inspired to do it again !! Time to start digging.

My opinion would be either non-hyphenated or brand level domain building. Stay away from the hyphenated and spammy looking domains.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hey there!

You should try to stay away from sub-domains, unless they really serve a purpose for the domain - then different strategies can be put into place. As I don't know if it's the route you need to take, I am going to proceed to give you an alternate option :).

1. You could always use sub-folders which in a nutshell would allow you to build links to the domain on many fronts and have them all count.

** NOTE: any links built to sub-domains don't flow link 'juice' to within the site. Those links build for whatever reason, will only pass value within that specific sub-domain.

2. What I would do, it replicate and migrate the structure of the sub-domains into the root domain of the site (www.site.com/subfolder1/ and 301 and rel-canonical all the sub-domain pages and structure to the new locations. That way, all link juice, value, etc already established is already kept in tact and just redirect all that value, trust and back-links to pages within the domain.

This to me is the best option to relocate the content, improve the domain structure using sub-folders instead of sub-domains, and maintain the back link profile already build (or existing) on the site/domain URL.

Other factors might affect reasons not to pursue this option, but I have always had success with this in large enterprise sites, when wanting to restructure the way domains handle sub-domains

Cheers!

Stay away as much as possible for 4th, 5th and 6th level sub-domains, although I have never seen it go beyond 5. I would really try to emphasize the value of re-tooling the domain structure for long term benefits and linking. Keeping sub-domains running isolates link value and doesn't benefit the entire domain - thus making link building a much harder challenge. You are losing link 'juice' for every level of sub-domain used, as the value drops for each section of the domain that extends - hence the reason sub-folders are the way to go (as you already know)...

Good luck with the client and site. Sounds like a tough call. All the best and I hope it works out