02:29
Faizan
Search engines use algorithms to calculate a website's page rank, taking various factors into account to do so. The number of incoming and outgoing links and good SEO help, as search engines such as Google view these types of websites as more useful and important than others. Your domain name can help or hurt with SEO -- and ultimately your ranking, if you've gone hyphen-heavy.
Dash Drama
SEO expert websites such as Search Engine Land and High Position recommend avoiding hyphens in your domain name, as these can have a negative effect on your rankings. High Position performed an experiment in 2012 that compared the page rankings of two virtually identical websites, the only difference being the number of hyphens in their domains. The ranking of the domain with multiple hyphens dropped more dramatically than the site with a single hyphen. Along those same lines, an identical website with no hyphens in the name did much better in page rankings than the domains with hyphens.
A Negative Stigma
You wouldn't expect a little dash to have such an effect on your ranking, but consider the early days of the Internet. Back in the early years of 2000, many dozens of websites popped up seemingly overnight to try and lure unsuspecting visitors to view their ads and earn money for the site owners. These sites typically made grand claims to draw visitors, with hyphen-heavy domain names like drop-weight-fast-without-dieting.com and earn-a-million-dollars-while-you-sleep.com. The sites themselves were generally poorly written or contained stolen content with dozens of links and advertising banners. These types of sites also contained viruses and other malware, thus earning any domain with numerous hyphens a bad reputation.
Hyphen Headaches
Because of the negative connotation earned by the spammy websites of the early 2000s, many people are suspicious of any domain with hyphens. An additional problem with hyphens in your domain is the fact that it makes the domain itself harder to remember and your potential visitors may type it incorrectly into their browser, which could cause them to visit a completely different site when they're actually looking for you.
Use Sparingly
According to Google's Web spam head honcho, Matt Cutts, a hyphen in your domain shouldn't affect the way search engines rank the site. But many SEO experts agree that ditching the dash is the better option for a domain name. Your website address is easier to remember and type -- especially because many people use their smartphones to surf the Web. Typing on those little keyboards takes skill, and adding a special character in between the words of your domain may prevent those on the go from visiting.
Dash Drama
SEO expert websites such as Search Engine Land and High Position recommend avoiding hyphens in your domain name, as these can have a negative effect on your rankings. High Position performed an experiment in 2012 that compared the page rankings of two virtually identical websites, the only difference being the number of hyphens in their domains. The ranking of the domain with multiple hyphens dropped more dramatically than the site with a single hyphen. Along those same lines, an identical website with no hyphens in the name did much better in page rankings than the domains with hyphens.
A Negative Stigma
You wouldn't expect a little dash to have such an effect on your ranking, but consider the early days of the Internet. Back in the early years of 2000, many dozens of websites popped up seemingly overnight to try and lure unsuspecting visitors to view their ads and earn money for the site owners. These sites typically made grand claims to draw visitors, with hyphen-heavy domain names like drop-weight-fast-without-dieting.com and earn-a-million-dollars-while-you-sleep.com. The sites themselves were generally poorly written or contained stolen content with dozens of links and advertising banners. These types of sites also contained viruses and other malware, thus earning any domain with numerous hyphens a bad reputation.
Hyphen Headaches
Because of the negative connotation earned by the spammy websites of the early 2000s, many people are suspicious of any domain with hyphens. An additional problem with hyphens in your domain is the fact that it makes the domain itself harder to remember and your potential visitors may type it incorrectly into their browser, which could cause them to visit a completely different site when they're actually looking for you.
Use Sparingly
According to Google's Web spam head honcho, Matt Cutts, a hyphen in your domain shouldn't affect the way search engines rank the site. But many SEO experts agree that ditching the dash is the better option for a domain name. Your website address is easier to remember and type -- especially because many people use their smartphones to surf the Web. Typing on those little keyboards takes skill, and adding a special character in between the words of your domain may prevent those on the go from visiting.
Posted in: Google Optimization
