“Avoid Hyphens when possible” – I agree when a personal perspective, but I have seen search engines ranking the hyphens better than domains without them …

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Thanks.

Now, every domain name I have found that I really wanted that was taken, when I contacted the owner they wanted way to much to buy it. The last domain name I just “had to have”, the onwer wanted $9000 for. Now, I wanted it bad, but not that bad.

I can see where domain sellers make a fortune.

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The above post is written primarily for a business owner who just wants a web site and doesn’t know where to start.

However, I’ve read different opinions on this, and I actually just read a post where they did a test and the .org tld ranked higher than the .com and .net.

The one thing I would caution about running out and getting a .org domain, is that the assumption is that it is for a organization or nonprofit. If you’re operating a for-profit business and have a .org web site, it’s going to look a little off.

I think an information or educational site could run on a .org and not raise any eyebrows, even if it is ancillary to a business.

If you are getting a domain for a commercial enterprise and have your choice of .tld’s, I would go with .com as the first choice and .net as the second. In my cartful of domains, I have .net’s, .org’s, and a couple of .us’s, but the majority are .com’s.

You just have to look at what’s available and weigh the pro’s and con’s of the domains and .tld’s.

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Mike,

You’re right, hyphens don’t keep a domain from being a good one if you are mainly promoting on the internet. Darren Rowse’s Digital-Photography-School.com is evidence of that.

But I do think that if you are a business owner, if you’re not going to be putting much effort into SEO, and are mainly going to be using the site to promote locally, hyphens can be confusing. Especially if you’re trying to tell someone the url of your web site.

If I was getting a domain for a blog, an eCommerce site, or something that was just going to be promoted online, I would definitely consider a hyphenated domain.

One issue I’d like to bring up though is that hyphens in domain names isn’t bad from a SEO viewpoint. I definitely agree that you should always go for a name without, but a good domain with hyphens is still a good domain IMO.

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