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Hyphenation and ranking

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  • 27-07-2009 6:36pm
    #1
    eirman
    Registered Users Posts: 994 ✭✭✭


    How does hyphenation affect ranking?

    Would houserepairs.com and house-repairs.com be treated the same? Can the search engines always parse joined words (without the hyphen) apart if they are dictionary words?


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    #2
    CCSL
    Closed Accounts Posts: 422 ✭✭CCSL


    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

    seems that google likes - in domain names and _ in page url's


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    #3
    link8r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 387 ✭✭link8r


    Pretty much treated the same - if it has the keywords in the domain name to match the phrase, then it has an advantage. Just to keep in mind that therefore "CheapBallsbridgehotels.com" might be better than "valueballsbridgehotels.com". My point is that SEO is a lot more than just the biggest small term phrase - its actually very broad. I tend to monitor serps in terms of hundreds, not tens.

    Many other factors are more important - like IBL's and Age. I have a localised site for BER that outranks the site of the same domain name for example.


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    #4
    blue4ever
    Registered Users Posts: 1,255 ✭✭✭blue4ever


    One item to keep in mind - given the hypernation arguement. whats easier for your customers or potenntial customers to remember.


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    #5
    eirman
    Registered Users Posts: 994 ✭✭✭eirman


    Thanks for all your comments


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    #6
    link8r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 387 ✭✭link8r


    blue4ever wrote: »
    One item to keep in mind - given the hypernation arguement. whats easier for your customers or potenntial customers to remember.

    Do people remember them ? this is about SEO - you can always have a brand-name URL with a 301 to your site. You can brand away all day once you get people to your site - its the getting people to the site in the first place that matters...


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    #7
    tomED
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭tomED


    CCSL wrote: »
    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

    seems that google likes - in domain names and _ in page url's

    Don't know how you got that from the Matt Cutts article.

    But anyway - I'd always use "-" over "_" - if you use the matt cutts article as an example of why I'd use "-" for keywords.

    I also wouldn't rely on Google to assume what keywords you are targeting by having it all as one word without a "-".

    A good example of why is "ExpertsExchange.com" - which Google could in theory interpret as "ExpertSexChange.com".
    link8r wrote: »
    Do people remember them ? this is about SEO - you can always have a brand-name URL with a 301 to your site. You can brand away all day once you get people to your site - its the getting people to the site in the first place that matters...

    I'd agree with blue4ever here about the domain being memorable. I would put more focus on a good domain that people can remember over a keyword littered one.

    You can still get people to the site without a keyword littered domain name.


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    #8
    Stevokenevo
    Registered Users Posts: 111 ✭✭Stevokenevo


    From what I understand, an hyphen is regarded as a space (i.e. nothing) and means the hyphenated words will be treated as 2 individual words, while using an underscore will prompt Google to see both words together.


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