Work at Home Forum - An online community of those who work from home.
Web Design and Hosting Work at Home Forum / Web Design and Hosting /

Best way to write a domain name

Author Message
juno44444
Forums Member


Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 128

#1 · Posted: 21 Jan 2007 13:20


I am wondering, if I find some good keywords, let's say the keywords are "old rustic furniture" - which domain name would be better, for SEO purposes?

www.oldrusticfurniture.com

or

www.old-rustic-furniture.com

?

__________________
MktgGold
Forums Member


Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 15

#2 · Posted: 24 Jan 2007 19:37


Without the hyphens will work better for SEO purposes. Although the content of the sight and other things (like links) will have more bearing on search engine results. If you want the words to stick out you can type it with caps in your marketing like: www.OldRusticFurniture.

__________________
netjobs
Forums Member


Joined: 8 Jan 2006
Posts: 191

#3 · Posted: 24 Jan 2007 21:53


Both are ok, but preferably use this one.. www.old-rustic-furniture.com

__________________
FREE Report How To Make Money Online for FREE
pcwork
Forums Member


Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Posts: 1637

#4 · Posted: 25 Jan 2007 10:18


With hyphens you could lose some type in traffic.

__________________
MktgGold
Forums Member


Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 15

#5 · Posted: 28 Jan 2007 17:50


I've heard Armand Morin say it will rank better in the search engines if the name of the keyword you're optimizing your site for is in the domain name itself, and that it works better without hyphens.

__________________
A8ch
Gold Member


Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 706

#6 · Posted: 30 Jan 2007 03:05


Today's search engines can decipher every word in a domain name. So whether or not it's hyphenated probably makes little difference. However, there are situations when a non-hyphenated domain name could be misread.

Example: There is a Web site named Who Represents where you can locate the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their domain name is whorepresents.com. Do you see the possible embarrassing confusion?

Here's another: Pen Island - they claim to be the best place on the Internet to get a custom made pen. Their domain name is penisland.net.

Any confusion could be avoided by writing each word with a capital letter, as in WhoRepresents.com or PenIsland.net.

For all practical purposes though, it is easier to remember and type a non-hyphenated domain name. With a hyphenated name people will sometimes forget to include the hyphens and you will lose traffic to another site.

Perhaps you should get both names, then redirect the hyphenated domain to the non hyphenated domain. The cost of registering and hosting a domian is cheap enough to make that feasible.

This way you'll enjoy the benefit of both worlds.

Hermas

__________________
MktgGold
Forums Member


Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 15

#7 · Posted: 1 Feb 2007 18:12


Hermas,

Fantastic post, great information plus I got a great laugh out of it

__________________
juno44444
Forums Member


Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 128

#8 · Posted: 24 Oct 2007 06:54


Haha! Thanks, if you are still around! I wish this forum would notify me by email when I get answers ... but this is great advice. Haha.

Oh - now I can subscribe to be notified of answers! Great improvement to the forum!

__________________
Newbie Shield
Gold Member


Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 2231

#9 · Posted: 24 Oct 2007 18:48


Quoting: A8ch
Example: There is a Web site named Who Represents where you can locate the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their domain name is whorepresents.com. Do you see the possible embarrassing confusion?

Here's another: Pen Island - they claim to be the best place on the Internet to get a custom made pen. Their domain name is penisland.net.


OMG! That is frickin' hilarious!!!!!

Newbie Shield

getagrip
Gold Member


Joined: 20 Feb 2006
Posts: 2015

#10 · Posted: 31 Oct 2007 03:20


People are more likely to remember URLs without the hyphens.

__________________
Newbie Shield
Gold Member


Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 2231

#11 · Posted: 31 Oct 2007 07:56


A8ch is correct. The search engines can read either version equally well. For this purpose, either version is fine.

For the purposes of avoiding confusion on names such as Pen Island (penisland) and for long names such as Work-at-home-forum, it is better to use hyphens (dashes).

For shorter names with no confusion issues, I suggest not using a hyphen.

The later two tips involve human searchers whereas the former involves search engines.

Newbie Shield

juno44444
Forums Member


Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 128

#12 · Posted: 31 Oct 2007 09:29


Yes I get it.

__________________
lyndaKu
Forums Member


Joined: 24 Jan 2008
Posts: 4

#13 · Posted: 25 Jan 2008 08:52


Hi,

You should register both domain names, to keep your competiton or future competition, from registering a domain name that draws customers to them instead of you.

It really doesn't matter which one you use, as all website traffic is obtained through your branding & marketing efforts.

If you point more then one domain name to a website, you can run the risk for duplicate content penalties with the major search engines, both sites may loose any rankings you obtain, or worse be dropped altogether.

I hope this helps,

__________________
juno44444
Forums Member


Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 128

#14 · Posted: 26 Jan 2008 06:03


Thanks!

Do you know how I can figure out how to do this? Is there a URL with instructions? When I got to the Wordpress site I was a little confused ...

__________________
lyndaKu
Forums Member


Joined: 24 Jan 2008
Posts: 4

#15 · Posted: 26 Jan 2008 09:29


Do you know how I can figure out how to do this? Is there a URL with instructions? When I got to the Wordpress site I was a little confused ...

After you register your domain name, you will have to configure the DNS settings to point to your hosting account.

- Your hosting company should provide you with your server settings:

Example of Server Settings:
dns1.nameserver.com
dns2.nameserver.com
or
ns1.nameserver.com
ns2.nameserver.com

These settings are not your domain name, but the name of the server where your hosting company stores your website files.

- Go back to the company where you registered your domain name, and and change the DNS Settings to your hosting companies nameserver settings.

- Some Domain Registration Companies will not allow you to make the changes yourself, but if you call them they should do it for you.

A good place to learn about all aspects of website development is webmasterworld.com. I am not affiliated with them in anyway, but they provide a wealth of information.

I hope this helps, and that I didn't confuse you anymore.
Lynda

__________________
cupbucket
Forums Member


Joined: 7 Jun 2008
Posts: 224

#16 · Posted: 16 Nov 2008 07:46


without hyphens

__________________
The Best "All Round" Legitimate Online Business That I have Ever Seen
Homeboy
Forums Member


Joined: 4 Feb 2008
Posts: 219

#17 · Posted: 26 Dec 2008 18:55


Hyphens increase readability IMO.

__________________
Your Reply
   :) ;) :-( ... Disable smilies

» Username  » Password 
Only registered users are allowed to post here. Please enter your login/password details upon posting a message, or sign up first.
Messages not conforming to the forum rules will not be approved or, deleted without any explanation.
Please do not post email addresses. If essential, obfuscate them (user [at] domain.com or something like that).
Please do not apply BOLD to entire post.
 


Page loading time (secs): 0.056

Member Ranking · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · About Us · Contact Us · Support Us · Friends

© 2004-2010 Work at Home Forum. All rights reserved.