domain names with dashes and without

[edwinnyc]

hey guys...good morning to everyone, getting ready to go the beach....

What are the pros and cons of creating domain names with dashes with them vs not using dashes in terms of seo.

How would spiders read a domain name that is written like this

www.birthdaypartyclownsideas.com would it rank for both keyword phrases listed below or just one of them.

since there are two keyword phrases this domain would cover which would be www.birthdaypartyideas.com vs www.birthdaypartyclown.com

ex:

www.fun-clown-entertainment.com

www.funclownentertainment.com

[robert adams]

it may not show up for either one.

search engines are very literal.

nobody would ever type in:
birthdaypartyclownsideas

all in one word so you may not get any hits based solely on the domain name.

if you put the dashes/hyphens in between the words, the the search engines see them as individual words.

if you use underscores, the search engines ignore them and see it as all one word as well.

robert

[Bonnie Lowe]

I blogged about the pros and cons of using dashes... perhaps this will help you...

[Oregon Coast Guy]

If a domain name will have more than 2 words, I dash it. 2 words get no dash. That is only done if I can register it one way and I need to make a choice.

I will always try to register the domain name both with and without and use re-directs for the second one. When you're telling someone to go to your domain, it's much easier to tell and to remember without the dashes. If I have a domain that I'm printing on business cards, t-shirts and such, I like the readability of the dashes.

Bottom line is register both if you can.

[Lynn Terry]

Go to Google and do a search for your keyword phrase, such as "birthday party ideas":

http://www.google.com/search?&q=birthday+party+ideas

See how they bold each search word found in the URLs?

[robert adams]

[Lynn Terry]

[Oregon Coast Guy]

[Alan Petersen]

[carrie]

I too say to register both. Another tip is to interlink the two.

I have a website where I sell products on the domain name with no dashes (wallpapertrends.com) and a blog that promotes those products on the domain name with dashes (wallpaper-trends.com). I have each of these domain names hosted at different webhosts (hostgator & angelichost).

They link to each other so there's a benefit there. Plus, when someone searches on Google for "Wallpaper Trends" my site shows up as much as FOUR times, not just once or twice.