SEO 2020 FORUM

[stardad]

Colin McDougall, in the VEO Report, believes that hyphenated domain names are considered to be "keyword stuffing" by Google. And keyword focused hyphenated domain names should definitely not be used.

Of course this used to be considered the thing to do. Any thoughts on the best way to go now?

Looking at examples of domains in this forum, it seems to me that a keyword in the domain name is not a problem, in fact I am a believer in doing so. Not sure about the hyphenating though.

I am getting ready to buy a new domain name to set up a silo structure and would appreciate any input.

Thanks,
John

[stevio]

hello Stardad.

I have recently been changing the domains that I had with a load of hyphens/dashes in them for domains without eg

www.the-great-big-red-widget.com
to www.thegreatbigredwidget.com

The reason for doing this is I believe that Google are now not giving as much relevance to these type of domains. In fact I think it was Matt Cutts himself who intemated this a while ago.

So if you're going for a new domain I would certainly get one without any dashes. As far as having keywords in domains, as far as I know this is still OK

best,

Steve

[stardad]

Thanks Steve. If Matt Cutts said something about the hyphenated domain names, I am sure that is the basis of McDougall's position.

I have 17 sites with hyphenated domain names, PR-4 mostly, but nowhere in the SERPS (except for MSN where I am often #1 for my keywords). That makes me reluctant to change them over as you are doing.

Not sure if my thinking is correct, but I am hoping I can create a silo site by getting a new domain name for the portal and then have some of my existing sites in folders (i.e.the sites that are the same theme).

I would appreciate any thoughts, from anyone, on this line of thinking. The duplicate content issue comes into play here, but I think I can make enough changes to avoid a problem. Am I completely off-base, or can it work?

Thanks,
John

[aprilkerr]

I'm sure that in the SiteBuildIt free pdf Affiliate Masters Cours it gives suggestions on how to choose a domain name and in the example they used hyphens.

I myself have never bought a domain name with hyphens so I can't talk from experience.

April

[stevio]

Hi John,

If your present domains have only 1 hyphen I wouldn't rush to change them, just build new ones without. As for the Qs about putting into folders I'll have to leave that to the silo crew.

Steve

[sidhale]

Hi John,

[A_LeBoeuf]

Hi Stardad,

We heard of an answer to the problem of changing your website name without losing PR and and stuff. They call that doing a 301 redirect and following are detailed instructions on how to do it.

Dr Andy Williams, web info marketing guru, says: "Earlier this year I moved my site from its old hyphenated location at ez-search-engine-optimization.com to the more SE friendly ezseonews.com.

You can read the saga on my blog starting at issue #113. (Scroll to the bottom of the page, and read 113 first, then work your way up the page): http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?p4iMHDrD2QIQfZX3xzoCyg

Turns out Google loves 301s.

Hope this helps, that's all we can share as we're newbies and have not done this ourselves.

Anne and Bernie

[stardad]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

John

[Charles Heflin]

Everyone would do good to follow Sid's advice.

Silo your sites... Make the search engines understand your theme. There is too much emhpasis on domain names.

All it takes is quality theme driven content "that the search engines understand" & domain names become a very minor issue.

What is the real issue at hand? Is it a domain name or is it the content of the site and the structure in which it is laid out?

I would place money on a bet that a domain name "with" hyphens that uses good silo structure without theme bleeding will outrank the same domain name without hyphens that uses poor theming and silo-ing.

Think about what the search engines want...

Do they want non-hyphenated domains or do they want quality content that proves relevant?

I would love to do a contest where we pit one against the other to prove this to everyone.

Hyphens Vs. Non-hyphens ... It seems like this is a question of which one will index higher...

The real question should be "what site's content and site structure will make the hyphenated vs. non-hyphenated domain rank higher"?

Now comes the question of should you employ hyphenated vs. non-hyphenated domains just to be safe?

The answer is YES!

Sound like a bit of a contradiction? GOOD!

I want to get everyone here thinking about bigger issues other than just a minor effect of a "hyphen".

I am very sure that a domain name plays a small role in ranking but not a "major" one.

Work to theme your sites using solid keyword research techniques coupled with a solid silo structure that avoids theme bleeding and you will gain more ground than simply changing a domain name.

Just my 2 cents

Best regards,

Charles

[stardad]

Thanks for your input Charles, I completely agree with you. My question concerning domain names was not to the exclusion of silo-ing a site, but rather in addition to silo-ing. Seems to me the best thing is to do both

I am committed to silos, in fact it was the VEO Report (where the domain issue is discussed) that lead me to ThemeZoom. Reading the TZ e-book brought me here, and I am hoping the Master Plan will help me to implement the silo-ing and clear up some linking questions that remain.

Thanks,
John