One of the biggest questions that come to your mind while purchasing a domains is that – “Should I use hyphens in my domain name?”
A domain with hyphens looks like : example-hyphen-site.com . There are two broad possibilities while using hyphens in the name of a domain –
- The hyphens will help search engines like Google or Bing to easily identify different keyword in the website address and rank the site higher that other sites in the search index.
- The second possibility is that using hyphens may reduce the value of domain and rank it lower in search index
To give you a correct answer about this with proofs so that you are 100% firm on my suggestions, I conducted some tests on various web URLs. In this post you will see what research I did and what were the results.
1.Godaddy Appraisal :
Godaddy Appraisal is a tool by Godaddy.com which helps us to calculate the approximate value of a domain name by entering its URL. You might have heard and even used this tool before. I found the values of some domains by first entering them without hyphens and then with hyphens, below are the results that i got –
The domains that i tested can be seen in the picture above. The picture compares the values of some domains and if you study it carefully then you will notice that using hyphens in the domain name has reduced the domain value. You see that using hyphens reduced the value of first domain by $797 !! This is a huge amout! The second domain also has the same case with its value.2. What cybersecurity experts says :
Now lets take a look at the opinion of experts. The experts say that using hyphens in domain address makes the domain look unprofessional, spam, fake and less reliable. Most spam domains contain hyphens that is why you are advised not to use hyphens in your domain address. But if you have one that has hyphens then its not a big deal cause some domains with hyphens have very high rank and visotors if they are genuine.3. What people say :
Now let us take a look at what the common people say on this question. Using public’s opinion in Business strategy is also very important because they are the potential customers which can help you increase your business. 6 out of 10 people say that they will chose the domain without hyphens if they had to choose from the two options. This tells that people won’t prefer unknown domains with hyphens.Aftermath
Taking all the three points that i mentioned above, i have arrived at a conclusion that says – “Don’t use hyphens in domain “. So be careful next time while buying a domain and don’t forget this rule .If you liked the post then do share this knowledge with your knowns. If you have any suggestions or any questions then feel free to comment or mail me.
Intra Tips 