Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about why people don’t use hyphens in their domains and whether the missing hyphens are cause for concern.
Domain names with hyphens for SEO
I’ve been working online for 25 years, and back when Google was still dominated by domains, URLs, and basically keywords everywhere on a web page, using hyphens in domains was for SEO reasons. I remember affiliates going to. It wasn’t something that everyone was doing, it was mainly something that was popular among some affiliate marketers.
Another reason to choose a domain name that includes a keyword is that site visitors tend to have higher conversion rates because the keyword essentially pre-conditions the site visitor. I know from experience how two-keyword domains (and one-word domain names) help with conversions, as long as they don’t contain hyphens.
A consideration that led to hyphenated domain names falling out of favor is that they look unreliable and can negatively impact conversion rates, as authenticity is a key factor for conversion.
Finally, hyphenated domain names look unfashionable. Why use Ducky when a brandable domain is easier to build trust and conversions?
Domain name question on Reddit
The question on Reddit is:
“Why don’t people use domains with hyphens more often? Is there anything that bothers you? If you say it out loud, I can understand why some people would miss the hyphen in a search. ”
And here’s Mueller’s response:
“It used to be that domain names with lots of hyphens were considered less serious (by users? Or by SEOs who assumed users would?) because they didn’t get the domain. This is because names with reduced hyphens are less important these days as there are many top-level domains.
My main recommendations are to choose something long-term (assuming that’s your goal) and not focus too much on keywords (because life is too short to push yourself , you need to make a good one and get back on track (and be careful not to let your domain name limit what you do online). The web is full of clunky stuff made for SEO, keyword-focused, and created quickly and with little effort. In other words, create something really great that people will want the name of. If the name contains a hyphen, leave it as is. ”
Choose a domain name that can grow
Mueller is right about choosing a domain name that doesn’t lock your site into one topic. As a site becomes more popular, the natural growth path is for the site to expand its range of topics. But it’s difficult to do that if the domain is fixed to her one strict keyword phrase. This is also one of the disadvantages of choosing the “Best + Keywords + Reviews” domain. As these domains grow, they don’t look tacky.
That’s why I’ve always recommended brandable domains that are memorable and promote trust in some way.
Read the Reddit post:
Are domains containing hyphens prohibited?
Read Mr. Mueller’s response here.
Featured image by Shutterstock/Benny Marty
