Domain name convention

Which is better?

[Fuzzi_Bear]

I've been experimenting with the following two methods, and cannot see which is better.

Can you help?

Which is better:

keyword1-keyword2-keyword2.com

or

keyword1keyword2keyword2.com

thanks

[ryan26]

You'll get a smattering of different responses to that question, as always, but I think the general rule of thumb is that hyphens should be avoided is most cases. So, in your example, the three hyphen domain would look spammy to most.

[ChrisBolton]

I agree with Ryan.

Avoid hyphens at all costs, they look spammy and they are harder to type for the end user.

The fact that they have next to no resale value compared with no-hyphen names seem to confirm this.

Regards.

[Martin40]

I disagree. The reason for non-hyphened .com's to be more valuable is due to direct navigation: some people type searchengine.com into the address field of their browser and not search-engine.com.

But what are the odds that you have a .com that generates appreciable direct navigation? Those are scooped up by domainers and ISPs.

If your .com does not generate direct navigation then I'd say a three word domain is more readable if it has hyphens.

[kevinpate]

Given the choice, I'd choose
word1word2word3.TLD over word1-word-2word3.tld any day of the week and twice on sunday.

It will actually look better in print (cards, ads, etc.)

It's a fair bit easier for soemone to communicate the url to other folks verbally, not at all unimportant if you hope for users to be telling their family and friends about what a great site you have.

[Martin40]

You're right that non-hyphenated domains are better in the "real world", but doesn't most traffic come from search engines? If you want to say your domain on the radio then hyphens are out of the question and the TLD must be .com or net.

I don't know about non-hyphenated looking better in print, but if you want to be able to sell your domain or site, then non-hyphenated domains have a better rap.

I preferred to register science-education.tld over scienceeducation.tld, with the double-e. IMO hyphenated domains are undervalued because of direct navigation.