Hyphens

[ramus]

Hi people i a new bod and will probably sound a bit thick on occasions.

2 questions:

Which domain do i use www.doors-of-wood.com OR www.doorsofwood.com. Both of these names are relivant to the question as the actual domains are very similar.

Second can someone explain this to me or point me "But keyworlds in the URL are important, try to give pertinent name to your directory files such as

www.companyname.com/keyword1/
www.companyname.com/keyword2/ "

Thanls for your help

ramus

[larryhatch]

Hi ramus:

Opinions differ as to hyphens. Some people prefer them, while I avoid them.
May I presume you tried to get unhyphenated domains like woodendoors.ccc
.. wooddoors.yyy .. doorsofwood.zzz and all the permutations?

I think the following URLs might be nice:
www.woodendoor.ccm/oak/ www.wooddoor.ccm/maple/
But that's just me. I like solid wood. -Larry

[ramus]

Hi Larry

I have the unhyphened name already and can get the hyphened version, so which do i use as my main url. both are easy to remember and sensible a close example is doorsofwood. is there an advantage in this case other than avoiding anyone else buying because of the name content?

ram

[larryhatch]

This is just my personal impression, no science behind it.
I think email to [e-mail] is better.
It has a nice solid sound (like the wood).
Hyphens vaguely suggest cheap hollow veneers in this context,
possibly just what some clients may be avoiding!
Even the purchaser of veneers wants the _impression_ of solid wood. - Larry

[maximillianos]

Interesting discussion. I personally avoid dashes in my domain names. My first reason is because the dash is not a common key to type on the keyboard, thus it can be slow to type in. Secondly, it is not commonly used in conversation, so it can be awkward to always throw in a small explanation that you must use a dash for it to work, etc etc.

Just my opinion...

Good luck!

[ripsched]

2 Rules of picking a domain name.
Only use .com
and Don't use hyphens.

Use less you are going to be sending traffic only through redirects and links.

The reason being is that users are generally not to smart and a - could mess them up. Also, .com make you seem like a more reputable site.

Just my opinion. I have about 6 active domains - some with hyphen and some without. The ones without are positioned for long term growth.

[ramus]

Thank you gentlemen and ladies of course.

ram

[peted]

I'll weigh in for the minority position. I prefer hyphenated names. They have a cleaner, crisper appearance, in my opinion. Decide for yourself. Do you like doctor-of medicine.com or doctorofmedicine.com better? The reason hyphenated domain names haven't caught on, is they were authorized much later than the advent of the original domain names, which allowed only 26 characters (including the .TLD characters), the numbers 0-9 and the alpha characters. Hyphens at that time were prohibited. In my opinion, they are late out of the starting gate, and will eventually pull out into the lead. I have also read opinions that search engines read them more easily and quickly and therefore give them higher ratings. Just my prefences and thoughts. Preference aside, I definitely agree with the earlier opinion, get both the hyphenated and nonhyphenated versions if you can, for "blocking" purposes.

[valley]

What's your opinion?
www.mydomain.com is not available,
www.my-domain.com, an mydomain.net are available , what would be the better choice

[maximillianos]

If you plan to mostly use online adverstising and link sharing/buying for your marketing, I think that you can be very successful with a hyphenated domain name (though as I previously stated, I prefer not to use them). If you plan on using a lot of print ads (magazines, etc) then you might want to try and avoid the hyphens, since they are not as easy to remember in my opinion. When someone sees an ad in a mag that says super-doctors.com. They remember "super doctors" and most likely they try "superdoctors.com" later at home. If this site is a related site (ie - competitor) you may have just provided free advertising for your competitor.

[valley]

Thank you maximillianos, I guess that .net would be the first choice ,a planned radio campaign would not work with the hyphen.

The .com is not a competitor's site but could well become one if we are successful.
Anyhow we have bought both just in case.