Why does a missing space affect results so much?

My site appears high if the space in search phrase is missing

[andrewshim]

I recently noticed that my site ranks on page one if the two-word search (<edited>) is entered without the space, but if it is entered as two words, I am nowhere in the top ten.

I'm wondering if adding a hyphen in between the words <keyword1(-)keyword2> will make a difference.

My site is relatively new, so I'm not too concerned about it. I'm confident of climbing up the ranking with time.... but if I can speed things up, why not!?

<No specific searches, please
See Forum Charter [webmasterworld.com]>

[edited by: tedster at 4:44 pm (utc) on April 1, 2006]

[MHes]

If the word (keywords without the space) either appears on your page or as a link pointing to your page, then you will rank for that 'nonsense' word.