Domain Names with multiple Hyphens

Can domain names with multiple hyphens be seen as spamming?

[delvsie]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to the art of SEO, and forums for that matter, but am keen to learn more!!

I was reading an article today that suggested that using a domain name with more than 2 hyphens in it could, by some search engines, be seen as spamming.

Is this true?

Any help or advise on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[jatar_k]

I have heard that sequential hyphens is a spam flag but I don't know if multiple non-sequential hyphens has the same problem.

[Mike_Mackin]

multiple non-sequential hyphens does not seem to be a problem

[jatar_k]

That was what I thought, I just wanted an expert to opine.

[toolman]

Like MM said multiple hyphens are not a problem. Double hyphens btween words...I really don't have experience firsthand but like everything else these days it's somebody's definition of "spam". Whether the engines consider it spam or not...who knows...but I'm sure there's a bunch of blowhards somewhere who are using this technique whilst telling everyone else that it's a "bad thing to do".

[delvsie]

Thanks for you comments folks.

The scenario I have is that I have a number of domain names that are used specifically for microsites that have the following domain name construct, www.xxx-yyyyyy-zzzz-aaa.co.uk. These microsites are submitted to search engines. I have no concerns over the content of the sites as target specific services of my main website. The article I'm referring to suggests that the url construct that I have outlined above could be seem as spamming.

This message is just to clarify the scenario I'm facing.

[bigjohnt]

I have had no problem with hyphenated domains, and quite a bit of success. As long as they are not strings of "keyword1-keyword1-keyword1-keyword2.com" I don't expect there would be a problem.
I have not delved into two or more in a row, it just tastes like spam to me.

[ciml]

I take the view that words in domain names make little direct difference to search engines (at least not in Google), but are important in directories (and sometimes in getting people to use your target words when linking to you).

I worry that the editor of a particular directory category might begin to get bored with word1-word2-word3.com, word2-word1-word3.com, word2-word3-word1.com, etc. and may be slightly more suspicious of yet another word-stuffed domain.

Calum

[NFFC]

I've always been a big fan of the hyphens, really big, but I'm going off them now. I think in the future they "could" become a liability.

Imagine you are a search engine, rank these sites for the term "widgets keyword" without looking at the sites:

widgets.com
widgetskeyword.com
widgets--keyword.com
widgets-keyword-keyword-keyword.info

[bigjohnt]

>Imagine you are a search engine, rank these sites for the term "widgets keyword" without looking at the sites:

widgets.com 2
widgetskeyword.com 1
widgets--keyword.com 3 (penalized for excessive punctuation)
widgets-keyword-keyword-keyword.info 0 - (banned for attempted manipulation of my SE)

Although I realize, it was probably a rhetorical question ;)

[jatar_k]

then where does

widgets-keyword.com

come in 2 or 3?

[Marcia]

>widgets-keyword.com

That is at least a bit understandable, particularly if it's companyname-keyword.com and the keyword is actually a true part of the company name, even in the site graphics and directory description. It's unlikely it would account for a good position except in a category that's a wasteland to begin with.

Like maybe losangeles-rockbands.com may be OK (if that's what the site is actually about). But if what pops up is rock-bands-los-angeles-recording-studios-gigs-chicks-dudes-club-scene-directory.com it might atrract a little more attention than desired.

I am wondering whether even if it's not just the domain name, how it "looks" when the total URL, including domain name, directory names, HTML page names and in some cases subdomains, all put together includes a lot of different words, even though it may not be the case with the domain name by itself.

[toolman]

I think the domain name plays a very small part in the big picture. The reason I use hyphens is to insure I get the title I want at the directories. It may give a small boost in the spidering engines but you must know by now how volatile something like that can be.

[NFFC]

After much contemplation we have decided to promote with the un-hypenated domain name on our lastest site.