Do domain names still matter to S.E.?

domain names

[alik]

I know that some time ago, to hyphen between your keywords on your domain helped you a lot to get a good ranking. Do still nowadays matter that much?

[Brett_Tabke]

It switches from update to update. Currently - no boost.

[digitalv]

Or ... would having TWO hyphens be better than one?

domain--name.com vs. domain-name.com

[seofreak]

why is that? google gave importance to words in the domain not the no. of hypens.

[experienced]

if i have a domain x-y.com and x--y.com will google give the same weightage...?

[sem4u]

Why would you even want to buy a double hyphenated domain name?

[MHes]

Because the single hyphen has gone?!

[digitalv]

That's what I'm wondering basically ... on "directory" sites, where listings are sorted alphabetically, having two hyphens in the domain name would cause you to appear higher than the same domain with one hyphen since "-" comes before "a" or any other letter in the alphabet. Sorted alphabetically, the 3 domains below would list in this order:

domain--name.com
domain-name.com
domainname.com

If you're not expecting traffic where people actually type the domain, having two hyphens is a great way to increase your position in directories since most directories sort alphabetically. I just don't know whether GOOGLE cares or not or what relevance it has.

[alik]

But then, following this logic, if you start your domains with '-', it would place them always to the top...

'-mydomain.com' would be listed higher than 'my--domain.com', and so on.

[lakester]

can you actually register domain names starting with hyphens? i was under the impression the first character had to be alphanumeric.

[seofreak]

Under the new design layout of google that I am seeing .. words are highlighted in the domain even if they are not bifurcated with hyphens. So I don't think hypen mean anything if google can just read the words anyway.

[bluegrass]

not exactly SNAPPY!

[webmktg]

I have noticed that google is highlighting search terms in the URL. I think this shows that search terms in the URLs matter to search engine rankings.

[cherrytron]

I just bought 1000 domains to help sell my widgets .. I am going to rock the SERPs!

www.blue--------------------------widgets.com
www.red--------------------------widgets.com
www.green--------------------------widgets.com

[adfree]

I can top that, anyone who wants to become rich quick come over for the next www gold rush...NOW OPEN:

---AAA---Totally--------Useless---------------D-o-m-a-i-n---------Registrar-----------.com.tv.biz.info.name.us

[coffeebean]

---AAA---Totally--------Useless---------------D-o-m-a-i-n---------Registrar-----------.com

I can't believe you snagged that one. I was just about to register it.

[SirFroggZ]

I love you people. You make my day!

[digitalv]

Heh.

You can't register a domain starting with a hyphen. As for multiple hyphens, I was really referring to directories that list alphabetically. Having your--domain.com will be higher on an alphabetic list than your-domain.com. It's only an advantage if someone else owns your-domain.com.

I guess it probably wouldn't matter to Google anyway since they don't seem to be focusing much on the directory anymore.