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What you need to do is search your 2 main keywords, and check the Top 10 results, and list down how many of the domains are without hypen and how many of them has (even 1 hypen count).
For me.
1st keywords (2 words): All 10 without hypens
2nd keywords (3 words): 8 without hypens, 2 with hypens.
How about you?
Tantalus: I think the conclusion that AthlonInside wants to make is that nobody should use them!
Sorry, my domains DO have hypens.
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apollo, eduardomaio, Patrick Taylor,
so you guys are "drawing a conclusion" that my domains don't have hypens? :)
By the way, I don't hold a degree in statistics, english writing nor contract writing. This is just a simple post in a disccussion forum, not a final year project in statistic degree, test essay or legal contract.
2 keywords: 6 without hyphens, 4 with
3 keywords: 10 without hyphens, 0 with
I forgot to add the smiley :)
1st keywords (3 words): 0 out of 10
2nd keywords (3 words): 0 out of 10
3nd keywords (3 words): 0 out of 10
In yahoo hyphenated URLS rank better....
webdude, thanks for you welcome! :)
is not to compare the number of sites with hypens vs the total number of sites without hypens.
I want to ask all the guys who participate in the survey, when you did the search, do you notice some sites with hypens that USED-TO-BE in the SERPs are now gone? Most people are more aware of their own site and because there are too many competitors, we might not notice one or two of them slipped out the SERPs (or maybe we don't care).
But from my overservation (not conclusion). Many of the sites that have hypens (esp those that are separeted by competitive keywords) are gone one by one. I mean gone from #1 to no where. Some keep their PR & backlinks, while some have PR dropped below 2 and don't show any backlinks.
(Of course there are still domains with hypens performing well)
IMHO, google don't hate "hamburger", but they dislike "hamburger" with excessive "cheese". Google don't hate domain with hypens, but they dislike domain with hypens that come along with excessive same anchor text that matches the keyword in the hypenated domain (+ some onpage symtoms).
My competitors who dropped, happens to have hypenated domain name and excessive anchor text of the same keyword as the domain name. Google take a guess and believe that they try to manipulate the SERPs and filter them out.
I am trying to get my main point and so it is just an extremly-simplified algo.The hardworking programmers at GoogleLab will take in more considerations, for example
1. Backlinks increasing speed compared to competitors
2. Where are the main source of backlinks coming from?
3. Are keywords competitive or comercial? (they know very well with adwords)
Arguments are welcome, as this is the main point of discussion forum.
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:D :D tantalus
And I prefer hyphenated names. They read intelligently and are very easy to type into the browser to go directly to the site.
In my category 3 out of 10 have hyphens (note: there are also 2 that have keywords in the subdomain "." part and 2 more that have the keywords in the files, so if you add up all these 7 out 10)
JuniorOptimizer: I say your argument is weak. How do you know what Google "likes" or dislikes.
Google hate SERPs manipulators. While manipulators tense to utilize hypernated domain name, it catches Google eyes. That makes sense to put more checking on them if Google want to fight manipulators.
Credit card merchants hate frauds. And since fraud usually comes from Asia pacific countries, it catches merchants’ eyes. That’s why more checking, verification (or even blocking) is done to Asia pacific purchaser.
IMO the point is THOSE-UGLY-HYPHENETEd-DOMAIN-NAMES were majorly from webmasters practising so called black hat SEO and PR pumping for no reasons and an illusion that hyphenated domains with stuffed keywords could do well.
and thats the reason why they are out,
not because google like or hate hyphens but because there were other prevailing reasons.
and thats the reason why they are out,
not because google like or hate hyphens but because there were other prevailing reasons.
That's probably true, but multiple hyphens in the domain name could be one factor in judging a site's "spam quotient." It all comes down to statistical probability, IMHO: If a site uses a multiple-hyphen domain and many inbound links with the same keywords as anchor text and keyword-packed alt text and other SEO techniques that might suggest an attempt to spam the index, then Google may have good reason to reduce whatever benefit the site derives from each of those factors.
Just read your explanation, and I have been saying the same thing for years. I have even posted it a few times and no one ever seemed to take notice or at least comment on the idea. I think I called it an anchor text side effect. Its nice to know someone is thinking out there, I have seen many many webmasters misunderstand this.
[edited by: ILLstyle at 6:15 pm (utc) on Aug. 20, 2004]
anyway,
cheers to google that it has got a good success rate in eliminating those UGLY-DOMAIN-NAMES-FILLED-WITH-CRAP
