domain names and google
 

I have been looking at google listing for some keywords and have been noticing that most of the top three page listings are all domains with no hyphen in the domain name, does anyone know if that is my imagination or is google and possibly any of the other se's penalizing domains using a hypen in the domain?

hasn't hurt me I I hope I don't get google fucked for posting this|couch|

I see lots and lots of people becoming possessed with "search engine ban paranoia" these days.
There is no any ban or serious penalty sanctions for using hyphens in a domain name. Nevertheless it is recommended to use no more than one hyphen in it. I have never met any intelligible explanations about this mystery, but as you can notice, sites that are using more than one hyphen are ussually ranked lower.

I've got domains with 1 and 2 hyphens in and still ranked high, i expect there is a limit as 3 or 4 + would be seen as spamming keywords?

So many myths about SEO which i think is down to these so called SEO companies that spread rumours in order to gain business.

1 hyphen is all right. 2 - under question. I won't recommend.
No, i think that spamming keywords is something like "teeniest-teens-teening.com".
For example, lets imagine that we have two identical sites greenguysboard.com and green-guy-and-jim.com. And there is no penalties for duplicate content.
I am 100% sure that the first domain name will be ranked higher that the second one. I admit that i have no idea why is happening such thing, but experience in SEO practice proves that.

That would be hard to prove, too many factors to consider with that.
I'm sure there are many webmasters on here with 2 hyphens in their domains that would argue it aswell.

The trouble with SEO is you think you have some kind of knowledge or technique, then things change and you find you have to start all over again. |confused|

Take a look at the age of the domains. A lot of them have been around for a long time. ;)

From my experience, I would also say that Google seems to rank domains without hyphens higher most of the time for the higher competition kw phrases.

I did a few random searches on google and got these results:

The search query Porn returns only one result in top 20 with a hyphenated domain name.

The search query Sex returns only one result in the top 40 with a hyphenated domain name and it's #40.

The search query Porno Movies returns only two results in top 20 with a hyphenated domain name. Hyphen domain actually holds #1 here.

The search query Big Tits returns NO results in the top 50 with a hyphenated domain name.

The search query Cumshot Vids returned NO results in top 20 with a hyphenated domain name.

The search query Blowjob Porn Movies returned two results in top 20 with domains using a hyphen.

Search query Black Porn Clips returned NO results in top 20 with a hyphenated domain name.

I see a pattern here, but I'm sure there are other examples that show otherwise?

Remembering that search results are dynamic so it can't be used as evidence.
Many other things to take into consideration aswell as domain names.

Very true.

Of course there are a lot of other SEO factors that need to be taken into count here. But i didn't say that the hyphenated domain names can't be rated high. It just can cause mysterious difficulties. But if you work hard, have an old google-trusted domain updated every day and... you understand what i mean.
Nevertheless, in some cases i can't understand people who register hyphenated domain name, when it is so simple to choose the same name excluding hyphens.

Domains without hyphens are not always available for the targets people are aiming for.

I can't see SEs descriminating sites for using hyphens in domains if the sites themselves abide by the rules and are relevant to what they're promoting, it wouldn't make any sense.

What you're basing your theory on is your own experience with your own domains.

I wonder how many webmasters on here have hyphenated domains that kick the ass out of any that haven't on the serps.

That's a good point Bob and very valid. I'm sure Google is aware of this too, but I wonder how Google actually views this and in turn handles the results with both kinds of domains.

On the higher competition keyword phrases I would like to see some examples of hyphenated domains kicking non hyphened domains' asses. :D

It would be nice to know google views on anything and i suppose we can only guess most of it but to actually validate this theory would take huge amount of research.


I don't wanna go upsetting anyone by posting up examples but there are a fair few about that i have seen here and there.

It could be true but then again what purpose would it serve if a hypenated domain is more relevant to a search than one that isn't. |huh

Edit: just going by one hypenated domain using webmaster tools on Top search queries with positions ranging from 10 to 1.
Theres a fair few top search terms with a position of 1 but then again i'd have to look at the % they appear which is from 35% and below.

I'm not sure if this is anything to go by as link popularity is obviously gonna have influence?

Right, and obviously there are other factors involved. Also, there are sites with 2 hyphens that do very very well in Google. |greenguy| |headbang|

It just appears on the surface from what I have seen that the non - domains are up top more often than the others on high competition phrases. I'm sure there are a ton of different things effecting it. |potleaf|

Well maybe a ratio of non hyphen domains to - domains as obviously everyones first choice would be the non -.

But as you say there are so many different things that make a difference so i guess only the SEs will know for sure, i can't say it would put me off using future domains with a -. :)

I personally do not think it is google treating non hyphen any different to hyphens just that people tend to use the two differently i.e. if you have a non hyphen you might make a nice site on it but with a 'lower value' hyphen domain you just throw up some landing pages and leave it.

Ok, I've gotta say that I find it a bit humorous that no one mentioned this domain that has done well for years in this thread:

http://www.link-o-rama.com/:D

CJS

I referenced it in my last post, just used his icon.

link o rama has done good for a long time and it use to be in the top position all over for all sorts of keywords, but even link o rama has dropped for some keywords in the last couple months. Thats one of the reasons why I started this thread about using the hyphen.

There are a million and one reasons why a site can drop in the serps, it would be stupid to think that just a hyphen in the domain is the reason.

That's like the SEs saying, you have a high quality informative site thats relative to it's theme but we're sorry, you're using a hyphen so therefore we'll rank you lower. |crazy| |loony|

Hey Bob,

I don't think any one is saying that. But isn't it strange how the non hyphens are dominating?

I'm not sure on that to be honest, to me it looks like the amount of - domains is a fraction to that without.
I'm not trying to argue with anyone just maybe put some theories up. :)

Just on 2 search terms looking at the amount of - domains, there are very few even going deep into the pages in comparison.

(Hope i'm not upsetting the SEs with this as it's not the intention.)
Adult movies

Adult links

It would probably take a big list of domains with - and see how they rank on top terms to be sure and apart from LOR, i can't think of that many.