Domain Names - Dashes Or No?

[Sam.]

What do you prefer - domain names with our without dashes?



For my new website, I opted for a domain name with dashes (because it is two words, and the last letter of the first is the same as the first letter of the last), although I generally prefer them without.



Opinions?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Unattractive and bound to give the owner of the same domain name without the dash a lot of your traffic.

 

[Temerit]

No dash.

 

[Inniosoft]

Yup. Zero dash. Highly recommended.

Also, if you have the cash, you can go for a custom domain.



For example, Matt Mullenweg is the the owner of Automattic (people who made WordPress) and he has his own personal blog: http://ma.tt



You might want to follow the same kind of thing.

 

[IcarusForde]

No dash. I hate dashes. If your going to have a dash, then buy the undashed and set up a redirect right off.

 

[Crusader]

No dash.

 

[Raven]

I dont see what the problem is with dashes :S Its not a big deal to have it in a url

 

[Hawked]

No Dash.

 

[UCMENOMOR]

No dash.

 

[Fierce]

No dash.Say someone had a domain called one-dash.com,I would type in onedash.com instead.

 

[Ashley]

No dash, unless it can't be helped.

 

[varundbest]

Dashes are good for SEO but not a good user experience.

 

[Corleone]

Best to avoid them. Most will remember the name of the site, but will they remember that dash? Could be misleading.

 

[Peaceful]

It's simple to remember the dash, there are no problems with it. Dashes look better when you have a longer domain also, would you rather type, forumsstarter.com or forums-starter.com



Just my opinion.

 

[Corleone]

Yeah, in that case I could see an exception. Best isn't always (referring to my previous post). It is simple to remember a domain name with a dash under certain circumstances. If it is a site you visit regularly that interests you, then you probably could easily remember it, but if it is a new site to you and you visit it one or two times and go off and later try to refer back to that site, it could be a bit of confusion. With a few exceptions, you will usually be better off without a dash. But, if you have one then that's fine.