One of the biggest challenges we face as internet business owners is trying to secure domain names that have the keywords we need to help in the Search Engine Optimization process. Over the last few years the number of domains being registered has grown exponentially and Internet marketers are now reverting to domain names that use a combination of dashes, however you need to be careful using dashes in the domain names because you can in fact make it very difficult for a client to actually remember your website and come back to it if they did not add it to their favorites. In the long run, this can challenge the ability of your business to grow.

From a number of focus groups we have run in Australia and also in conversation with our customers, we have found that a Domain Name which uses dashes is in fact harder for a customer to remember then without.

If you were choosing a Key Word Rich Name the best choice would be to have the domain with no dashes. For example if I was trying to setup a domain for a car detailing service in Los Angeles, the best non-company name specific domain for the location would be -

LosAngelesCarDetailingService.com

The key advantage of this name is that customers will easily remember the name because there are no dashes. This domain also makes it far easier for people to remember if they see the domain using off-line marketing techniques like bumper bar stickers. The domain name is also far easier for you as the business owner to explain to the client to lookup on the web.

For example we could have rewritten this domain with dashes which would have made it harder to remember-

Los-Angeles-Car-Detailing-Service.com

The other issue you need to be very cautious of doing is using a combination of dashes and underscores in URL's. In a recent survey my company did of 200 keywords in the three major search engines, we found that more and more companies are registering domains with dashes and then use the alternative with the file names. Let me show you an example …

Los-Angeles-Car-Detailing-Service.com/Platinum_Car_Cleaning-Service.asp

You can see in the URL above that we have used a combination of dashes and underscores. Doing this is really poor practice because if a person visits your website and wants to get back to the page above, they will get mixed up as to whether they should be using underscores or dashes.

When using underscores or dashes in your URL, make sure that you stay consistent and only use either all dashes or all underscores. It is unwise to use a combination of these elements as shown above.

Look the bottom line is this; from a client user perspective the best domain to register is one without spaces. If that domain is not available then use one with dashes. With URL's never mix dashes and underscores period.

One of the other issues you need to be cautious about when registering a domain is to not make the domain name to long. In online advertising sites like Google Adwords the domain name display allows only a maximum of 35 characters. If your domain name is longer than 35 characters you will not be able to type it into the Display URL box the domain which will mean if you do not display the right URL then Google will ban your Adwords campaign. In the examples I used above I would not be able to run an Adwords campaign because the number of characters in the domain exceeds the Display URL's capability and as such limits your advertising options for pay-per-click advertising.


Choosing the right domain is an important step and if you get it wrong it can limit your abilities to market your website and cost you money.

*Editor’s Note: I had accidentally published the unedited version of this article earlier. I apologize for any confusion. This is the correct version. Nic

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