Dash or no dash

[David241]

*** This is a copy of a msg I left on the Site Promotion forum. I thought it was more appropriate here. ***

Does breaking a long name into two and putting a dash in between help or hurt with search engines?

e.g. we will have a site that offers project execution skills to I.T. consultants. It will be called The Consulting Academy.
Would you call it www.consultingacademy.com (http://www.consultingacademy.com) or www.consulting-academy.com (http://www.consulting-academy.com)?

Thanks
david

[pdstein]

I don't think it makes any difference with search engines.[nbsp][nbsp]I think it's more a matter of which is easier to read, type, and promote.[nbsp][nbsp]The dash makes it easier to read, but some people might forget the dash if their going from memory.[nbsp][nbsp]Also, most sites with multi-word domain names don't use dashes between words, so using the dash would go against "common convention."

Personally, I would go without the dash, but promote the site as ConsultingAcadamy.com to make it easier to read.

[Dan Kaplan]

Hi David,

I tend to think it's just a matter of preference.[nbsp][nbsp]In an article I copied,

http://www.aota.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000727-2.html

The author seems to think hyphenated is much better from a SE standpoint.[nbsp][nbsp]However, the article rings of hidden motives...[nbsp][nbsp]I don't know that there's consensus on the matter.

In my case, the hyphen is probably a bad thing.[nbsp][nbsp]My site has been known as 'Run-Down' for some time; sorta a play on words, a running site which I try to make look anything but rundown...[nbsp][nbsp]rundown.com was for sale for quite some time, but I never checked on how much.[nbsp][nbsp]It was finally bought up by some email company to use as an extension.[nbsp][nbsp]:([nbsp][nbsp]I couldn't decide if I wanted the domain name different from the site name, but consider trying to verbally tell someone, "it's run dash down dot com, that's dash as in hyphen, not dash as in run..."[nbsp][nbsp]I haven't yet figured out a good way around that one.

Dash
http://run-down.com

[Tatu]

The answer is most cases? BOTH!!! :)

Like if I was thinking about starting a website called "Good Lots" or "Run Down", and both w/ & w/o hyphens we available, I would register both w/o even thinking about it. ;)[nbsp][nbsp]It eliminates the danger of competition or some other looney registering "your" name.

-Tatu

[David241]

Thanks everyone. I decided to go with NO dash: www.consultingacademy.com (http://www.consultingacademy.com)

Signed up, ready to move . .[nbsp][nbsp]should be there in a few days.

[Tatu]

Eh. Good decision. :)

I always think either no dash or both (but in most cases both).