NewDomainNameTips.com

There are a few reasons why you might want to consider using one or more hyphens, also known as dashes, in your domain name. Probably the most common reason is if your desired domain name isn’t available. Sometimes it seems like all of the good names are taken.

For example, let’s say you wanted the web address mp3playershack.com but it was already registered by someone else. An alternate choice, using the same words, could be mp3-player-shack.com. Using hyphens gives you a few more options instead of abandoning the idea of using your choice of certain words or keywords. Some people theorize that having hyphens separating the words can help with SEO (search engine optimization) though that may or may not make that much difference overall.

On the other hand, there are also some reasons why you may want to avoid using hyphens at all. For starters, imagine telling someone your domain name verbally. Using the example address mentioned above, you would say it as “mp3 dash player dash shack dot com.” It can get confusing quickly when you throw in dashes between the words. There’s a good chance the person you’re talking to won’t accurately catch the address.

As far as memorability, people may have a hard time remembering to put the hyphens in between the words. They may just type it in with the words all together, like “mp3playershack.com” and end up on a competitors site!

There are some who perceive hyphens as a “cheap” alternative or even spammy. Maybe using a minimal amount of them is OK, but use too many and it could give out a negative impression for some reason or another.

Using numbers is another way to give you some alternate choices when you want to use certain words or keywords and the ideal domain name isn’t available. As with hyphens though, communicating it verbally can possibly cause some confusion. The person you tell your address to may not know if he should type the number (or numbers) as a digit or spell it out. For example, he may wonder if it is “20″ or “twenty.”

As you can see, using hyphens or numbers can open up your options when other domain names are taken, but you’ll probably want to consider the negative aspects before making a final choice. If you expect that most of your traffic will come from search engines and not so much from word of mouth, you may find hyphens and numbers a good alternative to consider.