Why are hyphens in domain names so taboo?

Discussion in 'Water Cooler' started by BirdOPrey5, Jan 6, 2014.

?

Do you avoid hyphens in domain if you can?

  1. Yes, they are the devil character!

    4 vote(s)
    57.1%

  2. No, all characters are created equal.

    3 vote(s)
    42.9%
  1. BirdOPrey5

    BirdOPrey5 #Awesome

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2011
    Messages:
    343
    Likes Received:
    105
    Location:
    New York
    First Name:
    Joe
    Admin Talk has one but I can't think of another site I frequent that has one. Even when I was looking for a domain name for a recent project I ended up going with a name twice as long as I needed just to avoid a hyphen. What is your opinion on this? Irrational phobia or sound logical decision?
     
    BirdOPrey5, Jan 6, 2014
    #1
  2. jmurrayhead

    jmurrayhead Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Messages:
    153
    Likes Received:
    113
    Location:
    Alexandria, VA
    First Name:
    Jason
    jmurrayhead, Jan 6, 2014
    #2
  3. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2009
    Messages:
    769
    Likes Received:
    549
    Location:
    Huntsville, AL
    MustangEvolution.com used to be Mustang-Forums.com. I changed the name because I hated stressing the hypen when mentioning the site to people at car shows.
     
    BamaStangGuy, Jan 6, 2014
    #3
    jmurrayhead likes this.
  4. zappaDPJ

    zappaDPJ Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2013
    Messages:
    250
    Likes Received:
    165
    Location:
    London, England
    I have a couple of forums on hyphenated domains. I can't say they have caused me any issues but it's not what I would have chosen in an ideal world.
     
    zappaDPJ, Jan 6, 2014
    #4
  5. AWS

    AWS Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2010
    Messages:
    1,616
    Likes Received:
    692
    Location:
    Joliet, IL U.S.A.
    First Name:
    Bob
    I voted no because my very first domain extreme-vb.net had a hyphen in it. It was the number 1 site for visual basic programmers for good long while until I closed a couple years ago. My second domain, resource-zone.com, was also hyphenated.

    Those articles were a good read. I have had hyphenated domains and other than the 2 above I have always went for the non-hyphenated variety. In fact until I bought this site I haven't purchased any sites with hyphens in them.
     
    AWS, Jan 6, 2014
    #5
    jmurrayhead likes this.
  6. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2012
    Messages:
    901
    Likes Received:
    500
    Probably because telling people 'hyphen' in a domain name (in real life/voice chat conversations doesn't work so well). Heck, some people I know probably wouldn't know what a hyphen is, so I'd have to say '[name][that dash like thing][name]' instead.
     
    CM30, Jan 6, 2014
    #6
    fattony69 and jmurrayhead like this.
  7. fattony69

    fattony69 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2009
    Messages:
    521
    Likes Received:
    145
    Simple. Try telling someone the name of this forum: We call it Admin Talk. Tell your friends to go to AdminTalk.com (at least that's how you say it). We think within the alphabet. Now you have to say Admin dash talk.com. A bit of a pain when you have to explain it. Easy to forget and such.
     
    fattony69, Jan 7, 2014
    #7
  8. BirdOPrey5

    BirdOPrey5 #Awesome

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2011
    Messages:
    343
    Likes Received:
    105
    Location:
    New York
    First Name:
    Joe
    True but how often have I shared a domain name verbally over the years? As a percentage of ones I've shared via links/email/facebook/etc... it's tiny,

    Arguably verbalizing the dash makes it more memorable.
     
    BirdOPrey5, Jan 7, 2014
    #8
  9. AWS

    AWS Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2010
    Messages:
    1,616
    Likes Received:
    692
    Location:
    Joliet, IL U.S.A.
    First Name:
    Bob
    I bought http://admintalk.org. Will we change to it? I don't know. I still have a lot I want to do before I even get to the point of considering a domain change.

    Domain changes aren't as bad as they once were. The search engines pick up on proper 301 redirects rather quickly.
     
    AWS, Jan 7, 2014
    #9
  10. WEfail

    WEfail Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2012
    Messages:
    77
    Likes Received:
    179
    I actually think the more hyphens you use, the more cool your site looks
     
    WEfail, Jan 10, 2014
    #10
  11. BirdOPrey5

    BirdOPrey5 #Awesome

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2011
    Messages:
    343
    Likes Received:
    105
    Location:
    New York
    First Name:
    Joe
    a-w-e-s-o-m-e-d-o-m-a-i-n.com?
     
    BirdOPrey5, Jan 10, 2014
    #11
  12. AWS

    AWS Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2010
    Messages:
    1,616
    Likes Received:
    692
    Location:
    Joliet, IL U.S.A.
    First Name:
    Bob
    Off to order that domain.
     
    AWS, Jan 10, 2014
    #12
    BirdOPrey5 likes this.
  13. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2011
    Messages:
    211
    Likes Received:
    683
    Location:
    Falmouth, Cornwall, UK
    First Name:
    Ashley
    I also voted no. One of my first more successful projects was called Entertainment Avenue (and later Entertainment Hub) and that was hyphenated as I personally felt it was too much of a mouthful having it together and looked nicer with it included.

    As far as I can tell, "content is king" and if your content on the hyphenated domain is better than non-hyphenated, then your site should rank higher, it just can become a pain mentioning it...
     
    SpacewardAsh, Jan 19, 2014
    #13
    Big al and AWS like this.

Share This Page