How much does a dash hurt a dot com?

[Jason76]

How much does it hurt a non-.com. I'm speaking of marketing.

 

[dojo]

It really depends on how much you let it hurt you. For example. I have few domains with dashes, but they are pretty great domain names, so I don't worry that much: orthodontic-braces.com (the main keywords for my niche), new-york-doctors.com - something I want to develop in the next months to get more into the medical niche etc.

 

[Page]

Having an knife stabbed into does really hurt you! and you do not want that to happening. Point is I think there are way to many knife stabbing

 

[simonweb]

Not much, it could even help you if your site's main keywords are in the domain name (like the examples @dojo mentioned).

 

[Jason76]

A non-.com name is easier to remember than a dashed-.com.

 

[vgchat]

Having a dash can actually help, as it helps to seperate keywords.

 

[MrJohn]

I can't imagine having a - in my .com domain. It is harder for people to type and remember. People are generally lazy, that is why 4,5, and even 6 letter domains go for so much. If I am serious about my website I will not waste my time with a -.

 

[ARaes]

For many people, this is obviously a subjective subject. As dojo said, I think it comes down to knowing how to use it to your advantage. I would personally avoid it, if possible, and keep it short and sweet, but if you absolutely must use a hyphen, there are ways to make the most of it.

 

[Azareal]

Ideally, it would be one word, but realistically, you don't get what you want as there's always some squatter out there snatching things you want.

Aesthetically, a dash feels a little more natural to me than just concatenating two words, and as for non-.coms... They not only look unprofessional, but people find it really hard to remember alt domains to a terrifying degree.

 

[xenoclix]

How i see it. At first - names might be hard but after awhile it might work in favour as its i guess more unique. Like forumpromotion. Oh wait i wanted forum-promotion as its the - that changes it.

Then you might get people who forget it aswell.

Depends on the wording used to seperate the dashes