Domain name SEO questions?

Dingatron

Just a few quick questions for those in the know. I'm looking to get a business related domain name and I've a few options open to me. On the SEO front which of the following examples holds more weight for seo?

thisismybusiness.com

this-is-my-business.com

Also does it make much odds to use a different gTLD if a .com is gone? The site would be directed at Ireland so I could go with an .ie and maybe a .biz redirecting but does it matter that much?

Thanks

ding

Random

personally i'd go for .ie and leave the hyphens out. if you really want to use the hyphens i'd buy the other one anyway to prevent others from getting it.

make sure the .com isn't a competitor or potentially you may lose business to them.

tricky D

Pretty much as Random says. Google et al are smart enough to parse without the need for hyphens. Hyphens are also not great for branding. Choose your main market (.ie for you) and 301 redirect the others to that.

WebGeek

Your on the right track about domain names and seo. Forget the hyphens and get an ie and the com domain name. If your exclusively targeted at Ireland then use your ie as the main one. Good luck.

mneylon

If the site is hosted in Ireland and is targetting Ireland then you won't really need the .ie

Hyphens are used by the German speaking market quite a bit, but have never been popular with English speakers

Dingatron

Thanks for the replies and good advice.

The site will be hosted in the U.S. (sorry BN) but based on all the advice I'll definitely be using a .ie domain (BN) and using google tools to define geographic target as Ireland etc. Not sure that a redirect will add much weight so I think I'll see how it goes without one first.

mneylon

You don't need to setup a geotarget for a .ie - it will automatically be set to Ireland

Vurnon San Benito

Blacknight - Is it possible to buy .ie domain names without purchasing a hosting package?

Sorry OP for going off-topic!

All I can say is that, from experience, the domain name makes a big difference to SEO and less hyphens you have, the better off you are
They don't look good anyway.

mneylon

Doocey wrote: »

Blacknight - Is it possible to buy .ie domain names without purchasing a hosting package?

Yes - of course

RedCardinal

Blacknight wrote: »

You don't need to setup a geotarget for a .ie - it will automatically be set to Ireland

I'll one-up you Michele - You can't set the geotarget for .ie. The geotarget option is not available for ccTLD. But you knew this already

RedCardinal

Dingatron wrote: »

this-is-my-business.com

2 things that might be useful:

1. I'm pretty sure Google has said that domains with more than 2 hyphens might not be a good idea;
2. Try searching on some of your keywords. How many hyphenated domains do you see in the top 100? I'll hazard <5% if even that. That could be a good indicator that people don't particularly like hyphenated domains.

As a bonus - I always ask people how would they advertise that hyphenated domain on the radio? That usually puts them off hyphens

mneylon

RedCardinal wrote: »

I'll one-up you Michele - You can't set the geotarget for .ie. The geotarget option is not available for ccTLD. But you knew this already

ROFL - yes

Though I'll one up you ..

You can target *some* ccTLDs - .me is one

RedCardinal

Blacknight wrote: »

ROFL - yes

Though I'll one up you ..

You can target *some* ccTLDs - .me is one

Nuts.

Vurnon San Benito

Blacknight wrote: »

Yes - of course

In that I mean, for a reasonable price?

mneylon

Doocey wrote: »

In that I mean, for a reasonable price?

We charge the same price regardless of whether you host with us or not

In any case, if you have any questions either contact us directly or via our forum here on boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=375

francophile

Definitely .id TLD if you are targetting Ireland
No hyphes if possible
Get your important keywords at the beginning of the domain name.