Who Said Hyphens Are Worth Nothing

[Chris.C]

So Car-Hire.com.au going for $3500+ on today's expiry auction just goes to show that domains with hyphens aren't wroth "nothing".

I'm not saying they are not worth much but they definitely aren't worth nothing.

Some other noteable hyphen sales:

cheap-travel-insurance.com.au - $4081
currency-trading.com.au - $3000
house-insurance.com.au -$2725



What's everyone's thoughts on hyphen domains.

 

[DavidL]

I've never liked hyphen domains personally and have been surprised at the prices they have been getting.

Saying that though, maybe this is a sign that Australia is starting to accept hyphens more like the rest of the world. There are way more hyphen domains being used in the UK and I'm told that a hyphen domain is actually preferred in Germany.

 

[neddy]

So Car-Hire.com.au going for $3500+ on today's expiry auction just goes to show that domains with hyphens aren't wroth "nothing".

.................

What's everyone's thoughts on hyphen domains.

Hyphens are really doing well lately. Today's sale basically went to an enduser - they are investors in that space (and many others).

http://futurecapital.com.au/future-capital-invests-into-drivemycarrentals-com-au

And up until just recently, credit-cards.net.au ranked number one for the term "credit cards". (They have since been bumped to page 2).

So let me jump on the bandwagon and put up cheap-air-fares.com.au for sale - at 1/10th of the price. (Excuse me for hijacking your thread Chris!).

http://www.dntrade.com.au/cheap-air-fares-co-au-t4965.html?p=34701#post34701
.

 

[geodomains]

Well I was the under bidder for car-hire.com.au , hyphens can rank just like net.au can. I've been getting results from these for years, just need to do some seo and be smart about it.

Don

 

[James]

Double dash in a domain is very risk in my eyes, one dash is good for SEO but.

you will still need a good SEO strategy and link building behind it all but =)

 

[DavidL]

How can double dash be any 'worse' than single? If it's a 3-word domain you have to have two dashes don't you?

 

[FirstPageResults]

I really like this domain... Softened my attitude towards killer single hyphen domains in the past 12 months. Good buy IMO if you have the ability to develop it in house.

Double dash has no sex appeal

 

[Ash]

I have some hyphenated domains from when I first started out not so long ago... these sales figures are encouraging but I'm not putting on my rose tinted glasses just yet.

 

[Mark]

I really like this domain... Softened my attitude towards killer single hyphen domains in the past 12 months.

Agreed. You can definitely get a hyphened domain to rank. Reading them back to somebody can be clunky, but Google doesn't care about that.

It's also indicative our how the Aussie market is maturing.

 

[djuqa]

It's also indicative our how the Aussie market is maturing.

And how Aussie Domainers are finally dragging their Knuckles into the 21st Century

 

[payattention]

Meh exception that proves the rule. You're better off going with a prefix/suffix IMO.

 

[snoopy]

cheap-travel-insurance.com.au - $4081
currency-trading.com.au - $3000
house-insurance.com.au -$2725

Flawed names in my view, only of use for SEO and not for building a business on.

Aside from the confusion element I don't think there is any real acceptance with Australian business, they are confusing and look on the spammy side in my view, especially once there is two hyphens in a domain.

 

[James]

How can double dash be any 'worse' than single? If it's a 3-word domain you have to have two dashes don't you?

by double dash I mean domains such as

car--insurance.com.au

not single dash domains like car-insurance.com.au

Example of dash with word then dash ranking:

https://www.google.com.au/search?ix=acb&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=skype+headphone+reviews

(not the best site ranking too mind you, a funny one)

Kind Regards,

James.

 

[neddy]

Flawed names in my view, only of use for SEO and not for building a business on.

It's interesting you say that Snoopy. Whilst I haven't been a big fan of hyphens myself, there is definite evidence that some people are doing well
with the domains (and in particular I mean single hyphen not double hyphen).

Take currency-trading.com.au as an example. It ranks second for the term "currency trading", and it has a reasonable website.

Maybe that is an exception rather than a norm?

 

[snoopy]

It's interesting you say that Snoopy. Whilst I haven't been a big fan of hyphens myself, there is definite evidence that some people are doing well
with the domains (and in particular I mean single hyphen not double hyphen).

Take currency-trading.com.au as an example. It ranks second for the term "currency trading", and it has a reasonable website.

Maybe that is an exception rather than a norm?

Like I said these names are usable for SEO only.

As you can see from the site, it is just MFA style garbage as opposed to a business with a hyphen name. If this is seen as a "reasonable website" then I wonder what people think a crap site looks like.

Good luck to them for ranking....but it is unlikely to have long terms legs because Google is constantly trying to deindex sites like this it and revenue from affiliate links isn't going to make the site owners competitive in any way once the free traffic dries up.

 

[neddy]

Like I said these names are usable for SEO only.

As you can see from the site, it is just MFA style garbage as opposed to a business with a hyphen name. If this is seen as a "reasonable website" then I wonder what people think a crap site looks like.

Good luck to them for ranking....but it is unlikely to have long terms legs because Google is constantly trying to deindex sites like this it and revenue from affiliate links isn't going to make the site owners competitive in any way once the free traffic dries up.

What about something like credit-cards.net.au then? A hyphen and a .net.au!

This has a better than reasonable website (imho), and for quite some time it was ranking number one for the term "credit cards". It is has just recently dropped down to page 3. It also currently ranks on page one for the term " credit cards comparison".

 

[snoopy]

What about something like credit-cards.net.au then? A hyphen and a .net.au!

This has a better than reasonable website (imho), and for quite some time it was ranking number one for the term "credit cards". It is has just recently dropped down to page 3. It also currently ranks on page one for the term " credit cards comparison".

How about we have a crap ranking? Currency-trading.com.au gets 7/10 on the crap-o-meter and credit-card.net.au gets a more modest 3/10?

These are all low quality sites, set up for SEO only, they are only in operation because they can get free traffic, once that elements goes it is all over, as is happening with credit-card.net.au. This will be page 10 in a few years.

 

[silouette]

bush-furniture

Type bush furniture into Google without the hypen just type bush furniture. Then look at where bush-furniture.com.au sits. Just goes to dhow the hypen can also still get on first page which generates an income for this business so thats value right there.

 

[Honan]

Hyphens are great for sending messages in morse code
They are less than useful in a URL
High drop prices and good web site SEO notwithstanding.

 

[findtim]

HATE THEM, not that they are harder to rank but just more expensive to make rank.

+ as mentioned harder to brand and i would say you would give up ALOT of traffice to your unhyphenated competitor simply by the way people do direct url typing.

http:// www.byron-bay. com is a great exception but proves an earlier point about how it takes an inhouse effort to make it work, the guys behind this VERY successful website have been at it SOLID for @ 15 years AND know their stuff but "you couldn't pay to have it done for you" , they lived on toast and vegemite in the early days and are now reaping the rewards.

tim