Website Addresses - To Hyphen or Not to Hyphen ?

Question

Eg which is better:

www.ux-exchange.com or

www.uxexchange.com ?

Background: Looking at what's already registered it looks like the non-hyphened versions are more popular. But does that make them better ?

Answer 1

Hyphens make it harder to read out the URL, and make typos more likely. As DA points out, though, they might help to avoid inadvertent misreadings of the URL, such as the classic expertsexchange.com (which is now, wisely, experts-exchange.com)

Answer 2

I always go with alloneword unless:

• The words within the url start and finish with the same later e.g. business-shop.com

• Or if the non-hyphenated version creates something unfortunate e.g. expertsexchange.com an unfortunate error when they clearly run a expert sexchange business and keep getting mistaken for 'experts exchange'.

Answer 3

SEO wise, likely favor the dashes.

Usability wise, you want to use both.

Marketing wise, it depends.

Joke wise, use dashes if it means you will have inadvertent readings http://www.esoupblog.com/2007/07/top-10-most-not.html

Answer 4

For SEO use dashes, but for users, shorter is better

Remember to protect your domain name - use both, and don't forget common misspellings (redirect all that stray traffic back to your actual domain)

Dont forget that same approach applies to folder and page names too. Make them meaningful, use dashes if you have long names, and follow a consistent, readable, structure.

///EDIT: Another thought just came to mind. Make sure your site works without the 'www.' you'd be surprised how many sites forget to set this up.///

Answer 5

My take on this would be to do both. Use all one word for the main url i.e. uxexchange.com

But then use hyphens for lower level pages i.e. uxexhange.com/about-us.html