I'm stumped. I'm not so sure what is the right answer. I'll do some research and get back to you if I find an decent answer. You should email the people at Godaddy as they probably know..

Listen to these last 2 posts...they know what they're talking about. Just take a look at the URL for this page up there in your browser...notice anything.

If the only traffic you'll be getting is from the web and search engines (ie no print advertising) then go with the hyphens. The only good reason for not going with hyphens is if you're branding the name..

Mike..

Definitely good stuff..

So even if you own both versions it seems like making inbound links with the dash version. (if your HostGator is a searched keyword type domain)..

Wow, whoever regged the name PenIsland obviously did not think things out too well..

Additional, is there any benefit in reggin oneTWOthree.com and one-two-three.com and pointing ot the same place..

What about oneTWO.com and one-two.com?..

If one-two.com and onetwo.com are available you should consider them, particularly onetwo.com for brandng - if it makes sense and flows well. HostGator names are cheap enough that a productive GoDaddy site should have several. Be sure to use 301 redirects to avoid penalties for "doorway pages" or build a nice small GoDaddy site on each HostGator with unique content and links to the main site. 500 words seems the minimum for a search engine to take a GoDaddy site seriously...

Search engines have become good at separating the keywords in non-hyphenated domains(well better then they was before), but they're still not perfect, so by using hyphens you're at least sure to help them out a bit by separating the words for them so it's no doubt what the URL really means. However non-hyphenated domains are better as they are seemed more brandable and most people prefer these...

No one has argued against that, but this thread was about.

SEO.

Only and not branding, and for that I (and many others) believe that hyphens between the keywords are better than without...

From a.

SEO.

Perspective both examples will do fine. But I would say don't over do it with the hyphens. Two hyphens would be the maximum. Otherwise your HostGator would look kind of spammy. Also for a.

SEO.

Point of view if you use to many hyphens may results in some sort of spamscore which will result in the opposite you try to accomplish..

In my opinion two hyphens is the maximum to use. Although I would never use two but if you really have to...Two would be the limit..

It just looks spammy in general as well if you use to many hyphens..

So from a.

SEO.

Perspective you have nothing to worry about. They will both be treated the same..

However from a usuability point of view this type of thing may not work so well if you want your GoDaddy site to be mentioned by word of mouth..

Keyword *hyphen* Keyword *Hyphen*keyword.com is not going to work for you..

SEO.

Wise, no problem...

A HostGator with hyphen(s) has no significant advantage over the one without hyphen(s) from the Search engine standpoint. As mentioned above, they both are treated the same. In general I would say go for the hypenated name only if the non hyphenated is taken...

Depends upon the root of which search engine,.

Google no ways hozahh mozah hosoah.

Msn well maybe..

Hyphens do have some advantages, where the most important one's actually incoming links...

If someone links to your GoDaddy site and only uses your URL (.

Www.keyword1-keyword2.com.

) the URL becomes the anchor text in that link and you get the advantage of having your keywords there instead of having the "word" keyword1keword2 as anchor text...

Search engines have become increasingly good at separating the keywords in non-hyphenated domains, but they're still not perfect, so by using hyphens you're at least sure to help them out a bit by separating the words for them so it's no doubt what the URL really means....

One classic example of confusing keywords in an URL is Penisland.net....

(for the record it's a safe GoDaddy site called Pen Island, not what most of you probably thought at first glance.....

).

So for.

SEO.

Purposes I would still go for hyphenated domains, and if possible also get the non-hyphenated one and redirect it to the GoDaddy site so you'll loose the type-ins there to someone else....

But I also agree with the posters above that too many hyphens makes the HostGator look spammy, so I personally would never want to use more than one hyphen in a HostGator I'm going to develop myself.....