Of course, you are entitled for the opinion and I don't mean this against you in any way, but consider these the next time you're choosing a domain and both hyphened and non-hyphened domains are available…

I would never, ever take hyphened URL if the non-hyphened is available. Because,
1) typing an URL without hyphens is much easier and faster for people,
2) URLs without hyphens look about 900% more professional (how many “big” sites you see with hyphens? not too many, right?),
3) if you ever need to say the website name aloud, e.g. in radio/interview, it is a lot easier to say a website name without hyphens,
4) with hyphens, you will lose traffic to the non-hyphened domain, etc.

If you will ONLY get traffic to a website through search engines or referring sites/links, with people clicking on the search results or link elsewhere, hyphens work, but like I said on the post, I'd avoid them if in possible. It's just like always choosing .com if that's available. If the best choice is not there, THEN one can consider the other options.

If the site is such that the goal is to have people coming back to it, type the domain to the browser, tell their friends, etc. The importance of the domain being clear, simple and memorable come into play as well. Of course content and site design help with this, but it starts with the domain site.

See for yourself: Search Engine Ranking Factors by SEOmoz.

p.s. Email is the most important tool on the Internet and since it's fast and personal, I like to use it :) As long as the questions and comments are not spam, I answer to all the emails.

Move the mouse over the “avatar” on your comment here on the blog, click on “expand” and then “claim it now” (it will use the email address for verification). You can then edit your commenter name and all your Disqus comments.

I like to point out that keywords in domain is a VERY small factor to ranking in the serps.

As long as people arrive through search engines (clicking a link), hyphens are OK (although sites without hyphens might be perceived to be more “trustworthy”). When they start typing the site, you might run into problems, or at least send tons of free traffic to the domain without the hyphen.

With that, if one is planning to “brand” a blog, e.g. personal blog or business site (not simple niche site), I would never take domain with hyphen. For niche sites, I'd try to find one without, but could settle for hyphened domain if everything else fails.

Getting a domain for a niche site can be frustrating, but often you can just go for another phrase. When looking for domain for one's first (main) blog, it's even more frustrating…

You usually have a blog name in mind and then can't get the domain. And for most beginner's it doesn't make sense to pay the investors for the domain. The good news is that in the end, you can make any domain work, as long as it makes some sense.

If there is a search phrase that people are looking for, let's say “4 hour workweek”, domain like that makes sense (although Tim went for “four” with the main site). And of course there are big sites and/or companies like 43folders.com and 37signals.com, which don't look tacky.

For SEO spesifically, it's always better to have the exact match, even as far as numbers. So if people are searching for “four”, the domain name should have “four”, and similarly for “4″.

Some search engines do take numbers as synonyms, so it doesn't matter if one searches for 4 or four, pages with either 4 or four will be noticed. However, the exact match will (nearly) always rank higher.

p.s. I appreciate the comment, but please edit your “name” as my comment policy does not allow keywords in the name, use your personal name or initials instead. Your comment is pretty obvious SPAM and I will delete it as one later today unless you edit your comment!

p.s. I appreciate the comment, but please edit your “name” as my comment policy does not allow keywords in the name, use your personal name or initials instead. Your comment is pretty obvious SPAM and I will delete it as one later today unless you edit your comment!

For these kind of long tail niche sites thou, the .com's are still there, it just means going for 3 or even 4 words.

For these kind of long tail niche sites thou, the .com's are still there, it just means going for 3 or even 4 words.