Can Multiple Hyphens in the Domain Name Raise a Red Flag with Search Engines?

Nov 28, 2007 - 7:44 am 8 by

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks, can multiple hyphens in a domain name raise a red flag with a search engine?

For example, if you have a domain name that is something like www.buy-shoes-now-online-for-cheap.com, would that type of domain raise a red flag with a search engine and warrant a manual review?

In fact, we discussed specific examples of sites with this issue back April 2005 and also wrote about a mystical Hyphen Filter in May 2004, which are both dated articles.

If you want evidence that Google does index domains with multiple hyphens, click here. The first result has six, I repeat, six hyphens in the domain.

Six Dashes in Domain Name

So I would say there is no automated penalty for having many hyphens in the domain name but I would still be careful.

(1) It is not user friendly (2) It just looks weird (3) It may raise a red flag (who knows)

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: December 13, 2024

Dec 13, 2024 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google December Core Update, AI Overviews Gemini 2.0, Apple Visual Intelligence, Search Console Updates, Indexing Bugs & More

Dec 13, 2024 - 8:01 am
Google Updates

Google December 2024 Core Update Is Live - What Are We Seeing

Dec 13, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google Updates

Google To Have More Core Updates, More Often

Dec 13, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads AI Generated Reports BETA

Dec 13, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Lens Serving Outage Yesterday

Dec 13, 2024 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Reviewal Time Frame for Google Image Ads