Dash or No Dash in the Domain

[Josh]

Here is another thought, but maybe not so relevant to John's question.

I found that if you are giving out your URL on the phone whether you have a dash or not is not as important as the length. I find that if you can get a short URL, no matter what the letters are (but nice if they are close to what the site is about) is better than a long one.

"What's your e-mail address?"

"It's Josh@, did you get my number from the website?"

"yes"

"It's [email protected], the url from the website".

To that point I'm considering switching to a shorter URL so the e-mail isn't nearly as long. I have some sites in development now and will likely transition at some point. I really wish Quest Diagnostics would just give me AML, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

[somarco]

Well, it appears josh dot com is available

 

[GoCubsGo]

Can't you get the URL with the dash for people to click on and another URL with-out that forwards to the one with and use the with-out for offline marketing? Best of both worlds?

 

[somarco]

Can't you get the URL with the dash for people to click on and another URL with-out that forwards to the one with and use the with-out for offline marketing? Best of both worlds?

I don't see this accomplishing anything.

If the domain without the dash is available there is no incentive to complicate matters buy purchasing

mustfastpitch dot com and

must-fast-picth dot com

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I just bought the .net domain - no dash. Too tough for trade shows, local marketing, etc..

Thank you guys. Advice on this board can be invaluable.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I don't see this accomplishing anything.

If the domain without the dash is available there is no incentive to complicate matters buy purchasing

mustfastpitch dot com and

must-fast-picth dot com

I meant the "dash" domain that he wanted for clicking on but since the dash-less version was not available something totally different for offline or telling someone over the phone.

If insurancequotes dot com is unavailable but insurance-quotes dot com is, take the dashed version but come up with something like quoteshop dot com as it would be easy to verbally tell someone and have it forward to the insurance-quotes. It was an idea to fix what someone said was the problem with the dashed version he wanted in that people would leave out the dash if you verbally told them the URL. Just throwing out idea's.

Just pointing out you can have several URL's all going to one web site.

 

[somarco]

you can have several URL's all going to one web site.

You can, but I believe there are SEO issues with that. Maybe Brook or some others can address it.

 

[GoCubsGo]

You can, but I believe there are SEO issues with that. Maybe Brook or some others can address it.

Would be interesting to find out.

I would think if you sold Life, Health & Disability you could have your web site at forum dot com and then have life dot com, health dot com and disability dot com on specific marketing pieces and they all forward to your main forum dot com site.

 

[Alston]

I think that having insurance in the domain name is a plus. However, the words in the domain name is just one ranking signal of many. Your domain name isn't going to make or break your site's potential profitability.

I have about a dozen insurance-related sites. All but my first one include the word "insurance." The first one (lovetherates.com) is one of my most profitable sites.

Why? The age of the domain may be one factor. Also I have done much more content creation, link building and other SEO work to promote it when compared to all but one of my other sites.

If you can't find a site with the word "insurance" in it, look for one with words that are semantically-related to "insurance." (Student and pupil are synonymous. Teacher and school are semantically-related.)

Maybe a domain with the word "policy," "plan," or some other semantically-related word will give you a little SEO help, be easy to spell and meet your other criteria.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

I'm starting to build my own High PR blog network and there are some good buys right now on Godaddy Auctions for repurposed domains:

$5 PR3 3 yr old site
$9 PR3 4 yr old site
$9 PR3 5 yr old site