Member Avatar for HelenLF

I am purchasing a domain name for a client. Is it best to have...
1.
or
2.

ie does the hyphen help?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by myndconsulting

Dani AI

Generated

A few practical checks and rollout steps to complement the replies from , , , and — focusing on things not yet covered in the thread.

  1. Pick the primary domain by brand clarity, not just keyword placement. If the surname is common, include a disambiguator (full name or “photography”) so people find the right person. If the name is already a brand, a shorter, name-first domain can work well.

  2. Buy the sensible variants up front: hyphenated and non-hyphenated, the relevant country TLD (.co.uk) and a .com if you care about global reach, plus obvious misspellings. Redirect extras to the chosen canonical domain (use permanent 301 redirects — see ).

  3. Check domain history and legal risk before you commit: run WHOIS and archive.org checks to spot previous spam/penalties, and search trademarks to avoid infringement.

  4. Technical setup to avoid any SEO/UX problems: enable HTTPS immediately, set a single canonical URL for each page, submit sitemaps, and add structured data (LocalBusiness/Photographer or Person) so search engines understand the site’s purpose and locality.

  5. Marketing and usability checks: test how the domain sounds when spoken (phone, radio, referrals), how it looks on business cards and email (hyphens can cause typos), and whether matching social handles are available.

  6. Content priorities after launch: use descriptive page titles, clear permalinks and local schema for location-based searches — these influence discoverability far more than keyword order in the domain.

Actionable summary: choose the clearest, most brandable primary domain; secure sensible variants; verify history and trademarks; implement 301 redirects and canonical tags; and focus on site-level SEO (content, schema, local signals). This approach gives the client both clean branding and a safe technical foundation.

Recommended Answers

All 16 Replies

Member Avatar for bancombi

better.

Member Avatar for DianeBrandt

#2 is best because it will be easier for website visitors to remember:)

Member Avatar for 4deewar

is best and if it is not available then using - is also beneficial

Member Avatar for HelenLF

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have managed to secure the domain name without the hyphen.

Member Avatar for rahulbatra

Without hyphen is better because user can remember that easily.

Member Avatar for shaniadavid

Well you have purchased the right one.. Go ahead n best ov luck!

Member Avatar for joy12

2nd is more better as its also increase user readability.

Member Avatar for fanatic123

without hyphen is better. It's easier for people to remember, plus it won't make much of a difference in SEO

Member Avatar for Ross Brough

Hi I have been told that the keyword first is preferable if you can make it work and flow.

Member Avatar for HelenLF

Now I need to purchase a domain name for another client and wondered which of these would be best...
1. photographyby + client's full name
2. client's full name + photography

Also, at present the client uses his first name and surname but would it be better from an SEO point of view if just the surname was used ie would this give more weighting to the keyword?

Many thanks for all your help so far. This forum is invaluable.

Member Avatar for gracyj

is better because it is easy to remember

Member Avatar for Dani

With dashes is less intuitive for people to remember, and comes off as a little "spammy". Without dashes is easier for the end-user, but you won't get the benefit of keywords in the domain name, which search engines are starting to devaluate anyways. Use keywords within page names such as www.domain.com/keyword.html to counter the effect.

Member Avatar for angellee

- is valid in a URL name, so if without - domain is available then it is best, if not then no any problem in which.

Member Avatar for deepahep

hyphen is used for domain for identify. it is good.

Member Avatar for raahim

Well, you bought the right

Member Avatar for myndconsulting

with or without hypen wouldn't affect your seo. the most important is that you used your clients brand and your targeted keys in your site url.

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