Hyphens in the Domain Name: How many is too many?

So I’ve always wondered how many hyphens is too many when it comes to domain names? You’ve got two things to consider when it comes to this:

1. Your site visitors.

2. What the search engines think about it.

We’ve all seen those domain names that go on forever like: this-domain-name-is-the-coolest-and-very-long-and-annoying.com/buy-viagra-poker-chips.html. Anytime we see something like that we can pretty much guarantee the site is going to be a junk site and probably just made for adsense. Potential site visitors of course have learned by now not to click on those types of URL’s because they will be sent (or often redirected) to some trash site that has nothing to offer. Search engines also notice those domains with many hyphens in them. You won’t get penalized for having hyphens in the domain name but your site will attract attention and probably be examined more closely to ensure it’s not a spam site. So the question is “How many hyphens is too many in a domain name?”.

It’s rare that you see a domain with more than 2 hyphens in it rank high for anything that is a moderately competitive term so I wanted to test out if I could get a site up in Google with a handful of hyphens in it. The site is personal-injury-attorney-in-san-diego.com. (5 dashes in the domain). After 1 year it now ranks for many terms that are heavily sought after terms by every lawyer who handles PI in San Diego. Also, site visitors have no problem visiting the site and are not “turned off” by 5 dashes in the domain. Probably because it’s pretty specific about what the site is all about.

Of course, I’d always prefer a domain with no dashes in it at all if possible but those days are long gone. To bottom line is it’s ok to have hyphens in the domain name as long as your site is not doing anything against the guidelines of the search engines. Just keep in mind it will probably be monitored more closely so make sure you do whatever you can to keep your site safe from penalization.