Anybody know this?

If I find a good keyword, let's say it is "wilted pink tulips" which domain name would be better for SEO purposes:

www.wiltedpinktulips.com

or

www.wilted-pink-tulips.com

?

And, in case your wondering, no I don't think that is a niche but you never know...

www.WiltedPinkTulips.com is another way.

There has been a few discussions circulating concerning domain names and which stand out the most.

www.wilted.pink.tulips.com

Holly will have a better idea on this one.

Okay... actually my keywords are more like "wilted pink tulips and dandelions" you see there is an "and" there.

But these domain names are already taken:

www.wiltedpinktulipsanddandelions.com

www.wilted-pink-tulips-and-dandelions.com

www.wilted-pink-tulips-dandelions.com

But this one is available:

www.wilted-pink-tulips-or-dandelions.com

hmmm...

I was thinking about this a week ago or so when I was trying to choose a domain name.

To be honest I'm still not completely sure as how to go about it.

I found this article that gave me some insight:

http://www.nineyards.com/2006/keyword-url.html

I became concerned that if your key phrase is kinda long, a hyphenated URL can start to look somewhat spammy.

After reading it I just decided to stick to the non-hyphenated url.

Here's something I've noticed. Most of you probably have heard Holly has a new blog called "Honest Marketing Movement". If you go to google and search "Honest Marketing" notice how google has highlighted "honestmarketing" in bold green in the url honestmarketingmovement.com even though your search term was "Honest Marketing" with a space.

Does that mean google recognises key phrases in urls NOT seperated by hyphens?

After doing it the wrong way, and after experience over time, I've come to avoid hyphenated domain names. They are harder to type, harder to remember, less pretty, and look less professional.

Yes Google does recognize works without spaces or hyphens.

The only time you would really want hyphens is to avoid double meanings as in the case of the famous domains whorepresents.com and penisland.net

I agree with Anna on this as well. Hyphens just don't look that good in a domain name. She is right about Google - it will recognize keywords in a domain without hyphens.

Take a look at this search image I attached for Holly Mann:

http://www.agilemarketer.com/images/hmann.jpg


As you can see in both cases Google has highlighted the key term 'HollyMann' and 'holly-mann'.

One other thing to remember is that if you domain name is too long you can't use it for Google Adwords - I believe it is 32 characters total including the period and 'www', 'com', 'net', etc.

Hope that helps!