Domain Names With Hyphens

Available, with a hyphen

A new business looks up its name as a domain and finds the plain version taken. With a hyphen between the words it is available, and it looks fine written down.

Then it has to be said aloud, and every time it comes with an instruction: the two words, with a hyphen in the middle, dot ca.

Some people hear dash and type an underscore, which no domain can contain. Some forget the hyphen by the time they reach a keyboard.

The domain was available for a reason, and everyone who drops the hyphen ends up somewhere else.

Where the hyphen causes trouble

• Said aloud, on the phone, on the radio or across a counter.
• Typed from memory, often without the hyphen at all.
• Typed on a phone, where the hyphen sits on a second keyboard screen.
• Email addresses, dictated, misheard and mistyped.
• Written by hand on a form or the back of a business card.

The second is the costly one. Whoever owns the plain version receives your visitors, and possibly your email, without doing anything at all.

Who owns the version without it

Look it up before deciding anything. The version without the hyphen is usually one of three things: a parked page of ads, another business, or a domain held for sale.

A parked page sends your visitors to advertising, sometimes for your competitors. Another business, especially one in a related trade, may receive your enquiries by mistake and not pass them on.

And whoever owns it can set it to accept all email sent to any address there. Quotes, invoices and attachments typed without the hyphen go to them.

Email is where it hurts most

A visitor who lands on the wrong website usually notices. An email sent to the wrong domain often does not bounce, so the sender sees nothing and you never learn it was sent.

Customers type email addresses from memory, from a business card, or from what they heard on the phone, and the hyphen is the part most easily dropped.

If you own the plain version too, set it up to receive mail and pass it on to your real addresses. Then a missing hyphen costs nothing.

When a hyphen is acceptable

A hyphen is fine when the plain version is also yours and redirects to the same site. Then the hyphen is decoration, and nobody is lost either way.

It can also be the better choice when two words run together badly. Some names joined up read as different words entirely, and a hyphen keeps them apart.

And a domain people mostly click rather than type, from links, ads and search results, suffers less from a hyphen than one painted on a van.

The trouble starts when the hyphen is the only thing separating you from somebody else.

More than one hyphen

A domain with two or three hyphens tends to be a string of search words joined together, and it reads like the kind of address spam comes from.

People hesitate to click it in search results and look twice at it in an email. It also gives a customer several chances to type it wrong instead of one.

If a name only fits with several hyphens, it is probably too long to be a domain.

Protecting the alternatives

If the unhyphenated version is available, register it today and point it at your site with a permanent redirect.

Register the obvious variations too: the .com if you use .ca, or the other way round, and any common misspelling of the name. Each costs little a year, and all of them belong in one account on automatic renewal.

Give each of them a certificate as well, so somebody typing the secure address sees no browser warning before the redirect takes them on.

If the plain version belongs to someone else, it may be for sale, or it may lapse one day. A domain held for sale can sometimes be bought for a sensible sum, and a lapsing one can be watched.

A worked example

A small kombucha brewer sells its bottles through local grocery stores and two farmers' markets, and its domain is printed on every label.

When it started, the plain version of its name was parked by a domain investor, so it registered the name with a hyphen between the two words.

At the markets, people asked for the website and typed it into their phones on the spot. Some dropped the hyphen and landed on the parked page, which showed ads for other drinks.

Email suffered more quietly. A cafe owner who wanted to stock the bottles sent an enquiry to the plain version, and only mentioned it weeks later at the market.

The brewer contacted the investor and bought the plain version. It is now the main address on new labels, the hyphenated one redirects to it, and email sent to either reaches the same inboxes.

Old bottles and posters with the hyphen will be around for years, so the hyphenated domain stays registered and redirecting.

Changing the main address

If you get the unhyphenated version, it should normally become the main address, since it is what people type.

Redirect every page of the old address to its match on the new one, not just the home page, and update the Google My Business listing, social profiles and directories.

Keep the hyphenated domain registered indefinitely, with its email still working. Printed material, saved contacts and old links do not update themselves.

The counter-case

A hyphenated domain that has been in use for many years, on vans, signs and listings, may be worth keeping as the main address, especially if the plain version is also yours.

A business whose customers mostly arrive through search, ads or a booking platform may barely notice the hyphen.

But a new business choosing a name should test it aloud first, and treat a hyphen as a reason to buy the plain version too, or to keep looking.

Before you print it

1. Say the domain aloud to someone new.
2. Check who owns the version without the hyphen.
3. Register the plain version if it is free.
4. Redirect every variation to the main site.
5. Accept email at every version you own.
6. Keep all of them on automatic renewal.
7. Never let the old one lapse after a change.

Step five protects the messages you would never hear about. A lost visitor often tries again; a lost email simply disappears, and the customer assumes you ignored it.

Keeping mail flowing at an address you have moved away from is covered in email at an old domain after a rebrand.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.