There are many reasons why you should avoid owning a domain name with a hyphen.

1. It’s harder for customers to understand.

Customers will trip over the hyphen and need to double-check your domain name. People stumble over hyphens. Don’t place any extra barriers in front of your customers, they’re fickle enough.

2. They sounds dorky when you say it.

Think about how you present a domain name with a hyphen over the radio. “Just log on to city hyphen of hyphen Cairns dot com for more details.” Seems kind of ridiculous, doesn’t it.

3. They’re worth less.

If you ever want to sell your business, there is more value in domain names without hyphens.

Many businesses use hyphens in their domain names to separate words, and therefore make them more clear in their marketing, particularly print marketing. Hyphens are also popular for new businesses where their business name has already been taken, or for competitive keyword rich domains.

Be creative with your domain names, and avoid hyphens. Anyone disagree? Please, your thoughts.