# Is it really bad to have dashes in your domain name?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787>\
**Category:** Community Building\
**Created:** [February 5, 2018, 3:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787 "2018-02-05T03:10:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![meglio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/meglio/32/71444_2.png) [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 3:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787/1 "2018-02-05T03:10:12Z")

</div>

I need a URL for Ukrainians in Australia. Because I’m not a registered organisation, I can’t pick `.com.au`, so I’ll have to include the `au` portion in the URL. If it goes well, I can always migrate later to a proper URL.

Is something like `ukrainians-au.com` really bad idea? I read many times that dashes in URL degrade the quality of the domain in the eyes of both search engines and people.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787/2 "2018-02-05T04:05:13Z")

</div>

I researched about this in the past. AFAIK using hyphens are harmless unless you use it twice like `ukrainians--au.com` _(scammers way)_. It won’t degrade the quality of a domain name.

But if both `ukrainiansau.com` and `ukrainians-au.com` are available then I will choose `ukrainiansau.com`. Because people already get used to use hyphenless domain names _(not because of SEO)_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![meglio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/meglio/32/71444_2.png) [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 4:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787/3 "2018-02-05T04:07:00Z")

</div>

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Won’t people tend to try read `ukrainiansau` as a single word, which makes little to no sense? It looks a bit weird, that’s why I’m concerned about the hyphenless version of the domain name.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787/4 "2018-02-05T04:21:42Z")

</div>

It won’t be a problem particularly in domain names. It will make less sense unless they visit the URL. But after that they will know and understand what it really means.

If your logo reflected it by displaying what it really means then it can be more helpful.

Anyway it is your personal choice too. [travis-ci.org](http://travis-ci.org) and [circleci.com](http://circleci.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![notriddle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/notriddle/32/133055_2.png) [@notriddle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/notriddle)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-it-really-bad-to-have-dashes-in-your-domain-name/79787/5 "2018-02-05T14:58:45Z")

</div>

If you want to use a multi-word domain name, then you should register both with and without the hyphen. Use the version with the hyphen as your primary domain (since that version is more readable) but keep the version without the hyphen to avoid someone else taking it and using it for phishing.

For example, [travisci.org](http://travisci.org)