IRM names and hyphens

[McDuff]

Just some opinions wanted.

Until now, some of our Czech and US non-profit activities were all placed under one website www.czechfriends.org. We are now streamlining everything and just bought four domains for our emigration museum in the Czech Republic.

I am looking with one big eye to the visitors, but also now aware of what would be better for search engine results. Questions like easy reading, easy remembering, and ranking in SERs.

These are the site names:

emigrationmuseum.com
emigration-museum.com
czechemigrationmuseum.com
czech-emigration-museum.com

One of them will be the main IRM, the other three just get redirected to that IRM. Question now is, which one to choose as main domain name:
- the version with or without hyphen
- the version with or without the czech added

The first two are shorter and more general, will attract unexpected visitors, and only one hyphen (if that will be the main name). The czech variations are more specific, will rank high in SERs for people interested in things Czech, but has two hyphens and the version without hyphen is more difficult to read. etc, etc. etc.

Any opinions, also in general, which would be better or is it just a question of 6 of the one and half dozen of the other?

[Tom E.]

I prefer the non-hyphenated versions, but make them more readable by capitalizing the first letter of each word for links and printed materials.

EmigrationMuseum.com and CzechEmigrationMuseum.com are also easier to say than "Emigration hyphen Museum" if you're telling someone over the phone.

-- Tom hyphen E.

[McDuff]

Originally Posted by Tom E.

...make them more readable by capitalizing the first letter of each word for links and printed materials.-- Tom hyphen E.

I got that remark also from the FQ staff, good one.

Personally, I am leaning toward the CzechEmigrationMuseum.com;just interested to know if somebody comes with an argument why any of the others is better.

[Terra]

LOL - looks like a WikiEntry - which everyone should be used to by now...

Nothing wrong with a little CamelCasing every now and then...

[Randall]

Originally Posted by McDuff

Personally, I am leaning toward the CzechEmigrationMuseum.com

I like that one the best.

Randall

[Jeff]

Someone said that the hyphens do help search engines break apart words. I wonder if any search engines would pay attention to capitalization in links to a site to break apart words also? (e.g. whether a search engine sees emigration vs. migration in the domain if you want it found for people specifically searching emigration)

Seems like czech should be in the domain for SEO.

I think you'll have to get the unhyphenated version either way, and I like it better for typing not having to type the -'s.

[McDuff]

seems halfway through the contest the jury is out already. And the winnerrrrr is:
czechemigrationmuseum.com

Just activated it and pointed the other three to it.

Thanks for all the remarks, helps me decide how to do the other websites still out there.

And now for something completely different:..
Speaking about museums, our friends from Iowa sends us some pictures, looks a bit like Czech in 1997 and 2002 or Netherlands in 1953. Their Legion Lodge and some houses are close to being flooded, and in Cedar Rapids the Czech Village and Czech and Slovak National Museum and Library are completely flooded! Hope none of you is in that region.

[georgeek]

Originally Posted by McDuff

seems halfway through the contest the jury is out already. And the winnerrrrr is:
czechemigrationmuseum.com

Just activated it and pointed the other three to it.

That is not the best option. Search engines do not separate the words in concatenated urls.

Better is emigration-museum.com because some unsolicited links will be in the form

<a href="http://www.emigration-museum.com">http://www.emigration-museum.com
</a>

and the keywords will be in the anchor text as far as the search engines are concerned.

Originally Posted by Tom E.

EmigrationMuseum.com and CzechEmigrationMuseum.com are also easier to say than "Emigration hyphen Museum" if you're telling someone over the phone.

This is not always true because if you listen to telephone sales staff they tend to say something like "CzechEmigrationMuseum all one word .com" or "CzechEmigrationMuseum.com no spaces between Czech Emigration Museum". I have observed this frequently in large scale usability studies and have concluded that a hyphen is normally not an issue.

- George