KW Targeted Domain Format For Local Biz

[NInc81]

My brother owns a laundromat...Im putting together his site.....I am targetinga small geographic area obviously....

Which domain is more seo friendly for the kw north brunswick nj laundromat?

northbrunswicknjlaundromat.com

north-brunswick-nj-laundromat.com

northbrunswick-nj-laundromat.com

northbrunswicknj-laundromat.com

I doubt there is a huge difference between any of them and my first instict was to go with "northbrunswicknjlaundromat" but it seems it may be too wordy to not use hyphens. Do search engines care?

Thanks in advance for any and all help

Nolan

[Keszi]

Hi Nolan,

This article might help you with choosing: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain

Personally I would go for northbrunswick-nj-laundromat.com. This would be my choice.

Hope it helped,

Istvan

[MiriamEllis]

Greetings, Nolan!

Thanks for coming to Q&A to ask your question. Definitely read the article Itsvan linked to. It's a super resource.

In my opinion, the hyphens are not optimal. As the aforementioned article states, hyphenated domain names can look somewhat spammy.

Here's something for you to consider: when I do a Google search for just 'north brunswick', Google immediately shows me a map of New Jersey. I am not finding any other North Brunswicks mentioned in the top 10 results of the SERPs. I wouldn't consider the mention of NJ in your URL necessary at all, given this point. Because of this, I would consider northbrunswicklaundromat.com to be a better choice than any you have listed.

24 characters puts this on the long side, but it's certainly optimized and at least it isn't hyphenated.

I was tempted to suggest nbrunswicklaundromat.com to cut out some of the letters, but a search for that is bringing up references to NEW Brunswick.

At any rate, I think the mention of New Jersey is unnecessary. The strength of the optimization of your website is going to count most in terms of displaying strong geographic data for the bots and human users. Google should have no problem understanding where you are.

Hope this helps, and do read that article!

Miriam

[NInc81]

Thanks both Istvan and Miriam for the great input.

Miriam- you read my mind...I resolved the matter earlier today when I looked to see if there were any other north brunswick's in the U.S. and sure enough there is only one.....hence eliminating the need for NJ as you said.

Already purchased the domain northbrunswicklaundromat.com ...we came to the same conclusion. Awesome. Thanks again

[MiriamEllis]

I think you've made a smart choice, Nolan! Thanks for letting me give you my feedback and good luck with the Local SEO. It should be fun doing this for your brother. If I can be of any further assistance, please just let me know.

Miriam