Google On Hyphens In Domain Names via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about why people don’t use hyphens with domains and if there was something to be concerned about that they were missing.

Domain Names With Hyphens For SEO

I’ve been working online for 25 years and I remember when using hyphens in domains was something that affiliates did for SEO when Google was still influenced by keywords in the domain, URL, and basically keywords anywhere on the webpage. It wasn’t something that everyone did, it was mainly something that was popular with some affiliate marketers.

Another reason for choosing domain names with keywords in them was that site visitors tended to convert at a higher rate because the keywords essentially prequalified the site visitor. I know from experience how useful two-keyword domains (and one word domain names) are for conversions, as long as they didn’t have hyphens in them.

A consideration that caused hyphenated domain names to fall out of favor is that they have an untrustworthy appearance and that can work against conversion rates because trustworthiness is an important factor for conversions.

Lastly, hyphenated domain names look tacky. Why go with tacky when a brandable domain is easier for building trust and conversions?

Domain Name Question Asked On Reddit

This is the question asked on Reddit:

“Why don’t people use a lot of domains with hyphens? Is there something concerning about it? I understand when you tell it out loud people make miss hyphen in search.”

And this is Mueller’s response:

“It used to be that domain names with a lot of hyphens were considered (by users? or by SEOs assuming users would? it’s been a while) to be less serious – since they could imply that you weren’t able to get the domain name with fewer hyphens. Nowadays there are a lot of top-level-domains so it’s less of a thing.

My main recommendation is to pick something for the long run (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for), and not to be overly keyword focused (because life is too short to box yourself into a corner – make good things, course-correct over time, don’t let a domain-name limit what you do online). The web is full of awkward, keyword-focused short-lived low-effort takes made for SEO — make something truly awesome that people will ask for by name. If that takes a hyphen in the name – go for it.”

Pick A Domain Name That Can Grow

Mueller is right about picking a domain name that won’t lock your site into one topic. When a site grows in popularity the natural growth path is to expand the range of topics the site coves. But that’s hard to do when the domain is locked into one rigid keyword phrase. That’s one of the downsides of picking a “Best + keyword + reviews” domain, too. Those domains can’t grow bigger and look tacky, too.

That’s why I’ve always recommended brandable domains that are memorable and encourage trust in some way.

Read the post on Reddit:

Are domains with hyphens bad?

Read Mueller’s response here.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Benny Marty

Google Is Still Gen Z’s Top Search Engine, Study Shows via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A recent report shows that while Gen Z increasingly turns to social media platforms for information searches, Google remains the primary starting point for a significant portion of this age group.

The data published by Axios shows that 46% of internet users aged 18-24 begin their online queries on Google, compared to 58% of those aged 25-39.

This suggests a shift in search habits between Gen Z and millennials, who came of age during Google’s rise to dominance.

However, the numbers also indicate that the move away from traditional search engines may not be as dramatic as some have suggested.

Only 21% of Gen Z users start their searches on TikTok, while 5% begin on YouTube.

The Current Landscape Of Internet Searches

Despite the perceived competition from social media platforms, Google remains the leader in the search engine market.

MaryLeigh Bliss, chief content officer for YPulse, tells Axios:

“Google is still top overall for initial searches, followed by TikTok and YouTube.”

This reinforces the idea that traditional search engines remain at the core of information gathering while usage patterns change.

Challenges & Adaptations

Google has taken steps to adapt to changing user preferences, expanding its AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) tool and highlighting results from forum websites like Reddit.

The company reports that 18-—to 24-year-olds have given the highest satisfaction scores for its AI search results.

Despite these efforts, some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of Google’s search results.

A recent study by researchers in Germany found that low-quality results are often well-optimized to appear high in Google’s search rankings, particularly for product searches.

Looking Forward

Web usage habits are constantly shifting. Compared to older generations, Gen Z’s way of looking for information online will likely continue to evolve.

While social media is becoming a bigger part of how people search, traditional search engines like Google still dominate.

The tug-of-war between emerging and traditional platforms will shape how younger generations seek information on the web.

Featured Image: DavideAngelini/Shutterstock

Are Websites Getting Faster? New Data Reveals Mixed Results via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Website loading times are gradually improving, but a new study shows significant variance in performance across sites and geographic regions.

The study from web monitoring company DebugBear examined data from Google’s Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), which collects real-world metrics across millions of websites.

“The average website takes 1.3 seconds to load the main page content for an average visit,” the report stated, using Google’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric to measure when the main content element becomes visible.

While that median LCP time of 1.3 seconds represents a reasonably fast experience, the data shows a wide range of loading performances:

• On 25% of mobile websites, visitors have to wait over 2.1 seconds for the main content to appear
• For the slowest 1% of websites, even an average page load takes more than 5.7 seconds on mobile
• The slowest 10% of websites make 10% of users wait over 5 seconds for the LCP on mobile
• Almost 1% of mobile page loads take nearly 20 seconds before the main content shows up

“Even on a fast website, some percentage of page views will be slow,” the study reads.

Continue reading for a deeper dive into the study to understand how your website speed compares to others.

Site Speed Divergences

The data reveals divergences in speeds between different user experiences, devices, and geographic locations:

• Desktop sites (1.1-second median LCP) load faster than mobile (1.4 seconds)
• While 25% of mobile page loads hit LCP in under 1 second, 10% take over 4 seconds
• In the Central African Republic, a typical mobile LCP is 9.2 seconds (75th percentile)
• Sweden, Slovenia, Japan, and South Korea all had 75th percentile mobile LCPs under 1.7 seconds

“Differences in network connections and device CPU speed mean that visitors in different countries experience the web differently,” the report noted.

The study also found that more popular sites are faster, with the median LCP on the top 1000 sites being 1.1 seconds compared to 1.4 seconds for the top 10 million sites.

Steady Improvement Continues

DebugBear’s analysis shows that websites have steadily become faster across device types over the past few years despite the variances.

A similar improvement was seen for other loading metrics, like First Contentful Paint.

“While changes to the LCP definition may have impacted the data, the First Contentful Paint metric – which is more stable and well-defined – has also improved,” the report stated.

The gains could be attributed to faster devices and networks, better website optimization, and improvements in the Chrome browser.

The study’s key finding was that “Page speed has consistently improved.” However, it also highlighted the wide range of experiences in 2024.

As DebugBear summarized, “A typical visit to a typical website is fast, but you likely visit many websites each day, some slow and some fast.”

Why SEJ Cares

This study provides an annual check-in to see how the web is progressing in terms of loading performance.

In recent years, Google has been emphasizing page load times and its Core Web Vitals metrics to measure and encourage better user experiences.

Speed also plays a role in search rankings. However, its precise weight as a ranking signal is debated.

How This Can Help You

SEO professionals can use studies like this to advocate for prioritizing page speed across an organization.

This report highlights that even high-performing sites likely have a segment of visitors hitting a subpar speed.

Refer to the study as a benchmark for how your site compares to others. If you’re unsure where to start, look at LCP times in the Chrome User Experience Report.

If a segment is well above the 2.1-second threshold for mobile, as highlighted in this study, it may be worth prioritizing front-end optimization efforts.

Segment your page speed data by country for sites with an international audience. Identifying geographic weak spots can inform performance budgeting and CDN strategies.

Remember that you can’t do it all alone. Performance optimization is a collaborative effort between SEOs and developers.

Featured Image: jamesteohart/Shutterstock

Google Explains Index Selection During A Core Update via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about canonicalization, indexing and core algorithm updates that gives a clearer picture of how the different systems work together but independently.

A search marketer named David Minchala asked if Google’s canonicalization processes still worked but in a slower manner during a core algorithm update. The answer to that question is interesting because it offers a way to better understand how these backend processes function.

David’s question used the word “posit” which means to put an idea or statement forward for consideration as a possible fact.

This is the question:

“Posit: during core algo updates (and maybe any big update?), indexing services like canonicalization (i.e., selecting the URL to index and merging all signals from other known duplicate URLs) still work but are slower. Maybe much slower.

Any chance for a comment, Gary Illyes or John Mueller ? Could also be a good topic for Search Off the Record: what are the technical demands on Google to roll out core updates and how could that affect “normal” services like crawling and indexing.”

Google’s Gary Illyes responded by saying that the posited statement is incorrect, using an analogy to explain how the two things function. Gary specifically mentions the index selection process (where Google chooses what goes into the index) and canonicalization (choosing which URL represents the webpage when there are duplicates).

He explained:

“the posit is incorrect. those systems are independent from the “core updates”.

think of core updates as playing with cooking ingredients: you change how much salt or msg you put in your stir fry and you can radically change the result.

in this context index selection and canonicalization is more about what’s happening in the salt mines or the msg factories; not much to do with the cooking just yet.”

Google Indexing Engine

So in other words, what happens in a core update happens independently from the index selection and  canonicalization processes. That way of looking at it, as Gary Illyes suggested, aligns with many of Google’s patents that describe how search systems work. When talking about a search engine, patents describe them as a collection of engines, using the phrase “indexing engine” when talking about indexing.

For example, in one patent illustration there’s an indexing engine, a ranking engine, and a score modification engine. Data goes in and out of each engine where it gets processed according to its function.

Screenshot From A Google Patent

Flowchart depicting a search system. It includes a query input, search results output, components like an index database, indexing engine, ranking engine, and a score modification database.

The above screenshot makes it easier to understand what a search engine is and how the different parts work together and separately as well.

Read the LinkedIn discussion here.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Roman Samborskyi