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If your domain name is two words like examplesite.com, you may want to separate the words with a hyphen for readability: example-site.com. That said, use of hyphens also correlates highly with spammy behavior—and more than one hyphen should not be used in a domain name. For this reason, it's generally better to stick to domain names containing only one or two words.
The downside to sticking hyphens in your domain name is that it can be easily forgotten. If you tell someone your domain name verbally, you may sound funny saying something like “my site is daily dash deals dash today dot com.” Even if you provide a written domain name on fliers and other advertising, the hyphens could get overlooked. This will lead your potential customers to a dead end, or worse–it could lead them straight to the competitor’s website.
Another major problem with domain names that have hyphens is that these sites are more often associated with spam sites. For legitimate businesses, this is a serious roadblock and will lead your website to fall in search engine rankings fast. And as far as SEO goes, those great keywords hyphenated in your domain name will not count towards your SEO rankings.
Without a doubt, avoiding hyphens in your domain name is the way to go. Even if you cannot get the exact domain name you want for your hobby or business, finding a descriptive domain name without a hyphen will make it easy for your customers to find you and help prevent you from slipping in the search engine rankings.
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