Currently a long neglected topic in online marketing in general and in search engine optimization in particular is being discussed: how is the hyphen used correctly or when we write separately or "coupled"?
Many texts on the internet are not necessarily a prime example for the correct use of the German language (I too make the odd mistake here in my blog). Especially popular: Separation of words that should actually be connected. Colleague Martin Stäbe has on Sprachschach.de the correct rules once summarized.
- Dash must: Combinations of English and German terms, e.g. Full-time job
- Hyphen can: for difficult to read compound words, e.g. online marketing
The basic discussion, however, is: should one bow to the "dictates" of the search engines and take advantage of the "better" findability of separately written words, or should one follow the rules of the German language (also called "Duden" in professional circles) and thus perhaps contribute a little bit to ensuring that in the future more search queries are made with correct spelling.
Google (and also Bing) delivers different results for separately written terms than for coupled ("online marketing" vs. "online marketing") - but is it really possible to take this into account? My opinion: it depends.
If you are targeting a specific keyword with a high search volume, it may well make sense from an economic point of view to simply go for the spelling with the higher search volume. On a private blog like this one, however, I would always try to use the correct spelling - and use a hyphen whenever it complies with the Duden rules.
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Save the spelling! And with it, the hyphen. Because SEO is not everything - especially since Google considers the hyphen only as a space anyway. Then you can also put it, I think. Here is my own contribution (which Martin Stäbe, according to his own statement, only wanted to top 😉 ): http://quinkertpr.blogspot.de/2014/05/der-bindestrich-das-unbekannte-wesen.html
Well, whether "full-time job" is really a coupling of English and German What is understood is debatable... 😉
True - full-time job may not be the best example. Duden recommends the spelling "full-time job" or equal "full-time job". But this also shows that dealing with hyphens and generally the correct spelling is not so easy.