The Hyphen-Is-The-Star

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A little dash is the star in domain names. More than half of all domains with the German ending .de contain the special character at least once.

Many of the 17 million .de domains combine more than one word in their name string before the .de. A delicatessen or sports club adds a place to their name to define their local market or to distinguish themselves from other clubs. And if it comes to promotions, people often register the complete slogan as a .de domain. In such combinations, the hyphen really is in high demand.

Structure Building: The Hyphen as a Useful Reading Aid

Easy-write-and-read names is what the user wants: So what to prefer, agooddomainname.de or rather a-good-domain-name.de? Better legibility definitely increases attention. So don’t hesitate, go for the little reading aid when you choose the name of your domain! With a maximum length of 63 characters, domains under .de offer abundant space for creativity – and the little special character provides structure.

Statistics: The Hyphen in .de Domains in Percent

9 million and thus roughly 53 percent of all .de domains contain at least one hyphen. This results in an average of 0.6 hyphens for each .de domain. 43 percent of the domain names have one, about eight percent figure two and just over one percent (220,000) come up with at least three hyphens. Top of the list is a .de domain with 61 hyphens – a clear statement in favour of the little special character. But there certainly is room for even more creativity. (Data as of 30 June 2021)

For more facts and figures on .de go to our statistics section.