Opinions Wanted - hyphenate or not to hyphenate

[Theo1313]

Hello, everyone!

I have a question that I would love some opinions on. As always I search the forum and could not find anything to help. Okay, so I work for an HVAC company and I am creating a new page for "ductless mini-split cooling and heating systems". The question is, do you all think I should use a hyphen or not for "mini-split"?

Mini-split
Mini split

I know the proper way is with a hyphen but I also see that Google gives slightly different results. So I wanted to get everyone's thoughts so I can make a better judgment call!

I had the thought to mix it up on the page -- use it on some instance and not on others. But I am unsure that would be a good idea due to consistency.

Thanks!

 

[bruce@brucejone]

I would use it without the hyphen due to increased search volume that way comparing the two version in Google Trends.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&geo=US&q=mini-split,mini%20split

 

[Theo1313]

I would use it without the hyphen due to increased search volume that way comparing the two version in Google Trends.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&geo=US&q=mini-split,mini%20split

Thanks for the reply. Good data!

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@Theo1313 - I was surprised to read in your original post that searching with/without a hyphen produced a different result! I thought Google was "smart" enough to recognize those as the same thing. So I tested.

I got the same 3-pack and organic results for either spelling. The only thing that changed was the ads at the top of the page and that has nothing to do with how Google "reads" those two spellings. Different ads just indicate that the advertisers used different match types + keywords in their ad campaigns.

So, I would argue that your best bet is to pick one (perhaps the one with fewer ads at the top of the SERPs?) and stick with it for consistency. If you keep changing the spelling throughout your copy, it will look to readers as though you're not sure which is correct!