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Domains can only include letters, numbers a nd in some cases, non-Latin script diacritics. Although you cannot register a domain with symbols, you are allowed to use hyphens between letters, numbers and keywords when registering a domain. Therefore there are many situations where you have the option of using or omitting hyphens. Your choice can have an impact on how the readability of your domain and how easily visitors are able to find your site, however. 

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Hyphens in Domains
When registering a new domain name, you can add hyphens to separate words and letters. Because domains cannot contain spaces, hyphens are the next-best alternative. They are usually the best way to separate keywords and make a domain more readable. For instance, you can read the domain "christinascars.net" as "Christina's cars" and "Christina scars." To avoid any confusion about Christina's temperament, you could add a hyphen before "cars" to create, "christinas-cars.net"

SEO Benefits of Hyphens
Hyphens provide a small benefit for search engine optimization. Search sites order websites in search results depending on their relevancy for a given keyword, and analyze a website's content to determine relevancy. This includes the keywords in the domain name, META description tags, headers and the main text. Search engine bots are unable to separate keywords placed together. They would read "maplesyrup" as one word, but "maple-syrup" as two. Thus "maple-syrup.com" would have a slight advantage over similar non-hyphenated domains in ranking for "maple syrup" searches, all other things equal.

Domain Availability
Hyphens make a difference when searching for available domains as well. In the U.S., States,website owners use hyphenated domains much less frequently than un-hyphenated names. If an un-hyphenated domain is already in use, the hyphenated version may be available. Hyphens greatly expand the range of domain options available to you.

Confusion of Hyphens
Domains with hyphens are relatively unpopular among American website owners because they are harder to remember and repeat to others. For instance, it is easy to remember the domain "Coloradosoupkitchens.org" and tell a friend to visit that site the next day. If you found "Colorado-soup-kitchens.org" online instead, you may forget about the hyphens and be unable to find the site again. It is also more complicated to tell a friend to visit "Colorado hyphen soup hyphen kitchens dot com." Some may also consider a hyphen-less name such as "maplesyrup.com" more aesthetically pleasing than "maple-syrup.com."