McMohan - 4:39 am on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Sometimes we see keyword-laden domains ranking highly and assume that it is because of the domain, but it could easily be due to other factors

Still, keyword domain remains a big influencer. My observation with the experience of having keyword domains as competitors as well as having own keyword domains -

1. Having the exact keyword as the domain name gives a good launching pad and brings down the threshold to rank by several notches, "for that exact keyword"
2. Domain with hyphens between words doesn't have the same effect.
3. Even the word order counts. Domain "CaliforniaHotels.tld" is most likely to rank for "California Hotels" not "Hotels California"
4. Keyword domain only makes sense if the keyword in question is big enough and if it is big enough, it is likely that that domain would have already been booked for all major tlds.