Robert_Charlton - 7:42 am on Nov 18, 2002 (gmt 0)

I think I'd attribute a good part of domain name effect to inbound link text.

In addition to proximity for multiple keywords, word order can be a big factor.

>>Do you need to use dashes to demark the kw, or as long as it's in there? (joes-cars.com or even joescars.com).<<

Yes, you need the dash or some sort of a delimitor. "joescars" without the dash could be seen, eg, as "joes cars" or "joe scars." The "." between joescars and com is seen as a delimitor on just about all the major engines.