If someone is looking for 'descriptive item' on any given search engine, a well designed site with the domain (example) 'descriptive-item.com' is probably going to have an excellent if not the best ranking.
What is the chance of getting a good, if not the best, ranking of an equally well designed site with the domain (example) 'item-descriptive.com' on the various search engines?
Do you think search engines discriminate based on order of keywords?
a-b-c-d-e-widgets.com
type names. To me they look spammy also, where the point is that they change from ok to spam is not clear, very subjective. Them we also move into what it spam, if they user finds what they are looking for, is that spam.
>>Do you think search engines discriminate based on order of keywords?
No. The order might help in links form external pages, as in the phrase that someone could use to find your site, but if you dont have that phrase on the page it wont help much anyway.
I can think of several 2 word keywords that are the most sought after in the market that I am in, and in this market the best ranked sites seem to be those 2 word keyword domains.
One of the keywords for example would be 'big widgets'. If you type in 'big widgets' on google then 'big-widgets.com' comes up usually in the top five. And, if you type in 'widgets big', 'big-widgets.com' usually comes up in the top five, also.
I know that 'big-widgets.com' is not optimized for 'widgets big' on the page, but 'big-widgets.com' still gets a good ranking for that reversed keyword.
Why wouldn't the same be true for a site such as 'widgets-big.com' getting a good ranking for the keywords 'big widgets'?
The lack of keyword optimization on 'big-widgets.com' for 'widgets big' doesn't seem to have any negative bearing on the sites ranking, why should there be a negative effect on 'widgets-big.com' for the keywords 'big widgets'?
Seems to me both sites 'big-widgets.com' and 'widgets-big.com' should have an equal shot at 'big widgets'.
Do you think search engines discriminate based on order of keywords?
And they do - but how much depends on the words. For example if you search for "tobacco pipe" the results will be quite different than if you search for "pipe tobacco" because each in combination has a separate meaning.
On the other hand if you search for "antique furniture" and "furniture antique" the results will be similar and in a different order because each in combination means practically the same thing.
So leaving aside your assertion that "Keywords in a domain name have an influence on success in search engine rankings" which has been discussed many times here - Then the answer to your question
What is the chance of getting a good, if not the best, ranking of an equally well designed site with the domain (example) 'item-descriptive.com' on the various search engines?is - It depends on the words.
