choosing the right domain name

need help picking a name

[dan_popescu]

hi.i wanna register a domain name "callingsomething". i heard that the name of your domain is really important so it'd be a good idea to include a keyword in it. the keyword here would be calling. the q is: do the SE recognize the keyword "calling" in the domain name "callingsometing" or should i pick the name"calling-something"?
thanks

[tigger]

hi Dan

The "callingsometing" would be the domain to purchase we did have a discussion here recently about this but I can't find it

The keyword within the domain will certainly help you when optimising for that keyword/phrases

[Filipe]

I can't find the post either. I didn't really think the domain name mattered all that much to SEs. It factors in, probably (I haven't seen any real research on this), but I think it's definitely more important to target your users when choosing a domain name, not SEs.

I'd avoid using hyphens ("-") because I don't think they detract from important factors when choosing a domain name: Brand recognition and rememberability. It's easier to remember words than characters. When there's a company name, people remember the name of the company - not characters. Even though "Barnes & Noble" has their signature ampersand, their url is "barnesandnoble".

[Texas]

If your biz is strickly on the web (with optimization in mind), you would also do well to use a hyphen between 'keyword loaded domains'.

To see an example, search Google.com for "art prints" and hit "I'm feeling lucky." The site that comes up makes good use of such practice.

[Filipe]

I don't think any of us have hard data on this. You'd probably have better luck posting in the Domain Names board.