Domain name matters?

[Vis3R]

Dunno if this is the right forum to post on... but i have a question about search engines. For ranking high there's alot of factors. But does the domain name matter too? and if it does, does it help alot to have a keyword (keyword about your website, like if i'd sell cars, to make my domain cars.com or something) in your domain?

[webdoctor]

But does the domain name matter too?

The domain name seems to matter less in Google than MSN. I've got a <keyword>.org domain which ranks #1 in MSN for a search on 'keyword'. The site has a couple of dozen pages and very few incoming links - so I was surprised to see MSN listing it at #1.

Google hasn't fallen for this :-)

[Animated]

my opinion is the opposite i think a domain name might not be a very important fact for ranking but it plays a role in it. like the target keyword is small widgets and a site widgets.com or small-widgets.com the second one would have a chance to rank higher if they both are optimized about the same level

[Mistra]

I think it matters. I have a few domains that I never made use of and registered for more than 4 months. It has three keywords. No link from other site whatsoever. No content except CMS for one site and index page, contact info, etc and a few linking to other sites for the other sites. Page ranking from 1 to 2. Incredible. I attribute it to the keywords in the domain.

[webdoctor]

Page ranking from 1 to 2.

In which search engine(s)?

Is this a competitive keyphrase?

Do you get any traffic?

[Animated]

Good example why the domain name can be important:
Lets say you use your main keyword 'red widgets' in your domain name red-widgets.com and some want to link to your website and we know how important the link text is for a good link:) so when they link to you "a href redwidgets.com" through your domain url then your main keyword is in the url too and it makes the link be even better.