From the article here is the relevant conversation. The general theme - yes keyword matches makes a difference for Yahoo regardless of whether it is the domain itself or merely part of the domain URL. More controversial for Google how exactly it accounts for it.
Keyword Use in Domain Name. Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com
3
Moderate Importance
1.2 Average Agreement
Jonah SteinIf your nicesly aged, non-hyphenated domain name contains your primary keyword, your 25% of the way to the top...10.
Scottie ClaiborneUsing a keyword in the domain name is only helpful if you separate the words with hyphens. General speculation is that too many hyphens might trigger a trust issue with the domain, so more than one or two hyphens is not recommended. A good brand name is always better than a keyword-filled domain.
Aaron WallIf the domain name is an exact match I believe it is strongly weighted because it might be a sign of a navigational query. Plus having an exact match domain means their were either early to their topic (and thus perhaps a topical leader), or they may have paid a domainer nosebleed prices for the domain.
Mike McDonaldI don't see how having a domain consisting of (or containing) one of your primary keywords could be a bad thing. One of the precious few consensus opinions in SEO is the importance of link text. That said, I don't think there is much (if any) value if the keyword is one of 50 hyphenated keywords stuck in front of a .net.
Show the rest of the comments
Barry SchwartzBut the key is that people will link to you by your domain name. So if you sell Blue Widgets and your domain is
www.bluewidgets.com, people are more likely to link to you as "Blue Widgets" than if you had the name rustybrick.com.
EGOLThat domain name will be used for a lot of your backlinks. Having your KW as your biz name will get you great anchor text links. Not using a domain with your KW will cost you a lot of relevant anchor text. Outside of the algo here is an example why you should buy the KW.com for your turf if you can get your hands on it. Makes you an authority even if undeserved - how valuable is that when you are asking for a link? It makes you THE MAN for that turf - how valuable is that when a customer is on your site. And can provide enormous psychological energy and you should never underrate that! Also looks great in the SERPs and might get you a few extra clicks.
Andy HagansThis is only of importance when the domain name is an exact match for the keyword phrase; i.e., it's very easy to rank keywordphrase.com or keywordphrase.org for [keyword phrase], however it won't necessarily give keywordphrase.com a bonus for [keyword phrase + modifier]
Eric WardOnce upon a time, maybe, and for certain types of content maybe still. It depends on the content, the source, and the trust earned previously.
Eric EngeThe influence of this one is microscopic. Main value is to help the use understand what your site is about.
Neil PatelThis doesn't prove that it is important, but if you do a search on Google you will notice domains with keywords bolded.
Russ JonesNot much weight except in nascent, untapped niches. Does play a good role in CTR from the SERP, though. (keyword highlighting in the title, snippet, and url are great boosts) It can have value when the keyword is a copyrighted term, however. (ie: the only domain with the keyword in it is yours)
Thomas BindlImportance is mainly due to the keyword in links when people use the domain name as anchor text.
Michael GrayHaving an exact match for a domain name and keyword is important. Having a partial match isn't.
http://www.bluewidgets.com - good
http://www.cheapbluewidgets.com - bad
Ben PfeifferMakes a hell of a website to have your target keywords in the domain. Acts as an overall contributor to rankings by means of other rankings factors. Keywords in domain are used extensively in linking, titles, urls, etc..
GuillaumeBeing a fairly new SEO'er, I'd say that from all the stories I've heard compared to my actual experimentations, I'd say this has little value if you try to do white-hat, but could be more effective with massive link campaign / spamming (while getting you flagged!)
Lucas Ng (aka shor)Not from Google itself, but you will get some pages linking to you using your domain's keywords, so there is that benefit.
Marcus TandlerThe only advantage of a keyword in a domain name is, that when you get linked at just with your URL, you have the keyword in the anchortext.
Jill WhalenMuch less weight than many people believe, it's more of an indirect weighting due to the URL sometimes being used as the anchor text. Definitely not the key to high rankings as some seem to think.
Ani KortikarAdvantage is having natural links reflect positively for keyword rankings, but it is becoming more difficult to get right keywords.
Natasha RobinsonSeems to be more important in Yahoo however guess this should be Google focused, no?
Chris BoggsCoupled with use in the page Title and on-page content, this is a factor. Having the word in the URL alone will likely not help without some support.
CavemanNot very important in terms of algo weighting. Factor in backlink anchor text and SERP click-through's, etc., and it is clearly important. I would probably not launch a new brand today without owning the brand name as a domain.
Todd MalicoatKeywords in domains has come full circle to play an increased role in rankings. My speculative side says that it's to counteract the problems caused by increased trust filters to assist sites in ranking for their brand names. The consequence is that exact match keyword domains do exceptionally well assuming they have no dashes in them.
Rae HoffmanI think this also depends on the engine. You'll see a lot more benefit from a domain using keywords in MSN than you will in Google.
Roger Montti aka martinibusterI belive there is some advantage in having the non-hyphenated version of the domain, especially in conjunction with trust factors such as age, quality of links, and other factors. That said, a look at the SERPs makes it abundantly clear there are far more importanct factors at play. So don't expect a good domain to be a shortcut. It's not. You still have to do the grunt work.
Keyword Use in Page URL. Including target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase
2.8
Moderate Importance
1 Average Agreement
Barry SchwartzHaving them bolded in the search results are worth a lot in my opinion.
Aaron WallNot weighted anywhere near as much as an exact match domain name, but helps improve CTR (and thus relevancy if CTR factors into relevancy scores) and some people will link to pages using the URL as anchor text.
Ben PfeifferWorks very well in Yahoo. Great for user navigation and still worth while to do as a basic SEO methodology. Use hyphens.
Linear Mode
