Does the web sites name matter?

[proprint1]

Does the name you choose for your web site matter when it comes to search engines? I have studied this question for a long time & answers I get are mixed. If you search Google for any product or topic, most for the SER's have the search term in their URL's & then there are Amazons, e-bays & Dells, who does not need to follow any such rules because of their size & name recognition?

[brainusa]

Of course domain name is too important in SEO. If the domain name is keyword centric then you will get more benefit from the search engines results. Dell, Amazon and e-bay does not need this because they have a strong branding.

[Dave]

In general I agree that a relevant domain name that contains an important keyword will give you an advantage. However, I think you should only go for this option if the domain name works well for humans too, i.e. it looks like a genuine name, it's not tacky or chilchéd, it's easy to remember, etc. In my opinion a human-friendly domain is more important than a SEO-friendly domain. In part that's because you need to win humans over to your website whatever you do, and if you win humans over, you win search engines over as well.

Our website has two keywords in its domain: media and college. These make up the tiniest fraction of visitors' search terms and it would make no real difference to us if our domain name was completely ignored by the search engines.

So in short, keywords in a domain can give you a bit of a boost when your site is young, but in the long run other factors will be far more important. Don't get yourself in a position where you become successful and then regret being stuck with a domain name you only ever used for search engines.

[YEAV]

if you are good enough to create quality backlinks then forgot about domain names.