Having the keyword in the domain is a factor I'd call "a small positive" for SEO. It can help, but not automatically, not as much as some people think, and not for the reasons some people think.

You can gain keyword-related advantages by choosing your directory and file names well, so don't limit your thinking to just keywords in the domain name.

Think carefully about what your goals are here. An SEO-obsessed domain name won't necessarily be a good name for building a brand and growing a business in the world at large.

ok,
and does this so called "small positive" for SEO include any kind of gTLD ?
in my case it's not a .com/org/net .. it's a less popular gTLD thought it's still exactly matched to my targeted keyword .

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Get a .com/org/net otherwise forget it. The .com/org/net/ccTLD will get all your branded traffic. So you might rank 1 place higher in SERPs but your lose repeat visitors.

I mean, wheres the keyword in
google
amazon
[insert well known online brand here]

I'd have
EasyBrand.com (mods: can't exemplify, sorry)

over
KeywordStuffed.biz

anyday!

[edited by: Shaddows at 3:25 pm (utc) on Feb. 12, 2009]

If the gTLD is the right one for your own country, or the country where your target customers are located, go for it.

However, if it's an obscure TLD that many of your customers wouldn't recognize, that will create some limitations of its own.

What are your goals for your business? The pro's and con's of domain and branding choices can vary a lot depending on what your broad goals are.

Sure, a ccTLD would be fine (exception: .tv), but an obscure gTLD is rubbish

IMHO, YMMV

i forgot to mention that my keyword is only a one word keyword, so let's say that if my keyword was "food", then how good will be "food.cctld" (not .tv), seo-wise?

If you're target is that coutry, it would be excellent. If not, then it will be a major hinderance when geo-targetting kicks in.

i see,
but you know - if that's a big country (say india,brazil) ccTLD, country-targetting is enough on most cases, wouldn't you say ? :)

"Example.cctld" would be okay SEO-wise if you did the right things with it. Don't expect it to be a free ticket to high traffic, though. You will have to do the right things to build its web presence, and lots of them.

How well would it work for non-SEO forms of promotion? The concern Shaddows raised about losing traffic to the .com/.net etc. is a very real one.

yeah, but i am not talking about other seo optimizations at the moment.
here's an example of what i mean:
let's say i own music.org.
if you google music it will yield "music.com" on first position .
let's say, for the sake of argument, that i will just borrow all their seo-related tags/ideas/content (e.g:i will also have body parts that contain the hottest music, newest music etc.., and i will also take time to seo the html tags(i hope you know which tags i mean without my elaborating on it)),
and so now i will get a music.org website, which is optimized according to music.com's principles ..
my question is - if i wait for a year or two(or even 3) - will i eventually become on the top search positions for "music"?

You will have to do the right things to build its web presence, and lots of them.

This is extremely important. I have a lot of trade widget example.cctld sites targetted at specific countries. They do not rank well in those countries SOLELY because of the keyword domain.

What is important to note is that done correctly you should rank well relatively quickly in the target country and over time, 12-24 months, the site would also rise in the natural Google.com SERPs to a relatively good position however do not expect even a very good example.cctld to oust a very good example.com...well, not over night anyway!

not talking about other seo optimizations at the moment

A seemingly-perfect domain name is not a magic bullet and will not achieve anything on its own.

If you want to get anywhere either SEO-wise or otherwise you need to be thinking about (and taking appropriate action about) a lot more factors than just the domain name.

which is optimized according to music.com's principles

If you want to get ahead of someone else, you have to do things BETTER than they are. Copycats seldom get very far or last very long.

If you want to get ahead of someone else, you have to do things BETTER than they are. Copycats seldom get very far or last very long.

I know that if i want to be ranked before music.com (it is 1st place) i have to be better than him,
but as you might guess - i'm quite fine with 2nd-10th places as well :)

from my internet experience - the first places on the most popular keywords (music,mp3 etc.) are the most commercail, ugly,not user-friendly and bad written websites, which makes it easier for people that also have a perfect to domain to compete with them .

The biggest boost you get (IMHO) from keyword domains is that links where there is no optimised anchor automatically contains your keyword.

There is plemty of discussion over in the Google search forums for people to rank on google.com for ccTLD sites, so I would bare that in mind.

Further, as others state, even as you are making your global life difficult, you are not giving a 'magical' boost to your local rankings either. You will need strong links from sites within your geo-targetted region or you will be mixing your signals and getting the worst of both worlds.

I would search [webmasterworld.com] for geo-targetting, or check out Google Hot Topics - FAQs [webmasterworld.com] for info on the subject before you commit.

there's some logic in what you say, shaddows, but here is my opinion:
i can make the website using the ccTLD i purchased,
and after i finish making it (should take about a week) i will just "let it be", meaning i will host it on the web and wait for a year or so, while keeping a close touch with google analytics ..