Having keywords in domain names plays the same role as a catalyst would do in a chemical reaction. In modern SEO, just the keywords in domain names is not all about the SEO, though. It merely means that if you have keywords in a domain name, the SEO process happens at much faster rate than under normal circumstances. You still need to strictly follow the other routine SEO practices in order to get the maximum out of the SEO process. If it were just the domain names that matter then having a successful SEO simply would have meant choosing the keyword rich domain name then spammers would have had a great time.

It is very tricky to design a site that both search engines and customers will like. In addition to this, choosing the right domain name for the website name is no exception.

Searchenginewatch.com, searchengineguide.com, seochat.com, seo-usa.org, seo-london.com, seo.com, are good search engine friendly domain name which all have keyword rich domain names with great branding value. These all are also ranked on the first page of Google for their very competitive keywords selection.

Having said keywords in domain names work as a catalyst in the SEO process, their benefits are indirect. Here is a brief description of some of the major in-direct benefits:

i. SEO friendly Inbound Links

Links play an important role in SEO and having anchor text containing your keywords is what everyone wants. Domain names with keywords tend to create SEO friendly inbound links as many people link to your website through your domain name.

ii. Better Click Through Rate (CTR)

Keywords in your domain name gets you a better Click Through Rate (CTR) as when people conduct a search, Google tends to highlight the words found in the domain names which match the search query. So these domain names tend to build up the confidence of the searcher that they are on the right track, and thus give your site a better CTR.

iii. Instant and Clear Definition of Business

Another benefit of having a keyword rich domain is that it defines your business clearly. However while choosing keywords for your domain name, don't use too long domain names as it only hurts your SEO visibility and brand name. To me, most will be three words with two hyphens like SEO-consultant-specialist.com is an seo friendly domain name with good branding value but online-seo-consultant-specialist-expert.com looks like a spam.

iv. Search Engine's Favor

Search engines assume that sites having keywords in a domain name are more relevant, so they generally will put them on the top of a search result. So if you use keywords in your domain names, and follow other SEO techniques you will definitely gain an edge over other domains in search results.

Who Should not use Keyword Rich Domain Names

The domain names of existing companies are better off when the company's name is used in the domain name than a keyword describing it. Like Nike gets better traffic with a domain name with Nike. om, and not BestSportsShoes.com. This is obviously because people know and refer to these shoes more with Nike, than best sports shoes and tend to use the brand name when conducting searches. Same would be the case with other existing top brand websites.

Hyphenated Vs. Underscored Domain Names

It is always better to register both the hyphenated and unhyphenated versions of domain names to safeguard brand. If only one version is registered, competitors may grab the other version and get it registered in their name. It is generally better to use hyphens instead of underscores for separating words in URLs. This is not only due to the fact that Google recommends it but also the underscores are hard to read as the URLs are mostly underlined.