Domain Names and Scope

Hmmm, I'm no expert on SEO, but I think that before I did ANYTHING based on the advice you get in response to this, that you should find an SEO expert that you trust, and literally approach them, to be sure that you get a quality response first, and a solid foundation.

Any suggestions after that will be better sorted into usable, not usable based on the info you learned. These questions really need expert input, from sources you can trust to give you the most up to date, accurate info.

Good luck on your search for answers. Oh, another place you might try is Google, itself, they have a document about their algorithms, it's a long, technical read, but stuff we need to know. I can't remember the name of it, hopefully someone here can tell you the exact doc you need.

Sorry if this wasn't terribly helpful. I just wanted to add that bit about getting an expert to lay the foundation, and then building on that knowledge from there.

Whooo, long winded reply not to have given a real answer, huh?
Susan Denham

Hyphens are a last resort. Piggy backing the popularity of a trademarked site could also get you into trouble.

Think about benefits to your choices.

If you are pushing lawn furniture

what are the benefits?

weatherproof
comfortable

become names like

weatherprooflawnfurniture.com
comfortablepatiofurniture.com

etc. et all..... actually easier than you would think.

So list the keywords you want
then list the benefits

then start matching them up.

There are still plenty of opportunities for keyword rich domain names.

You want to include the keywords your prospective customers are searching for. How do you find what they are actually searching for? One great place to start your keywords search is Google's keyword suggestion tool. Just google it (I can't post links yet.) Also check out Wordtracker.

Type in what you think prospects may be searching and let these tools suggest other keywords.

Dashes are a last resort IF you'll be telling people your domain name. It's a pain to say "dash". Dashes are fine if you are doing online marketing only.

Having pages on your website that have keywords as their names helps get you in more organic search results. Your HDTV site can have pages named plasma.html for example.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies!

You guys collectively kind of answered my first question and helped clarify what I am asking. Is it better, from an seo standpoint, to add a benefit to the domain keyword or is better to use and seo friendly word or variant of that word. For example: Keyword lawn furniture, comfortablelawnfurniture or lawnfurniture-blog/lawnfurniture-blogging