Many of my friends tend to give too much importance to Keyword rich domain names and we had a lot of debate on this issue. I always consider brand as a priority over keyword rich domains, where as I don’t mind using keyword or key phrases in page url’s. The question is, if they must have hyphens or non hyphenated keywords in URL’s?

Someone quoted me that your URL [seo-contest-2008] sucks. I never discount use of non hyphenated domains or URL’s but one or two hyphens in domain name is quite safe. Trying something different is not a crime. After all I am competing with a brand rather than a keyword filled domain.

I do believe that if we need to use a keyword/ keyphrase in URL or domain, it should be exact match to any of keyword or key phrase. This gives additional 30% weight and work as an extra ranking factor in short term.

But the time is changed, now the sites which gain authority relevant to keyword or key phrase rank well in long run. There are several ranking factors which helps to rank better than a keyword rich domain. One can not prove his view point without running a proper test.

This Seocontest2008 we see the keyword rich domains rules the contest, this isn’t comes surprise to me. Since the domain name [seocontest2008.TLD's] is an exact match to keyword [seocontest2008] it is surely weighted over hyphenated domain [seo-contest-2008] or URL strings [domain.tld's/seo-contest-2008] .

I am well aware of the fact that this contest is for those who have ability to rank well in short term [Keyword rich domains] and I am starting with a domain which is definitely a not a positive ranking factor. It is more near to key phrase ’seo contest 2008′ rather than contest keyword ’seocontest2008′.

I am also aware of the fact that my URL is not an exact keyword match and this is not going to help me any way, it may help me in ranking with key phrase “seo contest 2008″ compare to keyword “seocontest2008″.

Still I am not going to change the domain or URL any way. I dont mind trying to fight with this. To me ranking with a good brand name is more satisfactory compare to ranking with a keyword rich domain.

Here are my gains in 15 days:

- I am breaking into top 50 in Google international, 51 in Google UK and 34 in Google Canada.
- I am ranking 7nth spot in Live (MSN) and
- gained 9th spot in Yahoo.

This is quite satisfactory for a dead domain with negative ranking factors and still ranking well with keyword Seocontest2008. The traffic to site is increasing and I am satisfied with the performance.