Companies usually want to buy keyword rich domain names because they think it will give them an edge in the rankings. A lot of experienced SEOers will disagree – Jill Whalen for instance – and a lot of inexperienced SEOers will overemphasize it. The truth is this:

There is probably very little weight put on keyphrases in a domain name, but having a keyphrase in a domain makes it easier to get links to your site that have this keyphrase in the link text. This is because the keyword phrase looks like the title of your site. Having link text with a keyphrase in it helps get you ranked highly in Google for that keyphrase. For example if your domain name is www.long-keyphrase.com, it tells people that they should link to you with the text “long keyphrase.” To less experienced linkers, it will look like you aren’t trying to keyword spam when you ask them to link to you with “long keyphrase.” Experienced linkers will typically just link to your site with LongKeyphrase.com, which won’t help with search engine rankings. Some companies will go as far as changing their name in order to get keyword links.

Keyword Rich Domain – Overrated

If you’ve had a domain for a long period of time, it isn’t worth it to buy a new keyphrase domain and move your site to it. The history your old domain acquired is worth a lot more, especially because of
Google’s age delay. If you are just starting a website and are targeting a specific phrase, it may make sense to buy a keyword rich domain. However, it is by no means the only way you’ll get ranked highly, and you might be missing out on the value behind effective branding. A creative domain might catch better than a keyphrase domain and make your company seem more unique.

There’s no guarantee that keyword domains will continue to rank well for the specific phrase or keyword they target. And it still takes a lot of link building to get them to rank well for the term they target – number one rankings don’t happen automatically.