Does using keywords in the top level domain make any difference to SEO rankingsq

[Ast9858]

i am setting up a new company and I need to register a domain name, is there any advantage to using the full name of the company in the domain name? I know it used to be important but does it still make a difference? If possible I would like to just use say the first letter of each of the 3 words instead what will amount to 23 letters but of it makes a difference then 23 letters it will have to be.

Thanks

[T0BY]

Although it is clearly a good idea to have a keyword or keywords in your primary URL, the problem is that your keywords may change over time and you can't have ALL of your keywords in your URL.  IMHO it is probably more important to have a short domain name so that if you have a blog or page title containing a keyword it will show up in full.

[DennisSeymour]

IT does help to have the keywords in the domain but if it's too long, it's going to be harder to recall.

Stick with a domain name that people can recall and if possible, easy to spell as that helps a lot for local businesses.

My gut instinct tells me to stay away from 3 letter domains but I'd do a survey just to test it out with your target audience.

[EGOL]

It is best to have a domain that anybody who ever has business with you can type in your domain without thinking or guessing... at the same time you don't want to force them to type the Gettysburg Address.

RJRNabisco.com did what you are talking about, but that is an extremely well known company and the company name was created by a merger and they didn't want to divorce Nabisco and they probably didn't want the word "tobacco" stinking up their name.

Twenty-three letters is pretty long and would look like this one...  thisdomainistoodamnlong.com.

So, if it was my company, I would go with something like toolong.com damnlong.com if those were word combinations that people use to refer to my company currently.  Whatever, you want a domain that everybody will know instantly then register any variants that people might type in by mistake and redirect them to the homepage of your actual website.

I use to work at an organization where the IT staff thought that domains should be as short as possible, so they registered the name without any vowels because the exact name was owned by a plumber         Telling someone the domain on the telephone was a nightmare.  It was not unusual for the person listening to say huh?  what?  repeat that? because the domain was absolutely unexpected and meaningless like thsdmnstdmnlng.com