How long should I make my domain name? Common answer from a usability expert is, the shorter the better. Make sure the site name is easy to remember and can easily be related to your services. Some SEO's want to take that one step further by putting keyword text in the domain name itself. To what extent should keyword rich text with hyphens be used. A thread was started on this topic at HighRankings but it has not yet been fully developed.
The rule of thumb when it comes to using keyword text in the domain name is to not go beyond two hyphens. For example a site selling blue small widgets does not want to have a domain name that looks like www.cheap-blue-small-widgets.com. Many would say not to even go with a domain name in the format of www.blue-small-widgets.com.
At the Search Engine Strategies conference, the question was brought up and some of the expert panelists said that this is something that search engine can pick up on very easily. If your whole page is focused on selling blue small widgets and your domain name has that name in it clearly to the extent as above, then this looks a tad "spammy".
The search engines (in the future) pick up on this and serve up a penalty. They currently do not, as far as I know but they can.
