CustomerCentrix

How to pick a domain name or choose a permalink? I have generally leaned toward not thinking about it too much and just pick whatever comes out of a quick brainstorming session with my partner. When focusing on SEO from the start, there is some wisdom in trying to get decent keywords into the domain name (and the path that comes after it). This is a challenge when trying to keep to a relatively short and memorable domain. I have never liked the look of urls with dashes and underscores in them, and while underscores are frowned on for several reasons, the dash generally has a positive effect when used sparingly and correctly. Consider these names:

ComputerSoftwareProgramming.com
Computer-Software-Programming.com
www.ComputerSoftwareProgramming.com

While both are a bit long for my taste, I prefer the camel case (1st version) for aesthetics, probably because this is also similar to how I name programming variables and such. Search engines on the other hand (and smarter marketers) will prefer the 2nd because it isolates the keywords. The engines may give better ranking to the dash separated version when searching for those keywords. I say may rather than will because their algorithms change regularly, but historically this is true. The last version or any that includes www in front was pretty much standard until recently. It is unnecessary and serves no real purpose other than making the name longer, so I have taken to leaving it off for newer domains. This with the caveat that using the www in front still directs to the same site when a user chooses to do this. Or said another way, the www in front is optional and we leave it off of links and marketing materials. The last thing to remember here is that once you begin using a domain name (with or without the www), you should not change it unless absolutely necessary. There are occasionally reasons why you might need to such as trademark issues or a branding change, but making a change will hurt your site's visibility and therefore the marketing. That is the reason why this site will remain www.customercentrix.com rather than dropping the www.

More reading on this subject available:
  Google guy, Matt Cutts
  Dashy Domain Names
  Dey Alexander
  Implied by Design