Domain names and SEO

Hi all, been awhile since I've been here. Nice changes Darry.
I have started a new business as an associate of Pre-Paid Legal and my dilemma is that corporate is very strict on web sites. They will not allow you to use domain names related to legal terms such as Justice for all, citizen advocate, ect. They have shot down all my domain names except for my name SusanEppsWard.com My question is if my page is optimized for all my target keywords will I still rank okay in google in spite of my domain name? Also since this is just a one-page site creating links to my internal pages with the company can I or should I name the page a keyword or do I have to call it Index.htm or home.htm? I always was told that you had to have an anchor page such as index. Is that true. And just FYI for those who will call that a doorway page I guess in a way it is however it is loaded with info and all that corporate will allow. Input please oh mighty ones!:-)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure URL's are no longer important to Google. The importance of URL's seems to be way down there with META keyword tags. Therefore, in my opinion, using keywords in your URL is not critical. If Google DOES still use URL's in its ranking algorithm, it's pretty dang low as far as how much weight it carries.

I'm not sure I'm clear on what you mean by a "one-page site creating links to my internal pages." Unless I'm misunderstanding, this sounds like a normal everyday Index page to me. Doorway page? Aren't all Index pages "doorway" pages in a sense? As long as it's a well-designed page that provides good info and intuitive/useful navigation to the rest of the site, it sounds totally fine to me. Just don't set it up to automatically redirect visitors to another URL. THEN you're flirting with disaster.

As far as using keywords in the naming of your individual .html files, well, I'll have to leave that to the more experienced SEO's to answer. I always name my Index pages "index.html"... because I think you HAVE to. Otherwise, when someone types in "www.yourdomain.com" they won't land on your site... they'll get an error. However, I always name my other pages anything that helps me identify them... like "../products.html." Sometimes those names include keywords, sometimes they don't. But, I don't make a conscious effort to use keywords in order to boost rankings. I'm not sure if it really helps rankings at all.

By far, I think the TITLE tag is the most important whith regards to keyword placement, with the body text of the page coming next... including the use of keywords in hyperlinked text and whatnot.

Thanks ,
That's basically what I thought. I'm sorry for the confusion on the doorway page. What I meant is that this will be a one page website. The links on the page will go to my already exsisting web site on the corporate server PrePaidLegal.com however it is click on links not redirects.
Susan

Well, I'm going to be modest and say wait a bit and see if anyone else comments before you make a decision.

As far as your one-page site, well, there's a bit of debate about what constitutes a "bad" doorway page that could get you penalized. As you describe it, it sounds okay to me. I see one-page web sites all the time, though I've never personally created or tried to optimize a one-pager.

Also, I'm unsure of how well a one-page site would do rank-wise, regardless of your SEO efforts. Again, let's wait and let some of the more experienced SEO's comment. I'm a little curious myself.

Domain name is almost in the Gray area of the ranking World. I think it was Danny Sullivan who said that it might-might-might help you in your rankings, but its kind of mythrial in nature and cant be proven one way or the other....