If you type in "Houston wills" in Google, houstonwills.com comes up first. However, if you look at the site, the entire thing is in flash, so Google isn't even registering any of the content. Furthermore, as far as I can tell, this site's backlinks are almost non existent. The page rank is only 2. There's no XML site map. Plus, the site has only been online since Feb 2006. It seems to me that the only thing this site has going for it SEO wise is that "Houston wills" is in the domain name. Apparently this factor alone is causing a #1 ranking?
No, it is NOT the domain name - that isn't worth much at all. It is more than likely the title tag. Google gives a ton of weight to keywords in title tag. Even if the backlinks aren't strong, very often relevant keywords in the title tag will get a site to the top. Have seen this so many times. Speaking of keywords in domain names, Yahoo and MSN tend to give more weight to those keywords. As far as Google goes, keywords in anchor texts of quality backlinks and keywords in title tags are what truly matters.
I also see this HERE THE SITES LANDING PAGE IS AN IMAGE AND THEY HAVE NO BACKLINKS META TAGES/TITLES, KEYWORD RICH CONTENT - NOTHING!!
+1 for title. It's an exact match, whereas the others I saw stuffed too many other words in the title.
domain has got weightage.. and gets optimized faster.. if we put in our efforts it gives real good results
you could destroy that site in SERPS if needed. You just need to allocate money or a lot of your time to do it and have relevant content. No probs.