how much affect dose a keyword domain have on googles serach ranking? for example if i had money.com and someone searched for that key, is it guaranteed that money.com will be in the top?
It would probably depend to some degree on how competitive the keyword is. Case in point: My first and last name are my domain name. I've scored #1 in Google, Yahoo, and MSN from the beginning for that. Which of course is irrelevant, because the keyword (my name) is totally noncompetitive. For a highly competitive keyword, being in your domain name will certainly give you a nice boost. But to #1? I suspect there is no guarantee there.
Ive used a footballers firstnamesurname.net and only really managed 2nd or 3rd place, i think first was the skysports website or FA site or something
Jim4767 right so i should at least expect a boost! which is always good. 2nd and 3rd well that's great! but how competitive was that keyword??
This is debatable. Often times the reason a keyword in the domain will rank high, is bc all the links you get are for that keyword. Ex. Your site is bluebutterflys.com. Most webmasters will link to you as Blue Butterflys. Hence you will rank for "blue butterflys". At the same time, i've seen sites rank in the top few based on domain only with no links in, but it usually doesn't last long, they tend to drop unless link building is done. My deduction: It helps when everything else is right, but on its own it is not the end solution.