In my consulting practice I regularly work with lawyers, although I see the same issues in many businesses.  Law firms usually contain the name of the partners, i.e. Engulf, Devour, Cheatham & Howe.  A firm like this is likely to choose a URL that reads something like this:  www.edch-law.com.

In my view, a URL like edch-law.com is a poor choice.  Firstly, it is not something that most people will remember and given the many images and impressions foisted upon each of us every day, it is certainly better to choose an easy to remember name.   I have a bankruptcy domain name called "moneylawyer.com" – wouldn't you agree that moneylawyer is much easier to remember and spell than some random series of letters with a dash.

Secondly, I think that it makes sense to include a high traffic keyword phrase in your domain name.   For example, I use the domain name GeorgiaSocialSecurityDisabilityAttorney for one of my Social Security disability law sites and ChildSupportandSocialSecurityDisability for a narrowly focused Social Security disability blog.  It has been my experience that a URL with a keywork in the domain name will more quickly rank higher for that search term than a domain name with random letters.

What should you do if all of the "good" dot com domains are taken?  Here, you have a couple of choices.  You can register a dot net, a dot org or even a dot us.  These top level domains are well enough known that most people will recognize what they are.  Another option is to include dashes or numbers in the domain name, like I did with Atlanta-Bankruptcy-Attorney.com and 4SocialSecurityDisability.net.  Search engine spiders do not "see" dashes or numbers and from a purely search engine perspective, 4divorcelaw.com is the same as divorcelaw.com.

Finally, realize that if someone is searching for you using your name or firm's name in the search query, your site will most likely come up first anyway, especially if you feature your name prominently on the site or if you have a robust "about us" page.

The bottom line: a well researched and selected domain name can help you get to the top of the search engines for a desired keyword phrase faster than a random series of letters.