I am new to this so this question may seem a little silly but how big of an influence does you're domain name play in getting listed by search engines? My site is optimized by keywords but the web site address that would fit very well with this is not available. I am thinking of using a non related domain name....is this a bad thing? Weill it make it harder to get listed by the search engines?
Also Instead of being able to get a .com we are thinking of going with a .net. As the site wil not be a .com will this make it harder to get listed?
I would appreiate any information on this topic
Thank you!

Hi gcillind!

IMO it has very little effect on the placement. I normally work with real estate agents and they always seem to come up with the most interesting ideas for a domain name. But, despite their sometimes tacky choices for DN's with the basics of good SEO we have no problem getting placment in the big three.

The domain name has little effect on placement/rankings. It's been proven that keywords in the domain name have the same effect as keywords in the subdomain, directory, or filename.

That said, I believe that it's still good to get use a domain name that describes what your site is about (unless, of course, you choose to use your company name). If your keyword is in your domain name, then when people link to you they will most likely choose your keyword as the anchor text--which would in turn have an effect on rankings.

So the next question I have is does it matter if you have a .com or a .net? does that make a difference?

.net? - nyet

I have never seen evidence that any commercial extension provides a boost in the SERPs. That doesn't apply to .gov, .mil, and .edu - these can provide a boost.