Brand Name Site or Keyword Name Site?

I currently run a website that I am thinking of changing the name of as it is too long and doesnt roll off the tongue very well.

Lets say my site was about Cheap Dog Food (it isnt of course, this is for example). My domain name would be CheapDogFood.com. Do you think it would be better to make it a shorter brand name and market my brand name instead. For example "HotDogs" (it sucks, I know, I did it off the top of my head) and HotDogs.com.

Most of my traffic comes from search engines and I believe the keyword based name helps somewhat, however I am trying to grow the site to be a wealth of information on its subject matter and be respected in its fields so this is where I think a brand name would be better.

The site is about 2 months old and well linked (even from some PR7-8s). Are the advantages of a brand name worth the trouble of changing everything?

Whats better if I want to become a respected source?

 

Very good topic.

Points:
Branding -
May cost more to get a brand name recognized.
May take more time to get a brand name recognized.
Can be rememberable, catchy, good slogan.
Easier to trademark, it's your brand.

Keyword -
Keywords can be great for brandable names too (Goodhost.com) been trying to get that name, but they want too much. - So I'm going for my own brand name as MrGoodhost.com.
Copycats - you have cheapdogfood, someone else has cheaperdogfood, or cheap dogfoods.
Seach friendly.

Should develop a list for this. Over time, branding is invaluable, but then again, so can keywords if they are short and memorable. Keywords recognize your niche.

 

That's a tough call. If you have that much weight on the site, it may be best to just stick with your current name. If you think you can build the site up with the new name, go ahead and change it put put a 301 redirect to the new site so you don't lose too much traffic.

I would always opt for the brand name but that's because I work in branding and design so I know the power of a strong identity. People who work in SEO will usually tell you to go for the key phrases. I agree with mrGoodHost. Key word sites are hard to protect so you will get knockoffs later on.

Think about how you want to grow the company. Then look at other companies that have achieved the level of success you want. How many of them use keyword sites? In the long run, I think Google will start seeing these sites as spam anyway. It's a tough call and I'm just rambling at this point. Good luck.