It there any connection between SEO and the domain name?

yes it is ... if you want your web more quickly getting top rank in search engine, you must have same domain name with your keyword target or close to it ... this is common in seo ..

I would definitely say there is more SEO power in a domain that is named for the niche you are going for. Example: I have a garden blog that I started over a year ago but originally it was a make money online site I didn't have time for. It is doing well and took about 6 months to start earning. It started going so well that I decided to start another gardening site. The second gardening site domain I purchased with a good keyword phrase and in three months I was already where my first site took a year to get. Now I use the same content sources for both blogs and at time I even share the same post on both blogs. I just reword it a little so it's unique. At this rate my new site will out shine the old one big time and the only thing different is the domain name. The domain that is keywords is doing better than the one that isn't. So I say if you are going to get a domain be sure you get one that has your keyword phrase in it. I even use hypens between words to get the phrase I want. I have even used two hypens for a couple, like gardening--tips.com, that type of thing but with maybe three words minimum.