Exact match domains DOMINTATING the serps
-
For longer tail keywords with typical local monthly search volume of 50 or so, there are exact match domains that are just killing it. Take for instance "alabama registered agent", I'm showing www.alabamaregisteredagent.com in the first spot ahead of the state department, etc. This site has zero links in OSE (DA and PA 1) and is a very small site in general. Can anyone explain why this domain is doing so well?
-
Hi Mike,
If the businesses you're searching for are local in nature, then EMD one-boxes are a known, documented phenomenon currently troubling the SERPs. This is fallout from the Hummingbird update. Read more about this here:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/01/08/mining-for-google-hummingbird-guano-in-so-cal/
I'm positive that Google is aware of this unintended outcome of the update in which weak, spammy or even closed businesses are ranking in one-box fashion, but as to when Google will tweak the dial to fix this, we just don't know. Hang in there. Lots of people are writing about this, because it is creating such a blatantly poor user experience.
-
Anyone who is concerned about this should spend the money required to purchase an EMD. If you think that the EMD makes a difference in the SERPs this will be the easiest and fastest SEO that you will ever do. Just find the guy who owns it, pay him his price and write a decent page of content. DONE!
All of my websites are EMDs. They do have a tiny advantage in the SERPs if you publish decent content on them. I am willing to pay good money for an EMD when I decide to build a new site (which isn't very often because the cost of a good domain and the content for a good site is quite high).
Up until a couple years ago an EMD was a huge advantage in the SERPs. Then Google cranked back their impact upon SERPs. Today in light competition an EMD can rank you above thin competition with the effort of writing decent content for the topic - but at the same time they can be easily defeated by a person who is willing to work. In heavy competition the EMD is a very small advantage compared to the other work that must be done to win those SERPs.
In my opinion, the conversion rate on an EMD can be higher than on other sites. That is worth the price in my opinion. Also, owning the EMD gives me mental energy to work on the site. That makes all of the difference in competion. They guy with mental energy beats everyone who is slacking.
-
EMD is not by itself enough to cause Google to take action. The key is the quality of the content and value to the visitor. Typically Google is after EMD sites with thin or poor content, affiliate smothered etc.
-
Hi Mike,
I Agree with you. I am also seeing the same thing but don't know how long it will stay as it is.
In Past, Google killed the Exact match domains and now again favoring it.
Thanks
-
Hi Mike
I think this is unlikely just because they have an exact match domain.
The domain you have given as an example is nearly 5 years old so it is likely they have had their site working for them for some time. There are a decent number of pages on the site with information all based around the same subject and they have a registered address in Birmingham AL.
There's likely to be other factors at work too, but as I said, having an EMD won't be the main factor.
I hope that helps,
Peter
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Vanity URL vs domain URL
Hi guys, Our CEO is having an interview with a known broadcaster on radio. During the interview he will mention a specific URL www.example.com/marketingcampaign that we want track on Google Analytics, therefore behaving like a vanity URL redirecting to the actual URL www.example.com/resources/primary-keyword-2018. Would this work the same way a vanity URL in terms of tracking or not such as following guideline here ? I am asking because vanity URLs are supposed to be completely different domain name that gets purchased and in our case it is the same domain name just with a different URI. thanks guys!
Reporting & Analytics | | Taysir0 -
GA: How do I preserve custom dimension across domain and subdomain?
Using custom dimensions our site tracks logged-in vs not logged-in users on our shop site (shop.example.com). A user can only login on the shop.example.com. The problem is when the logged in user visits our the main domain (example.com), we lose the custom dimension and the user becomes anonymous. At this point, if the user goes back to shop.example.com, the logged-in custom dimension comes back. How do I preserve the logged-in user dimension across the main domain? Example of snippet:
Reporting & Analytics | | Evan340 -
Does subdomain (or sub sub domain) affect analytics data of root site?
We self-host our public website, but over time have also added subdomains onto it that are not public and are for internal or even client portals. I am seeking advice as to whether those subdomains affect the analytics data (self referrals, visits, bounces) of the public site that I am tasked with analyzing. I feel that it does skew the data but need to build a solid case to move the public website to a new domain, so as to leave the existing one in tact with all of its subs.
Reporting & Analytics | | MarketingGroup0 -
Title Tag Capitalization Impact on SERP Rankings and Click Through Rates
My company made a branding decision to use lowercase for all of our title tags. This, of course, means that our titles on SERPs are all lower case. Overwhelmingly, it seems that websites use title case. This makes me wonder if we're shooting ourselves in the foot. Does using lower case titles negatively impact our rankings and/or click through rates? Is there any data out there suggesting that title case has a better click through rate than lower case? Thanks for reading!
Reporting & Analytics | | Solid_Gold0 -
Alternative domains redirected with 301 to the main domain
Hi everyone I've got a website which gained a Panda penalty back in March 2012 which was because of the implementation of a range of spammy practices (keyword stuffing in titles, indexed category and tag pages, duplicate domains). I've fixed the titles and deindexed any pages that could be seen as thin or duplicate so I'm confident that any onsite Panda issues have been fixed. As mentioned above the client had also created over 40 alternative domains to the website and pointed them to their main website folders (hence duplicating the website and content 40 times over). These domains have now been redirected via 301 redirects to the main website to ensure that any links they have gained are captured. The reason for the redirection is that we initially took the domains down and saw a drop in traffic and this seemed to be the most likely reason. While Moz and Majestic are not showing any significant links to these domains (which is why they where originally taken down), past experience has told me that these tools don't always pick up all referring domains. Primary domain workingvoices.com 5 Example Alternative Domains presentationskillslondon.com workingvoiceslive.biz workingvoices.co.uk livingvoices.co.uk working-voices.net Question 1: At the same time we took down the alternative domains (and experienced the drop in traffic) we removed duplicate instances of Google Analytics code from the webpages. All the guidance that we could find stated that duplicate instances of code shouldn't affect your Analytics numbers, hence we assumed it was the taking down of the alternative domains, but maybe the guidance we found was wrong? Question 2: It is 3 months later and these alternative domains are still indexed by Google, and Panda hasn't run since October 2014 so we haven't experienced a recovery yet. Redirecting the domains will remove any issue of a Panda penalty, but now of course I am worried about Penguin - the last thing I want to do is trigger that can of worms! This whole saga has been pretty complicated and I think I need some fresh sets of eyes. What does everyone think? Could the initial drop have been due to the duplicate Analytics code being removed? Could the redirecting domains trigger Penguin? Should we take the alternative domains down and be done with them? Any other thoughts! Looking forward to hearing your opinions! Damon.
Reporting & Analytics | | Digitator0 -
What determines the page order of site:domain?
Whenever I use site:domain.com to check what's index, it's pretty much always in the same order. I gather from this, the order is not random. I'm also reasonably certainly it isn't related to any page strength signals or ranking results. So, does anyone know why the pages are displayed in the order they are? What information does the order of the pages tell me? Thanks, Ruben
Reporting & Analytics | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
If I am changing my domain for my website and want to keep using the same Google Analytics account to keep the data from the old domain. How should I proceed?
If I am changing my domain for my website and want to keep using the same Google Analytics account to keep the data from the old domain. How should I proceed? Do I have to start a new Google Analytics account for the new domain? If so how do I keep the old data? Or can I use the same GA account? Thank you.
Reporting & Analytics | | brianhughes1 -
Tracking on Analytics .ca domain When Redirect From GoDaddy Control Panel?
I bought all .ca, .net, .org, .info and http://www.pilatesboisfranc.com at GoDaddy. I'm using .com and all others are redirect to the .com from the GoDaddy control panel. Is it easy to track any of thems on Analytics? I just installed the tracking code and I selected in the ''What are you tracking'' option from the ''Advance'' tab, '' Multiple top-level domains
Reporting & Analytics | | BigBlaze205
Examples: www.pilatesboisfranc.uk
www.pilatesboisfranc.cn
www.pilatesboisfranc.fr If someone enter http://www.pilatesboisfranc.ca will it be track? I don't know anything about coding, I hope you can help because I would like to use the .ca doamine to track advertising on my car... Thank you, BigBlaze0