Exact match domain names
-
Hello, Someone approached a client of mine to sell a exact match domain name for a very competitive and high converting keyword. Would this be of any use and what are the best tactics to employ if it is purchased? I was of the opinion that the 'power' of exact match domain names are dying fast but would be interested to hear what people with experience in this think and what they have done with them (i.e. set-up a website on that domain or re-directed it)? Thanks, Rikki
-
Thanks for your help all. Decided not to buy the domain and keep going with things as they are!
-
I find it infuriating that spammers are still able to get their hands on exact match domain names
I've bought a few of these domains and had to pay a freeking fortune to get them. The fact is, however, I decided that I wanted them in 2005, 2008, 2011 and the people who I bought them from had owned them for a long time collecting ad revenue from the type-in traffic. Their price was waaay waaay more then the appraisal but if you want the domain and know how to use it you can make a freeking fortune back.
Should google give them a ranking advantage? I think the answer is yes, a small advantage and anyone who wants that advantage can obtain it simply by paying the price to get them. If you are willing to pay or was smart enough to register the domain early then that advantage is your reward.
-
I find it infuriating that spammers are still able to get their hands on exact match domain names and leave the actual brand sites who exist within the niche looking for business rather than click throughs suffer in the SERPs! Will Google eventually phase this out?
-
They still have value, you can usually get them to rank quite easly, but if they are spamming like THB suggests i would not bother.
But are they cheap? if so, you may be able to resell them. I have a few that i am sitting on till i get the right offer.
-
My thoughts exactly (and other great points by other comments here).
There are many factors that go into this issue, and of course, I'd love to have say, houses.com or realestate.com for a website that was offering real estate for sale. But that doesn't mean that I should create some long-winded, keyword-stuffed domain name (real-estate-and-homes-houses-for-sale.com) as that will not do anything for my cause.
I'm sure, as everybody has pointed out, that there is still some consideration into the domain match for the genre in question; however, domain name are basically impossible to come by nowadays for any popular/common item you are planning on building a website around. I'm sure the search engines have also thought about that.
But in all honesty, look at a lot of the major players in any niche, and majority of them have a unique, highly-branded name that doesn't have anything to do with the industry. Not to say you shouldn't do it, but with a legitimate link-building campaign and top-notch SEO tactics deployed throughout the site, you can rank for anything under any domain name.
-
I own several exact match domains. I can say with confidence that they used to be very powerful in ranking a website. However, google has turned down that benefit significantly as recently as this year. I do think that they still give some value - but only for exact match queries.
I like them for reasons beyond that....
-
in my opinion they have extra good conversion rates because people who land on them think... "Oh... this is widgets.com... they must know their stuff about widgets."
-
this implied credibility - even if undeserved - makes them a better target for likes, links, tweets, mentions and they can easily become the "go to place" for their product or topic if you are willing to put work into them
-
finally, they give me mental energy.... If I owned baloney.com I would become the world's expert on baloney and build a fantastic site... if you own a domain like that you owe it to the domain to do a good job.
So, I would be willing to pay a good amount of dough for an exact match domain ... but only if I am the right person to control it. I would not want knitting.com or even wine.com because I don't know anything about these subjects.
-
-
Exact match domains can be good, but I do agree they are becoming less powerful compared too say 2 years ago.
You can still get the following with a EDM:
-
Good for branding
-
Great for type in traffic selling Auto Insurance, 2-3% of people direct type in domains example autoinsurance.com
-
EDM SEO ability still evident yet it is dropping.
-
-
I think, exact domain name, is not bad, if you down white-hat strategy to rank it higher, it's nice, but if you use spam tactics its bad for exact and non-exact match domain name.
for example if you search "shoes" on google.com you will see the domain "shoes.com" on 1st or 2nd position on 1st serp. this is not bad if you down the right seo for a domain.
for the keyword "seo" is the same too.
from my side, take it, down the whitehat tactics seo, and finish that's all.
-
I think you're right that Google has discounted the value of exact match domains now as it's not as easy to increase rankings solely on the merit of the domain alone. However, I don't agree that exact match domains aren't helpful at all anymore. I see cases all the time where exact match domains are very higher in search rankings in Google. Value of having the exact match domain may be "dying," but I wouldn't say it's dead yet. If this is a new domain with no domain authority, it does you no help to simply redirect from that domain to yours regardless of how good the keywords in the new domain are. At minimum you would need to build up the new domain to get any value out of it (unless you you want to buy the domain just to ensure competitors don't get a hold of it).
-
I’m new to SEO but wouldn’t it still help? If you are trying to rank for the keyword "pickles" and your url is pickles.com, every link back to your site will contain the word "pickles" because its in your url. Where as if your site was called peanutbutter.com and you weren’t able to change the tag it would say peanut butter. Wouldn’t Google say pickles is way more relevant to pickles than peanut butter is, wouldn’t they give the pickle url more consideration? Again new to SEO and I might be missing something here.
-
Thanks THB. You re-confirm what I was thinking really but it's just when they are offered I think they make you think about it a bit more. Would be interested to hear any other views on this?
-
You are correct in that "exact match domain names" are dying out, and that is due entirely in part to spammers (don't they just ruin everything??). It's all about branding now, which means you can basically have any domain name you want and rank for anything you want. Mind you, you're not going to see cars.com trying to rank for telephones anytime soon, but you know what I mean. While it might be tempting, it is not necessary to have your niche keyword in your domain name anymore. Last I heard, Bing was the only search engine actually taking these things into consideration, and that was over a year ago, so I'm not sure whether they still do.
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
-
We have set up our H1 to contain the product name - it used to be our Company name all the time - would this affect our sales
We noticed recently on our site - that our H1 tag was the Company Name - we changed this to be the product name - our products would be searched for by all or part of the description. Our sales have dropped of the days since we changed it, could it be a result of this change ? Is it best to have the H1 tag as the product name ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CostumeD0 -
Ranking Above sub-domains
So I work for a company that has a very successful affiliate that operates under a third level domain name such as "region.company.com". Their SEO practices are very good and they rank highly in keyword searches. However "company.com" does not even though it is not a subdomain. Even after optimizing the company.com's pages etc, the regional sub domain ranks much higher for keywords and the main company fails to rank at all. Is Google discounting the main company's page? Is it a matter of trust or time? or is it something else? How can I get Google to prioritize the main company website rather than a lower level domain affiliate?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Resolute0 -
Cross Domain duplicate content...
Does anyone have any experience with this situation? We have 2 ecommerce websites that carry 90% of the same products, with mostly duplicate product descriptions across domains. We will be running some tests shortly. Question 1: If we deindex a group of product pages on Site A, should we see an increase in ranking for the same products on Site B? I know nothing is certain, just curious to hear your input. The same 2 domains have different niche authorities. One is healthcare products, the other is general merchandise. We've seen this because different products rank higher on 1 domain or the other. Both sites have the same Moz Domain Authority (42, go figure). We are strongly considering cross domain canonicals. Question 2 Does niche authority transfer with a cross domain canonical? In other words, for a particular product, will it rank the same on both domains regardless of which direction we canonical? Ex: Site A: Healthcare Products, Site B: General Merchandise. I have a health product that ranks #15 on site A, and #30 on site B. If I use rel=canonical for this product on site B pointing at the same product on Site A, will the ranking be the same if I use Rel=canonical from Site A to Site B? Again, best guess is fine. Question 3: These domains have similar category page structures, URLs, etc, but feature different products for a particular category. Since the pages are different, will cross domain canonicals be honored by Google?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AMHC1 -
Summarize your question.Irrelevant Domain Name, relevant page name
Hello All, My website is a PC Repair website called 'Paulspcrepair.co.uk' (example). And recently I want to start my SEO branch to the website, now, would it be better : A: Use my domain Authority already obtained and create a new page, highly optimized for SEO searches. OR B: Create a whole new website, such as 'PaulsSEOWorkshop.co.uk'. If so, why? I can't decide what to try.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Paul_Tovey0 -
City or country name get the exact domain name devauation ?
Will using a city or country name be devalued with the exact domain name update. I want to make a new website about my favourite vacation spot. I was thinking www.specificislandactivities.com or www.bestincityname.com The site will focus on all the best things to do in that vacation spot, best dining, beaches, watersports ect. I will be writing all the content based on my experience of travelling there for over 20 years... If the site is going to be all about things to do in that city or island, how else could i name the site. www.islandtravelactivities.com Wouldn't that be using the keywords island + travel + activities in the domain ? I am so confused right now, what would be devalued in the exact domain match and what would not. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlane90 -
301 of EDM domains
If I buy a keyword EDM domain and 301 redirect it to my site, will I rank better for that keyword?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | creaturmedia0 -
Help with domain configuration in international markets
We have just taken on a new client who’s core business is based in the UK. They are currently developing a market in Australia and are hoping to develop future markets over the next few years. The website is currently hosted in the UK, under a .co.uk domain, we are redeveloping the website and are wondering if we should move to the .com as the company is now catering to an international market. I was also wondering what the best way of establishing a presence in Australia, using the main website, rather than creating a new one. Thanks Fraser
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fraserhannah0 -
Understanding Canocalization, domain structure, redirects
Hey guys, My background is more in marketing aspect of SEO and I'm afraid my technical knowledge is not where it should be. I'm confused about how to find out whether a site is splitting link juice by having to many domains(?) that are not redirected properly. Am I asking that right? How do you figure that out? And, once you know, do you just go to the ones that are not redirecting and add a 301? Where is the best place to add a 301? I know there's a difference in the eyes of the search engines between, say, example.com and www.example.com and probably other forms, correct? I'm not a programmer or IT specialist, I'm a marketing consultant, but I feel like I'm really missing it when it comes to understanding all this stuff (looking at HTTP headers, using GWT, reading source code, etc) and am not sure the best way to learn it effectively so I can be sure I'm not missing something when consulting with clients. Help? Please? Thanks, David
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DavidPPeters0