Exact Match Domain Names

[activitysuper]

Basically without a doubt having a exact match domain name is a massive benefit.

If you targeted a keyword with 2 different sites one with an EMD and one without, I could quite easily expect the EMD to pop up page 1/2 and the non EMD site to be 10 pages deep.

I'm going to be honest, I hate how much weight is put on the EMD, Domain brokers are focused on purely finding these, buying them up and selling them way above there worth.

Google needs to realise this is a massive problem because I see sites with great content, great moz trust and rank being outranked by a EMD that sits on a squeeze page.

Question: If no link building was taking place on the EMD site, lets say it ranked page 2, position 4 but you was linking building on the NON EMD how long to get it up to the EMD site?

[DougRoberts]

That's not my experience, and it's not what this data suggests:

2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors

Pages don't compete in isolation of any other factors...

[EGOL]

I disagree.

[Group16]

There is no real benefit of having an exact match domain, because it is single web pages and not domain names who are competing for SERPs.

[activitysuper]

Cheers EGOL,

You have hit the nail on the head for the kind of response I was looking for.

I have seen some amazing results, when you combine a EMD with good content some of the results from it are unbelievable, especially when you appreciate how hard it is to rank without one and how much effort is needed SEO wise to rank without one.

It's the brokers that annoy me the most, a domain is meant to be brought to attach a website to - domain sites on IP, IP points at site.

If Google ever devalues EMD's brokers are going to be in the muck.

[EGOL]

I own a few exact match domains for competitive keywords and will confirm that they are helpful in getting rankings.  However, Google has turned back the importance of these domains and even before Google did that these domains were not invincible.  I am getting my butt kicked in a few places.

I'm going to be honest, I hate how much weight is put on the EMD, Domain brokers are focused on purely finding these, buying them up and selling them way above there worth.

I used to feel this way then I paid a ransom to get one of these domains. (My wallet is still smoking.) But, for me, it was worth it.  Not only did I get better rankings, my conversion rate went up (without changing the site) and these domains will get you more links, tweets, etc - in my opinion.   You might not have the same results.

So, my suggestion would be to bite the bullet and buy one of these domains.  It will cost you some money, you might need to deplete savings or take out a loan but then you will see their true value - which might be less than what you expect.

But at least then you will have one of these gems and see what you can do with it.

The bottom line... owning one of these domains for me is not all about the rankings.  It is about owning a great virtual property that gives me enormous energy to work on the site.  That will kick a lot more asses than the EMD.

[DougRoberts]

I can relate to your problem!

I think that's a difficult question to answer as you don't know the relative strengths of the two domain/ranking pages or the competition and it's hard to determine just how much of an advantage the exact match domain is providing without looking at the context.

When you see an exact-match domain ranking somewhere in the middle of the SERPS you can at least take a look at the pages around it to asses just how strong you're going to need to be to out-rank the exact match domain.

If you find an unassailable exact-match domain ranking for your chosen keyword, then maybe look at other keywords although remember that you don't necessarily have to out rank that page to get more traffic. If your can craft a more compelling snippet (title + description) then maybe you can draw more than your expected share of the traffic.

[Jinx14678]

There is actually a patent that tackles this exact issue. Over 2012, in my opinion there are going to be more "Panda style" updates that target this method that filters out domains that are exact match, but really just a "loophole" doorway page.

Of course these are not really "doorway pages" by technical definition, but the underlying motive is to game the Algorithm into ranking a single entity for many keywords using multiple domains just junking up the web, in my opinion.

w00t!

Did I mention #STOPSOPA  ? 

Resource;

http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/10/googles-exact-match-domain-name-patent-detecting-commercial-queries/