Exact Match Domain Names
-
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?
-
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...
-
I disagree.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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;
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
-
So many spam links that I haven't created are reflected in my domain
Around 500+ spam links got reflected in my domain. I actually haven't created them. Also, the links are not opening. These links affected my spam score. How can I remove them and reduce my spam score?
Link Building | | OrangeDigital160 -
Why personal change coach not ranking for his own name, exact match
The term is tim hallbom The new website is TimHallbom.com I was under the impression that someone could take over rank for their own name. Let me know what we're doing wrong. Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Citations, How exact should be the citation (Same formating, etc)
Hi there, Thanks for all the support you have been giving to me in the past few posts. I wanted to know how exact should be the citations compared to my address. Here is the scenario. A business has a website, google my business and citations. The address on there website is cited as this: 1, One street West, Local 202, Toronto, Ontario 555 555-5555 The address on google my business is cited as this: 1 One Street W #202, Toronto, ON (555) 555-5555 The address on the citations is a mix of both. So here is my questions, since it is the same address how important it is to keep the exact same format everywhere? Would you make the change on the website and citations as a priority? Bonus questions: is it possible to put West instead of W in google maps? And does the format of the phone number also counts
Link Building | | H.M.N.0 -
How do the powerful links of an old domain help my new domain?
I recently purchased a domain with over twenty years age, a few .gov links and A LOT of .edu links. Of course, the domain is relevant to my site's content. I'm hosting the domain on my shared server and have setup 301 redirects for each page that had external links pointing to it via the htaccess file within the domain's root directory. These 301 redirects, of course, point to my new domain, which is on a dedicated server. Specifically, they point to a directory on my new domain. I've also verified the purchased domain and my new domain on Google Search Console/Webmaster Tools. Finally, I've completed a google site change request for the old site to point to my new site. My questions: Should I also list my old domain on the dedicated server over the shared server or does it matter? Will the backlinks of the old site show up in my new site's links via Google's search console, Open Site Explorer, etc.? Will the backlinks of the old site improve the authority of my domain? Also, keep in mind that I have the 301 redirects pointing to a directory on my new site, not the root page of the new domain. Will the backlinks of the old site help my new domain's authority? In the eyes of Moz I've read, NO. I understand it's just a MOZ metric but from what I understand it also correlates with Google's actual 'authority' metric/method of giving value to a particular domain over another based on the backlinks. How exactly do the backlinks of the old domain benefit my new domain and is there a way to measure this/see the relationship? Thank you for any help you're willing to give!
Link Building | | ninel_P0 -
Linking Root Domains www and non-www
I just ran our site through Open Site Explorer. If I run the non-www version I get 30 root domains, if I run www I get 177. Is it wise to try and contact those sites using the non-www version and ask them to update the links to www version? Will that make much of a difference?
Link Building | | Amueller0 -
Why does GWT still show some links from a disavowed domain?
We have disavowed a lot of spam links that were pointing to our website. We've disavowed on a domain level and a lot of links have now disappeared on GWT. However, there is a domain that we disavowed where MOST of the links have disappeared in GWT but there are STILL some remaining even a month and a half after disavowing. The disavow file has been sent in numerous times since then with new domains. Is there an explanation as to why some links still remain on this domain even though most of them have been disavowed and removed from GWT?
Link Building | | ResumeGenius0 -
Changing Anchor Text and Domain Name on external sites
Hey guys, I was hoping somebody might be help with my current dilema. We have a international website due to go live soon which has changed its brand name. It is International educational website funded by the government is all I can tell you I'm afraid. They have over 40,000 inbound links many of which are images. I'm wondering what i site best approach. To contact the web master of the top PR sites and ask them to change the listing to the new brand? I was also thinking if I was to leave most of them there as they would be redirected anyhow. Could I be clever and add the new brand link to some of these sites without removing the old and reap the benefits of having two links, the old site url and the new site url? Here is the main dilema though, the commission wish to keep the old site live for 6 months before we can redirect. Thanks, Rob
Link Building | | daracreative0 -
Changing domain names... Bad idea?
We are re-doing a clients e-commerce website. Before I had entered them on SEO moz we had decided to change their domain name to one with a keyword inside. I had not known that they had an online marketing company previous working for them. They have a domain authority of 42 right now. It would be a horrible idea to switch their domain right? I looked at some of the links, they all have a variety of good anchor text. But alot of the links are coming from sites or directory categories that are not relative. We are also planning on doing 301 re-directs for the links. But this will not transfer the domain authority to the new domain right? Any thoughts?
Link Building | | DTOSI0