Undertanding Google's PMD (Partial Matching Domain) policy...

[bjs2010]

Hi,

If your business name contains keywords, is that an issue? Some companies, have keyword based brand names...

So what is Google's policy regarding EMD or PMD? What happens when the company name has a keyword in it?

If anyone could help clarify, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Ben

[IOSC]

Just to add a bit to the discussion if you did not see this already:

http://moz.com/blog/early-look-at-googles-june-25-algo-update

[Devanur-Rafi]

Whoa Tom! I am glad to have similar thoughts as yours in this regard.

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi Ben,

Just because you have an exact match domain name or keyword in your domain name, Google will not penalize. Google penalizes or intends to penalize such websites if they don't have credible content or don't provide any value add or do not justify a visit to them or do not serve the purpose or intent behind the visit to them. For example, thin affiliate sites that have any or all of the above qualities.

In an attempt to pull down or weed out such thin affiliate websites from top positions in the SERPs, search engines like Google may sometime seem to do injustice to some legit websites but this is very rare and soon such websites may crawl back to their deserving ranking positions. The point here is, Google wants to stop websites that do not have quality content from leveraging the advantages of an exact match domain name. If your website has quality content, does not rely on shady techniques to rank high along with other SEO goodies like fast loading pages, clear navigational hierarchy, useful and informative content, provides good user experience etc., then Google will not have any problem with the exact match domain name.

Google will definitely frown upon websites that have exact match domain names, which are very young and do not provide a value add to its visitors with little to no credible or unique content. The intent behind coming up with exact match domain names should be clean and I think Google wants to discourage or change the perspective of webmasters who want to enjoy the undue advantages that an exact name domain name brings along.

Hope it helps and am sure other Mozers will add their valuable views in this regard.

Best regards,

Devanur Rafi.

[TomRayner]

Hi Ben

Google doesn't have a problem with partial match domains, or even exact match domains, provided that the websites offer real user value.

Now, it can be said that an EMD might fall under Google's microscope quicker than other domains, because of its keyword nature.  Not too sure PMDs would, though.  However, if the domain offers real information for the user, has rich useful content and looks like a genuine authority site, then there will be no problem with using it.

Shockwaves were put through the SEO industry when Google appeared to target EMDs with an update specifically geared at them.  However, the intent was always to penalise those websites that were ranking purely on the strength of the domain alone.  In short, Google wanted to penalise poor quality sites.

That's the recurring theme here.  So, if you can create a website that offers great, unique value to the user, doesn't attempt to manipulate the algorithm and can be recognised as an authority in its circles, then it won't matter one bit if you use a PMD, or even an EMD.

Hope this helps.