Do Exact Match Domains Still Have Value?
-
I realise that there has probably been a lot said about Exact Match Domains, however, I want to know 2 things:
-
Is this two exact match domains or one EMD: "londonfootball.com" and "footballlondon.com" so is "London Football" one EMD, and "Football London" another?
-
Does having an EMD add a big advantage in getting ranked? Is it worth paying 2 months SEO expense to buy an EMD? To me if it still has an advantage then it probably is. However, I would like to hear the opinion of the experts.
I would specially like to hear from anyone who owns or bought an EMD to rank.
Thank you.
-
-
Glad to help Ryan. It sounds like you have a good plan going forward. As long as the site has good content and seo, I'm sure you will be fine. Best of luck with the new site!
-
Thanks to all for your responses.
@VZ Pro The domain in question was not londonfootball.com , this was just an example.
I personally have made a domain rank 2 years ago constantly for about 1.5 years on the top of Google, until the most recent Google update, with very little links, just by being an EMD, it was just a simple brochure site. Nothing spammy, and the business I was involved with made substantial amount of money through just this one domain. To make matters worse, this was a org.uk domain, which, for those in the UK, are often considered low value domains, and I think Google gives it far less weight then co.uk. So this proved to my that EMD's can be well worth it. This was also in a very small geographic niche, which probably made it easier to rank. I only paid around £6 ($10) for 2 years registration. The site stopped ranking because we made the mistake of using someone who got us some bad links, so the Google update hit it badly. But since disavow, it still continues to bring in some business.
Now currently I am negotiating with someone on a domain broking site for an EMD for a niche. I am hoping to I can negotiate him to $1,000. I was just debating in my head if there is still potential in the domains. Based on what you guys are saying, it seems like there is still quite a lot of potential. Especially if you make the site good, and make sure it has quality content and is not spammy.
-
I agree and the EMD update in Google wasn't about Exact Math Domains themselves, as much as EMDS with very little or "thin" content. Before, you could literally rank a EMD with no backlinks. I own a sports ticket buying site that I never did SEO for and was making around $6000 during the college football season until the update came out. I never had a single link pointing to it and it floated in the number 3 to number 5 spot for a 10k per month search. Not so much any more...
Here is a great article from over at Search Engine Land on some EMD rearch http://searchengineland.com/google-emd-update-research-and-thoughts-137340
-
EMD or keyword-driven domains can carry a huge amount of weight when optimized correctly. I agree with William "EMDs still carry weight, more than they should IMO"
If you use a EMD, you can potentially limit the exposure of the site, due to focusing only on one keyword or subject matter. This is where I agree with VZPro, where a branded EMD would provide more benefit.
I'm guessing you are referencing the cost due to someone selling the domains mentioned at a high cost?
-
I think that EMDS are still good if they are BRANDED EMDs. If you want to name your company that particular EMD then you'll be alright. I think domain metrics are a better judgement of a value of a domain name vs just the name itself. Neither one of them will give you much value (I ran them through MajesticSEO). You are basically starting from scratch either way. I would spend my money elsewhere unless you plan on branding the company "London Football".
-
EMDs still carry weight, more than they should IMO.
LondonFootball.com and FootballLondon.com are two different EMDs, just similar.
Is it worth paying two months of your SEO budget? Depends on the EMD and the SEO you were going to hire. Also make sure to do a lot of research on the EMD to see what it's history is. It is indexed? Does it have an acceptable backlink profile? Was it used for anything shady in the past?
There are very few domains I would drop thousands on, and even fewer that I would purchase strictly for SEO gain.
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
-
Canonicals from sub-domain to main domain: How much content relevancy matters? Any back-links impact?
Hi Moz community, I have this different scenario of using canonicals to solve the duplicate content issue in our site. Our subdomain and main domain have similar landing pages of same topics with content relevancy about 50% to 70%. Both pages will be in SERP and confusing users; possibly search engine too. We would like solve this by using canonicals on subdomain pointing to main domain pages. Even our intention is to only to show main domain pages in SERP. I wonder how Google handles it? Will the canonicals will be respected with this content relevancy? What happens if they don't respect? Just ignore or penalise for trying to do this? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
How to take down a sub domain which is receiving many spammy back-links?
Hi all, We have a sub domain which has less engagement for last few years. Eventually many spammy back links pointed to this sub domain. There are relevant back links too. We have deleted most of the pages which are employing spammy content or which have spammy back links. Still I'm confused whether to take this sub domain down or keep it. The confusion between "relevant backlinks might be helping our website" and "spammy backlinks are affecting to drop in rankings"? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Can setting up a Domain Forward lead to sudden drop in Rankings?
Hi there, Our website www.porcelainsuperstore.co.uk has been ranking on pages 1 and 2 of Google for the past 12 - 18 months for a number of our key search terms. There has been the odd fluctuation but nothing major. On Wednesday of this week (2 days ago), we purchased the domain www.porcelainsuperstore.com and without thinking I enabled Domain Forwarding on this domain to go to www.porcelainsuperstore.co.uk
Algorithm Updates | | piazza
Today our rankings have shown quite dramatic drops, e.g Wood effect tiles position 1 to position 3 Metro tiles position 9 to position 12 Quartz tiles position 4 to position 9 Floor tiles position 14 to position 25 Can anyone advise on this? Do you think the domain forward could have created this sudden drop?
I have now disabled the domain forwarding but am worried that this might be irreversible in Googles eyes? I have now disabled the domain forward - I assume this is the right thing to do?
Any help much appreciated. Thanks Ben0 -
SEOMoz advice on only buying domain if .com version is available
RE: "In order to maximize the direct traffic to a domain, it is advised that webmasters should only buy a domain if the .com version is available. " http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain I am working for a client who's had a domain live for 5 years or so without a .com version of the domain (just .co.uk) - the domain is also hyphenated (which doesn't look like a great idea). So, just wondering what research has been done into probs caused by lack of .com domain and by using hyphenated domain. I'm trying to figure out whether it would be worth advising client to switch to a new domain. Your thoughts would be welcome 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | McTaggart2 -
Best way of seeing how many links come from individual root domain domains.
Just wondering how best to see this - which tool to use. I'm dealing with a website with several thousand inbound links from around 100 root domains. Thanks in advance, Luke
Algorithm Updates | | McTaggart0 -
Is there any SEO value to Infographs?
I purchased Piktochart to make what they said were SEO friendly infographs. Hearing conflicting responses on the SEO value I figure I should ask SEO's. The program is easy and you can download as an XML. Any responses are welcome Thank You
Algorithm Updates | | polarking0 -
Could EMD (Exact Match Domain) have cause SERP drops?
Hi all, Another suggestion was given for our fall in SERPS. Recently Matt Cutts announced that EMDs would be hit by new algoritms. http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-20-15789.html Only our site with exacts matches... cours-telephone-anglais, curso-ingles-telefono, kurse-englisch-telefon, and corso-inglese-telefono were hit. Does anyone else have experience of this? Would a solution be to create new URLS and redirect? Or would a redirect carry the penalty over? Is there anyway to fix that sort of penalty? Many thanks for your help.
Algorithm Updates | | Quime0 -
Keyword rich domains sliding fast
I decided not to worry too much about the statements from google indicating that they were going to consider key word rich domains as a negative for ranking since any of the sites I work on that have them are totally relevant to the content on the sites. However, since recent Google algorithm updates I see these domains have suddenly slid from top 3 positions to page 4 or beyond in Google SERP's. Nothing has changed on these sites in the intervening time and no change is evident in Bing or Yahoo SERP's. Is it just my imagination, or are others seeing the same thing for keyword rich domains? and has anyone yet determined the best way to deal with this problem?
Algorithm Updates | | ShaMenz0