Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your business shine with Listings AI
      Moz Local

      Let your business shine with Listings AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Link Building
    4. Exact Domain Match does it help or distract?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Exact Domain Match does it help or distract?

    Link Building
    4
    7
    980
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Cfarcher
      Cfarcher last edited by

      Does owning / buying an exact domain match help or not necessary?

      For example our main website ranks for nearly 14,800 Keywords but one KW we are trying to get in the top spot for we are currently at the bottom of page #1. We do see an exact domain match available so we purchased it but i don't know if it would actually help us or distract us.

      I was thinking we could create an article about the keyword on that exact domain then do some on page seo and back linking. But would that be more of a distraction VS. just focusing on getting more high quality back links to the main website we have ranked on Page 1 at the bottom?

      Any ideas or benefits to use an exact domain match to help boost also?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • sarahwalsh
        sarahwalsh last edited by

        We see this quite often; sometimes, an exact match domain will rank much higher than websites that seem to have better organic SEO.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • BlueprintMarketing
          BlueprintMarketing last edited by

          I don’t think it will do much. Unless you’re current  domain is really no doing well.

          It would need constant content to rank well.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Cfarcher
            Cfarcher last edited by

            The keyword is Multiple Listing Service. The domain we purchased is multiplelistingservice.com  do you think we should write one article based around the keywords Multiple Listing Service then have internal links that point back to our main website that is already ranked for this KW?

            or will that not do much? As multiplelistingservice.com is a new domain with no domain authority or links so even though its an exact match its not going to pass along much Link Juice .

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • BlueprintMarketing
              BlueprintMarketing last edited by

              They matter a little bit but only for that one keyword if you have a great brand it is much better for you to use that brand name. Recently it seems Google is giving less and less attention to exact match domains I would not rush out and buy one.

              Will be creating a doorway page and even if it ranks number one you'll have to put a lot of good content into it not just by the domain

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Cfarcher
                Cfarcher last edited by

                I haven't looked at the age of the domain or if it was used. I have a feeling it is a fresh domain that wasn't used for anything.

                But I'm trying to weigh out if we should create content, an article on that domain based around that exact keyword then do backlinking OR if we should just get more anchored text back links to our main page.   or if we have any other options to use an exact domain match to help us rank either that domain or our main domain for the KW ya know?

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Optimal_Strategies
                  Optimal_Strategies last edited by

                  Hi,

                  Exact keyword match in case of domain is always a good thing, however I wouldn't personally be able to predict if steps mentioned by you will help you rank for this KW for one particular reason. The reason is links - their quality and numbers. Also, what's the domain age? Did you check "Wayback machine"? If you didn't then have a look what was domain previously used for. Exact match is not everything now with more and more experts stating that you have to have good mixture of exact keyword match and url's. Hope that helps.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  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.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • AlexLenhoff

                    Does an external link to an image file on my site help my SEO?

                    I found a few websites that are displaying images from my site.  Curiously, they have also linked these images to the source image file on my website.  I found these because Moz showed these sites in my list of backlinks.  I assume that means it impacts my Domain Authority.  But does this actually help me in search engines since it's not linking to a page on my site?

                    Link Building | | AlexLenhoff
                    0
                  • Ishrat-Khan

                    1000's Backlinks from ONE Root Domain - Positive or negative?

                    One of my website's link is placed over a comment. This website has a "recent comments" section in the footer which is hence appearing on all the websites pages. All tools including - Google Search Console, Majestic and MOZ are showing 45000+ links from that root domain. Questions: Are these links harmful to my rankings? Should I get all those links disavowed? Should I disavow the root domain or leave the link that lies on the home page? What if there are up to 10 links coming from a domain? is that harmful too? Apart from disavowing, is there any other option to get this fixed? If at all this counts as an issue... Thanks in advance!!

                    Link Building | | Ishrat-Khan
                    0
                  • cbielich

                    Backlinks from domains that are not indexed...

                    Would you count them as spammy and disavow?

                    Link Building | | cbielich
                    0
                  • BobAnderson

                    A few questions I need help with and would appreciate any help.

                    I am currently building links to our website via estalished blogs ect (2+ years old), As far as I understand even if they are unrelated to what we do (print) as long as the post is about print the link should offer some value is this correct? Other questions I have which I would greatly appreciate advice in are as follows........ (1) Do charity websites or company websites with link pages ( about5-10 other links) or links / logo's on the front page offer value even on unrelated sites? (2) What happens if 80% of the link building I am doing comes from blogs? (3) If I have links that are clearly spam that have been built to our site can they be damaging our potential to rank and how can I remove them as I have tried to contact the relevant parties but fear pressing the button on the google tool may harm our site should I? (4) If I have a page that genuinely has a lot of mentions of a keyword (not so much the money keyword but part such as wanting to rank for pool table but end up with the different versions of keywords having table mentioned 5 - 10% of the time). Thank you for your time.

                    Link Building | | BobAnderson
                    0
                  • Personnel_Concept

                    Does link from a blog in Blogger.com helps in SEO ?

                    Do you guys think that adding good quality blogs to blogger.com and then getting a link from those blogs will help ?

                    Link Building | | Personnel_Concept
                    0
                  • Ralchev

                    Building backlinks on sub-pages instead of main page(rood-domain)

                    Hey Mozzers! I am facing a problem and I need advice. I have recently opened my new website, which purpose is to offer quality articles, optimized for SEO. The problem is that I cannot find the right keyword to use for the main(root) domain (http://xxxxxx.org) as it is consisting of many niches. Is it a good idea to build backlinks on pages (http://xxxxxx.org/the-keyword-for-ranking) instead of building them on my root-domain? So basically, my root-domain will have less backlinks than my pages inside? Please give me some advice and way to act with. Thank you

                    Link Building | | Ralchev
                    0
                  • GardenBeet

                    Inbound links from porn sites into a professional business services site - remove help?

                    The website in question was hacked four years ago and there was porn on the servers. It was used as a peer to peer torrent streamer.  The images were deleted. We have just found inappropriate inward bound links (with great link juice!!)  - how can we remove these links - or should we? any advice would be appreciated thanks

                    Link Building | | GardenBeet
                    0
                  • Vsky

                    Does linking to a subdomain give link juice to the main domain?

                    I have a few domains that I'm going to use for link building, will the link juice from the sub domains transfer to the main domain?

                    Link Building | | Vsky
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.