Google Sniper question matching domain name but high competition

[Rikson]

Ok, I have recently found a domain name that matches my keyword, this keyword gets about 6,000 searches a month, however the competition comes out to like 183,000 when I type in "my keyword" in google with the quotations.

What I am getting at here is if I have a matching domain name to my keyword will that help if the competition is that high? Or will it do nothing

Thanks

[dburk]

Hi Rikson,

Don't worry, 183,000 pages for a good keyword is not that much. Chances are at least 99% of those pages will be super easy to beat. It's only the top ten listings that you need to focus your attention on. If you can beat the page that is listed at position #10 then you are on the 1st page of the SERP.

It's not the number of competing pages that determine how tough the keyword is, it's the strength of the pages that are listed on page 1 of the SERP.

[sluggo]

Originally Posted by Rikson

Ok, I have recently found a domain name that matches my keyword, this keyword gets about 6,000 searches a month, however the competition comes out to like 183,000 when I type in "my keyword" in google with the quotations.

What I am getting at here is if I have a matching domain name to my keyword will that help if the competition is that high? Or will it do nothing

Thanks

It will definately help, especially if it is the .com. Some people search for terms by typing the exact phrase in the URL bar and if you have the .com site it is the "authority" and will come up automatically.

Search engines also like "exact" query names. This is the only way I chose domain names. In the long run, it will be the best choice.

Good luck.

Sluggo

[InternetMarketingIQ]

exact match phrase occurrences is not how you determine competition. It's far more complicated than that. What you want to know is how many of these sites are actively trying to rank for the phrase. I would also agree with the above poster that you real competition is whomever is on the first page... and even more so the first 5 listings. Excluding of course sites like Dictionary.com or other reference sites that are not specifically targeted at selling a product. They are you competition only in the sense that they can take traffic from your efforts.

[gmr324]

So, how critical is it to have the exact match domain name versus adding a suffix with a generic term like info onto the keyword phrase in the domain name. For instance, would
coffeemaker.com and cofffeemakerinfo.com have an equal chance at ranking well.

Thanks

George

[Biggy Fat]

Originally Posted by gmr324

So, how critical is it to have the exact match domain name versus adding a suffix with a generic term like info onto the keyword phrase in the domain name. For instance, would
coffeemaker.com and cofffeemakerinfo.com have an equal chance at ranking well.

Thanks

George

I say that you should never settle for anything less than the EXACT phrase. Putting suffixes and prefixes hurt the rankings, as they may take a longer time to get ranked.

[warrior123]

Judging competition by using the keyword phrase in "quotes" is the old way of determining the difficulty of getting ranked. You need to look at all the sites on the first page and look at their page strength.

Google definitely gives weight to have the exact keyword phrase in the domain but it certainly is not the deciding factor. Whoever has the most high quality backlinks wins.

[mrtrance]

Originally Posted by gmr324

So, how critical is it to have the exact match domain name versus adding a suffix with a generic term like info onto the keyword phrase in the domain name. For instance, would
coffeemaker.com and cofffeemakerinfo.com have an equal chance at ranking well.

Thanks

George

I recently did an experiment where I started one website using the exact keyword in the domain with a .org. After 3 weeks it was on page 1 and now 2 months or so later it is at #3 getting about 25-30 uniques each day (averages about $10 a day for that site from Adsense).

So I started another site targeting the same keyword, but this time the url was the keyword + "info" added to the end of the keyword using a .com. I did exactly the same thing to this site as far as setup, content, backlinks, etc. After like 1.5 months it is still struggling to get past page 5 of the SERPs. Today it has slipped down to page 9 now.

I guess I can assume that the first site moved up so fast and is ranking high due to the exact keyword domain compared to my second site which has that extra word at end of the keyword.

I can't think of any other reason why my second site has not moved up in the same time frame as my first site.

[Shaun Lee]

Originally Posted by mrtrance

...So I started another site targeting the same keyword, but this time the url was the keyword + "info" added to the end of the keyword using a .com. I did exactly the same thing to this site as far as setup, content, backlinks, etc...

That could be the deciding factor.

For what I know, as long as the keyword is in the URL, it's set. But of course, getting the exact keyword is the better choice.

As an example, just Google high-priced products that has an affiliate network. You'll almost always see:

(a) www.productnamereview.com
(b) www.productnameinfo.com
(c) www.productnamebonus.com
(d) www.productnamex.com

And others. Of course, you'll see the exact keyword matches but these URLs DO show up.

A question here however. What if I registered a domain with a prefix instead of a suffix, e.g www.mykeyword.com, www.getkeyword.com, www.buykeyword.com, and so on?

Note: BOLD words are the variations.

[gmr324]

I guess I can assume that the first site moved up so fast and is ranking high due to the exact keyword domain compared to my second site which has that extra word at end of the keyword.

I've had many people speculate on this, but noone who had evidence in a controlled experiment like that. It just confirms for me that either I find an available exact match
domain or purchase one of the reserved ones which is just parked and not developed.

However, I have two questions about purchasing an exact match domain like that:

o How do I know I'm not inheriting a domain with negative or spamming history which
is at a disadvantage to start with?

o How can I assess the fair market value to it to make an offer?


Thanks

George

[fir3d]

I know the exact match domain bonus is lower the farther away you get from the exact match .com but does anyone know if you still get a bonus if there is a dash in the middle of the domain?