Matt Cutts on possible future of Exact Match Domains.

[Defunct]

YouTube - How important is it to have keywords in...

[Mohammad Afaq]

I knew this was coming a long time ago.

I will still use them as long as I can

EDIT: IMHO, I don't think this will make a ton of difference.

According to Matt Cutt's body language and choice of words, I can tell that EMDs will lose "some" weight but they will still carry alot.

[CDarklock]

I like how in the final seconds - after saying "possible" and "prefer" throughout the video about brandable non-keyword domains - he basically says keyword domains make such a big difference, people are complaining about it making TOO big a difference... and Google is starting to think they're right.

At which point he goes on to essentially confirm not only that keywords make a big difference, but that they always will make a big difference. Just maybe not AS big, if they tweak the mix on the algorithm.

[daddykool]

Lost me?

A brandable domain name is more popular than an exact match, what?

Turning the knob down a little, think he needs to attend a few of the internal meetings at the plex, before making remarks like that, if you have a brand or want to build a viral brand you choose a domain name that suits and build it!

If you have a service / product / solution / whatever widget, you get an exact match domain name that matched, for all the zillions of people that are looking for it and always will !

That will never change, unless G buys MS and Y! that is!

[Mike McAleer]

If you are going for mini niche sites, keyword domains are awesome.

Matt is giving examples of tons of popular sites that have brandable domain names but what are these companies? They are huge and they take a long time to build. These sites have big marketing budgets other than SEO. No one typed in Facebook into Google before Facebook came out. Facebook spread by word of mouth. if you have a little mini amazon review site or something, that will not spread by word of mouth. you just want to have a keyword that directly matches the product.

[MikesTraffic]

was only a matter of time

[LastWarrior]

In one of my businesses I compete in a true "niche" market. My competitors don't know **** about SEO, SEM, PPC, CTR, ROI, etc, etc. I've been fortunate to rise to the top due to that and I've noticed having an exact match domain has helped.

Yes, I've been skeptical it was the domain name because my pages are optimized and I have very little backlinks, so it is on-page optimization that has done it... and often wondered if the domain name helped, but I believe it has. To further strengthen my notion on that, Matt at about 2:33 goes on to explain that EMD's do carry weight!

When I got my EMD's, I did it not for the optimization, but because the URL implies directly to the consumer what the site is all about. Any weight given to the domain as a result of the exact match is just gravy.

LastWarrior

[carleisenstein]

I do think that the observation is correct - that exact match keyword domains have been too powerful. More so in Bing than Google in my experience, but even in Google still stronger than they should have been. So I'm quite glad to see this ranking factor be reduced slightly.

(Hello all! This is my first Warrior Forum post!).

[thebitbotdotcom]

That doesn't deter me from buying KWRDNs one single bit.

[yukon]

Well sure he would say that (end of the video), otherwise everyone would be thinking "I really need an EMD (lol)"

A lot of people don't understand, you can rank any page on your site, instead of buying an EMD.

Example: hxxp://www.not-emd.com/keyword1/

One of my own competition is doing this, & has a lot of high PR backlinks pointing at that internal page, instead of his Index page.

It's very obvious he is trying to rank that internal page instead of his Index page, & it's working, he is #2 in the SERPs for his targeted keyword.

[theseoguys]

My guess is the next 'big' update, Google going to treat EMD's like 'content farms' from the last update. To Google, EMD's are more like 'low hanging fruit'. They are probably in the evaluation process of a whole bunch of EMD's right now, and deciding on whether or not their premise is correct before they adjust the algorithm.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by theseoguys

My guess is the next 'big' update, Google going to treat EMD's like 'content farms' from the last update. To Google, EMD's are more like 'low hanging fruit'. They are probably in the evaluation process of a whole bunch of EMD's right now, and deciding on whether or not their premise is correct before they adjust the algorithm.

Won't really matter since the only thing Google can read is text/keywords, take my example in my last post. No need for an EMD at all.

[theseoguys]

I agree with you 100%. The problem is, everyone and their uncle rushes out to buy an EMD, throws up a 2 page site, makes a few hundred / thousand a month, and then they are Internet Marketers. I have no problem with this, nor with the people who do this. I just think Google is equating these EMD 'niche' sites, as being low quality sites, hence the recent changes. re. farmer update There could be a bunch of flawed logic behind it, ie. it has rained every Sunday for x years, therefore, because tomorrow is Sunday, it is going to rain.

If Matt addressed the topic, and made a video, I'm pretty sure they are looking into this.

[paulgl]

It might be a "new" video, but it's old information.
Google picks something out of interest if things are slow.

I've been reiterating this info for years.

Funny thing, people come to warriorforum.com, looking
for internet marketing advice.

Paul

[BlondieWrites]

It seems that regardless of how Google changes things, keyword domains will always do better overall UNLESS you have a brandable domain that is hot and popular... gets a lot of traffic from word of mouth, etc.

That said, I still believe it's a good thing to have a brandable domain name, especially if you plan to have an ongoing online branded business. But keyword domains will always be the norm for most people.

Content will still make a huge difference in the traffic you get or don't get. The domain name, of course, matters. I don't think there's a one size fits all for domains.


Cindy

[TZ]

If the content is really really good, and heavy, your site can be about dogs and the domain name can be called cats. I often just go for the shortest domain possible with no dashes........but then again;

Digital Photography Tips: Digital Photography School (#1 for keyword digital photography ;-)

You know when I see Matt always get the urge to throw him a banana, and duck from the flying feces.