14 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I am launching a new site next week
The site is mainly an SEO test as SEO is some thing I want to learn.

I have done research and have found about 10 key phrases I want to target and am currently getting articles written around a few of them.

However my plan was to get an EMD around one of the KWs

I know EMDs are old school but there is relatively little competition is this niche and for the KW
But also I have narrowed it down to two possible EMD and both search terms already have EMDs in the top 10

Is this good or bad
I have been watching alot of videos on SEO in the last week and someone mentioned that if there are EMDs already in the search term not to use them as google likes variety and may not rank

kwywords.com
ketwords.net
key-words.com

In the SERPs

Is this true should I also go with an EMD or leave it
#emd
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Originally Posted by espresso View Post

    I have been watching alot of videos on SEO in the last week and someone mentioned that if there are EMDs already in the search term not to use them as google likes variety and may not rank
    Complete BS.

    Google could give a rip about variety. Why would they? That alone makes no sense.

    Stop watching videos from idiots.

    Stop putting effort into that, concentrate on real shtuff.

    Paul
    Signature

    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10768034].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    There is no such thing as an EMD penalty. Once upon a time, Google gave a small boost to websites using keywords in their domain name. Later, they removed that small boost any many sites that were previously ranking higher because of the EMD boost fell (and instantly claimed they were "penalized" for having an EMD).

    If you can keep the domain name short and have keywords in it, we recommend getting a keyword-rich domain name. There are two reasons for this:

    1) Google may not give a boost for keywords in the domain name but it appears that Bing/Yahoo is still giving EMD sites a bump in the rankings.

    2) Even though Google does not give EMDs any edge in ranking, having keyword anchor text in links to your pages does help pages rank better for those keywords. When people naturally link to you and use your domain name as the anchor text, because your keywords are in your domain name, it helps you rank better for those words.

    A HUGE WORD OF CAUTION: Do not use dashes, underscores, special characters or numerals in your domain name - even if you think it is cute (e.g. "widgets4sale.com"). Don't use misspellings. Don't create an absurdly long domain name to go after a targeted keyword phrase (e.g. "bestdiscountlefthandedgolfclubsforkids.com"). And, although it does not matter for ranking purposes, try to get a .com domain name. If you get a .net, .info., .us, .biz or anything like that, you are going to lose a TON of business if yours is a niche that gets referral and repeat buyer traffic. People remember websites as ".com" even when they are not. Cellphones have ".com" as a "letter key" on them. Your competitor with the .com of the same domain name will really appreciate all of the extra people you send to them that forgot that your website was .net.
    Signature
    BizSellers.com - The #1 place to buy & sell websites!
    We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10768351].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Corey Taylor
    I remember myself 4 years ago getting kicked by google to all my EMD sites. There was an update that devalued the perfect EMD sites. In 2016, if I were you, I'd prefer to use a brand name. Easier to remember. And I would SEO my article with the keyword I'd wish.

    4 years have passed and I've yet to see EMD sites go higher in the serps again. It can be done, but an EMD domain name is not a critical ranking factor now. If I were you i'd aim for a brand name, as already mentioned.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10770798].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
      Originally Posted by Corey Taylor View Post

      I remember myself 4 years ago getting kicked by google to all my EMD sites. There was an update that devalued the perfect EMD sites. In 2016, if I were you, I'd prefer to use a brand name. Easier to remember. And I would SEO my article with the keyword I'd wish.

      4 years have passed and I've yet to see EMD sites go higher in the serps again. It can be done, but an EMD domain name is not a critical ranking factor now. If I were you i'd aim for a brand name, as already mentioned.
      Your EMD sites were not "penalized." Google stopped giving a boost to websites simply because they had the keywords in the domain name. When they did that, your sites fell to the position they should have been in without that artificial boost you became used to receiving.

      We have plenty of sites with keywords in the domain that rank #1 for the keywords in the domain. It's about on-site and off-site SEO, not about the domain name.
      Signature
      BizSellers.com - The #1 place to buy & sell websites!
      We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10771717].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author anhvu
    The advices above are value you should consider.

    In my opinion, brand name has much more benefits and it suit for long term.
    Not far ago, I used EMD for low competitive keywords and it still work well. After using a bit off-page SEO my website appear on the first page of Google and I got lots click with that domain. But, as you know it only works in the range of that keyword, very inconvenient.
    It may not help you rankings, but surely you will have more click via EMD.
    Finally, Brand name or EMD it depends on your purpose.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10770915].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    Thanks guys
    For this experiment I will be picking a brand domain but will go back and do tests in the future on EMD

    I have been delayed in publishing the website due to content but hope to have it up an running next week just waiting for content.

    I am trying to gage competition in the serps and was wondering if there are any tools that will tell me why a site ranks for a certain term and more so why another site that is optimized for a keyword doesn't ie any tools that tell me what not to do in order to rank for a kw

    Thanks
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10778785].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    Cognitive SEO just released a study this week that is relevant to this discussion - The Title and URL Influence on Rankings
    Signature
    BizSellers.com - The #1 place to buy & sell websites!
    We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10778939].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    thanks for that I will go over it later
    Also never seen the site before it looks interesting

    I am completely indecisive about what my main key phrase is going to be
    I thought I had it picked but doing more research I think it maybe the competition is harder than I thought
    However I have already got content made for the KW

    Like its not 100% different is al part of the same niche but I need this test to be successful
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10779502].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author phenomix
    EMD's are fine if you brand them. Make the website look very professional with a great design and quality logo. Include in-depth and relevant content and a good SEO structure. I do this with all my EMD's and they end up ranking. As someone mentioned before, don't include hyphens and things that make the name look spammy.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10780341].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    Hi
    Just in case anyone actually cares

    I split the difference and went with a shorter partial match Key Phrase domain
    The site went live at the weekend and after some indexing issues is now ranking

    It has gone straight in on page 7 of google for the main keyphrase

    While I was hoping for page 5 or higher but I am happy and relieved it is been picked up by google and it has given me something to work with

    I will now start building back links over the next week and hope to bring the site to page 5 or 4 in a week or so
    I have only put in one spammy link so far from a source my rival also had a link from

    I will also be adding more content as well

    I want to learn what I am calling simple SEO or fast results SEO and hope to have three sites on page 1 by end of august each for their main terms
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10798094].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    OK
    The day after posing my last update the site vanished from google for the main keyword
    I have no idea why this happened

    Overal it is ranking low for several keywords like around page 5 and below
    According to google search console I have an average position of 36

    My best performing keyword is my secondary keyword which has a separate article this is at the top of page 4

    I was hoping with my research and on-page SEO I would rank higher and in that regards I am disapointed but I am going to try and build up the site and get it to page one

    I am building backlinks at the moment
    I checked two rival sites both have a lot of spammy links like social bookmarks rss feeds and forum posts
    So I will be getting similar linking as well as guest posts

    I have learnt some lessons which I will take when building my next sites -mainly research keywords better and better on page SEO
    While I am still confident this site will do well I hope the lessons learnt will benefit me next time
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10806786].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    EMDs don't rank pages.

    My advice is learn SEO silos and how to basically create multiple Home pages (category pages).
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10807111].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    I am trying to learn SEO as well as test SEO theories thats the whole point

    And EMDs can help rank pages
    As I said in relation to my site two of the key phrases I was looking at had EMDs in the result.

    Also I doing some research for a friend who is setting up an offline business
    If he builds a site the main KW he will be going after has a EMD at number 2 even though the business has a separate name
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10808088].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author phenomix
    EMD's still work great but they can't be thin websites and you need to brand them. They are especially good for low comp keywords and can rank quite well with just good content.

    I just recently made an EMD in a micro niche that has 6 pages of content but the main page is over 4000 words and the other 5 pages are over 2000 words each. Needless to say, Google loves my site and I skyrocketed to number one and only built 5 backlinks to the main page.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10808908].message }}

Trending Topics