[EMD] Exact Match Domains are "dead"? I cry BULLSH!T...see the proof here

It's only dead if you build THIN CONTENT SITES. If you are actually going to build a site that ADDS VALUE to the lives of your visitors, EMD and any other domain 'still work.' Still, looking at Google Adwords Campaign planner for your keyword, it looks like there isn't much search volume for 'stupid simple online income' or 'affiliate cash craze.' Maybe OP's point would have better legs if he focuses on more lucractive longtail keywords, hmmm? Just saying.

Absolutely. EMD were never dead brother, they just get better with age like good whiskey

Unless you put some original content on those, they'll all be de-indexed within a year and become useless.

Edited to Add: I've even had emds #1 for the primary keyword AND with original content that were de-indexed after a full year because of over-optimization, and those emds were much, much better than yours and the sites made money daily.

Are you serious?

This reminds me of a local used car dealer who once asked
me what I might be able to do for him to increase the amount of
business he gets from internet searches.

After suggesting a number of SEO strategies that could help he
told me he didn't need any of "that stuff" because he's already number
one in the "Google search."

He then proceeded to type his name into the search box and. lo and
behold, his name came up first in the SERP.

I just shook my head and asked him who's name he expected to come up.

I'd ask you the same question... I doubt that exact match phrase gets
any measurable amount of searches so what did you expect? What other
site should have come up?

Your "proof" is less than persuasive.

I'm fully aware there is NO search volume (except for those reading this post lol) for these phrases, and yes I agree with you Joan, if I leave them the way they are its just a matter of time before they're de-indexed....BUT

Doesn't this prove that those screaming about the death of EMDs are dead wrong?

Tsnyder - I'm not saying this is all you have to do to rank a site. And I'm not saying that this is the end all be all of SEO. All I'm saying is that EMDs are clearly NOT dead as I've heard so many times on these forums....thats it, nothing more, nothing less.

I have to agree, exact match domain will always have great value. However, when it comes to SEO, if you are trying to get the most amount of traffic and market coverage as you want, the name doesn't mean anything. You can rank 17893884993004.com for the same keywords as your exact match domain. Thing is, who cares if you rank for the EMD keyword if nobody searches for it and you get no traffic. Now having said this. EMD's that have a high search rating and are high competition are definately worth having. But if your EMD has any competition what so ever you will still have to do seo to rank, or you will be like many others and stay at the bottom of the serps watching your competition chissel away the gold.

LOL Steven - I knew I'd catch some flack for this post, but saying its BS? C'mon!

All I am setting out to prove is that EMDs are not dead - if you can prove otherwise, I'd love to see it. I'm completely open to hearing anyone's thoughts on this and/or seeing anything that disproves this.

Again, an EMD for a keyword with decent search volume that has a site with no or thin content will NOT rank like these have....that's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is that EMDs are not dead.

So if you've got an EMD and you've been hesitant to build a site on it because everyone is proclaiming they are of no value - go ahead and build the site, make it valuable to the end user with quality content on it and the EMD will only help you rank...

Those EMDs aren't exactly keywords though. I think that's what people are more concerned about. Having a domain "KitchenMixerReviews.com" and then spending all your SEO efforts ranking for Kitchen Mixer Reviews is what can no longer happen.

The domains you mentioned could be brands. eBay are always going to rank for eBay. Amazon for Amazon. And Warrior Forum for Warrior Forum.

I have over 9,000 EMDs in my network.. they are far from dead but like anything.. has to have unique content, backlinks, and be managed properly with the right keyword density.. otherwise ya its garbage.

EMDs were never dead, over optimization was always the problem (especially when they get exact match anchor text backlinks).

I would agree -- you have to balance out EMDs.. if your going to keep doing it then get yourself a good domain maturing platform espectually if your managing hundreds of them.

Points well taken Steve B and MarketingBees!

MarketingBees - I understand that someone won't easily rank for "kitchen mixer reviews" just having kitchenmixerreviews.com but wouldn't it still help them when the right content and SEO is employed?

For example - 2 identical sites, identical SEO work done, etc but one is kitchenmixerreviews.com and another is mixyourstuff.com, which one will rank higher? From what I see, it would be the EMD...

Steven - I'm not saying that at all.

This thread isn't about ranking a site "regardless of your domain name" (Well, duh!)

I'm saying that a site (with or without relevant content) on an EMD will rank higher than the exact same site without an EMD. And I could be wrong! But from what I've posted, I don't see how (and I'm still very open to seeing any type of proof to the contrary).

And just to be clear, I am a far cry from any type of SEO expert and never claimed to be. I just found something that disproved what has been reiterated here on the forums countless times and thought I'd share my findings for those interested...

And if you buy www. afkjeoirabvklaieaow.com, I bet it ranks on the first page for the search "afkjeoirabvklaieaow".

So what?

Your "proof", and I use that term loosely, does not show that EMD's have or have not lost value. It just proves that one can rank for a term nobody in the world is searching for with an EMD. You could also probably rank just as easily for the same term without the EMD and just with using that phrase as the title tag.

Google has to show some result.

I do not know anyone who has said that EMD's are dead though. However, Google does not give them any kind of artificial boost like they used to.

And if you want to find a legitimate example of an EMD ranking, Google "pregnancy". At least that is a worthwhile, often searched, term versus what you used.

Your like the only person on the net targeting that exact keyword phrase "affiliate cash craze".

Change this forum thread title to the exact keyword phrase & this thread will probably rank #1 without quotes.

Mike, that isn't even a word so I'm not sure how that disproves anything. But you make a very good point that google has to show something when I type that search term in - but why would they show something that isn't even a real site (like affiliatecashcraze.com) in their search terms? And I am frankly surprised that you never heard anyone say EMDs are dead though...it's been a fairly common debate for almost 2 yrs now, ever since something Matt Cutts said about the matter.

yukon - Yes, I believe I mentioned that nobody (outside of myself and maybe somebody reading this post) is searching for those terms. What shocked me (and the reason I posted this in the first place), was that a site with absolutely no content, even a domain without a site on it would rank in google AT ALL, let alone on the first page...

cbpayne - Absolutely true, correlation does not imply causation. But do you have any other way to explain why an empty "site" (if you can even call it that) would show up for any search term like affiliatecashcraze.com is? What do you see as the cause for this other than an EMD still has value in the eyes of google?

EMDs are not dead, they still provide a boost albeit a trivial one.

It really comes down to what you want.

Do you want that trivial boost with a stupid sounding domain name, or would you forgo the boost for a more brandable domain name.

GyuMan82 - Very well put and a well thought out question for anyone reading this (although I don't think all EMDs would be a stupid sounding domain name, even if the examples may be).

There is (again, in my opinion based on what I've shown here) obviously a boost for an EMD and like you said it may not be a large boost at that, but I just aimed to dispel all the talk about EMDs actually being dead and not helping rankings at all....

I do want to thank you and EVERY other person that's posted here, whether you agree with my post or not, I appreciate the input and welcome the discussion on the topic!

I totally agree with you, emds are actually very much alive. There are tons of them still ranking right now.

exact-match-domains-are-dead-i-cry-bullshit-see-the-proof-here.com is still available.

I've done the experiment on my own with EMD and at first it gets ranked than go down. It worked before but it has gone down. The problem is if you are writing a post with the exact keywords included plus you have it in the domain.com part it is like double keyword and starts getting flagged.