Is Purchasing Exact Match domain worth it? 100,000 searches/month

Even if you buy that exact match domain, that's no guarantee you'll even be able to compete with other sites for that term - Google now places far less emphasis on EMDs than a few years back.

The most important thing in a domain, in my opinion, is potential for branding.

If you can come up with another domain name that represents your brand effectively, you won't need to spend $10K to have a branded web address.

Also, be mindful that a generic domain name may not even be best for branding your business, and you might do better by having a creative and interesting domain name.

Daniel

It's a case by case basis, IMO. Some EMD are a lot better and more brandable than others.

My guess is that spending $10k on a generic domain like that won't pay off. Yes, it may show 100k searches per month, but for such a generic term, you have no clue what the searcher's intent was.

Assuming that every searcher was looking to buy the product is a leap of faith even Evel Knievel would balk at. (For those who don't know, EK was a daredevil famous for making outrageous motorcycle jumps. Over the course of his career, he managed to break just about every bone in his body, some of them multiple times.)

I'd look for a domain that more closely reflects buyer intent, especially since you're talking about direct linking to an affiliate offer.

Personally I don't think I'd ever spend $10k on a domain, but that's just me

No guarantee you will rank, depends on the competition already ranking for it and how well you build the site. You would have to build it into an authority with a lot of original content and quality contextual backlinks.

EMDs are worth it if it's short and common, like from your example.

If it's a long common phrase, forget about it. It has no added benefited anymore.

One issue with exact match domains is that there's so many TLDs now a days, that there's a number of "exact match domains available.

If it were me and I couldn't get the same "exact match" domain using another TLD, I'd find an .xyz domain on NameCheap for 18 cents that's close to the EMD, then spend $999.82 on content, $1000 on SEO/Links, $2975 on PPC campaigns, $25 to have a pizza delivered including tip, and save the other $5000.

If you are talking for SEO purposes - the simple answer is NO.

These days it does not really matter if you have an exact match domain name or not.

It is all about High Quality Content and Popularity - in the SEO World of Today.

Using keywords in a domain name is becoming less and less important.

Just saying!

Once upon a time this would net you assured traffic, much less so these days, although I still see it working in some cases-there is not hard and fast rule, but the current wisdom of the day is Branding, Google tell us to build a brand and stop going for the obvious route, but some niches still persist with using exact match domains. Testing is the only true way of finding out, but that is not viable also sometimes. I would not spend that money, if you have 10K to spend you will be better off investing in good quality SEO services and advertising campaigns on social media, especially YouTube & Facebook (huge traffic which can be targeted very easily) The benefit-to-return ratio is not high enough for a 10K investment in a mere domain name, the domain name will not equal traffic.Spend your money on marketing it will be a much more intelligent investment.

For my personally, I don't think the EMD with 100k traffic will cost $10k because having that domain is not enough to gain revenue than you invest. It's also related to build a landing page with SEO friendly, the customer services and many things if you want to sell product related.

Thank you all very much. I think I will pass on this. It looks like it is uncertain if you will ever recoup your investment, and looks like the $$ can be better used elsewhere. Thanks for the insight!

It is a No-GO in my opinion. EMDs are not ranked as easily as it used to be a few years ago. It is the authority sites that are ruling the roost now. And content is the king. It is better off you rather build an authority site with a brand able domain, in my opinion.

I can't argue with many of the opinions, but I would point out that every day and every way voice search is becoming the trend of the future, particularly on smartphones. And if the popularity of devices like Echo are any indication, having an EMD wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I think it depends on the seriousness of your investment. Is this like a start-up type thing or are you just looking to supplement your income? If it's the former and you have the money, I'd go with the EMD.

Still, that doesn't mean that the EMD has to be your brand. It could just be a redirect. A way of covering your ass or using it for certain ad campaigns, but not necessarily all.

I'd also like to mention that brandbles can also cost a few dollars more. If you want to take a look at a good brandble selection check out Brand Bucket (I'm not an affiliate).

There is not doubt in my mind that one or two word "EMD" domains are given a significant boost in search rankings. After two keywords they lose value.

This alone is reason enough NOT to spend money on your domain in question.

Steve

Well again I've bought & sold domain names for a number of years so I may have a different viewpoint than others.

I looked at your example -

Average Monthly Search Stats - Broad Match - creatine
Monthly Searches: 2,777,600
Cost Per Click: $0.92 USD
Ad Competition: low
Data Age: Recent

Average Monthly Search Stats - Exact Match - [creatine]
Monthly Searches: 204,600
Cost Per Click: $0.82 USD
Ad Competition: low
Data Age: Recent

So if it is a no-trademark well-known generic product term similar to "creatine".. is $10K not a BARGAIN? It's also what you call a category killer domain name that has resale value. I'm not a huge fan of Estibot.com but they place a $122,000 value on creatine(.com) but I think it has more potential value. Often Estibot is not the most accurate by undervaluing & overvaluing domains... sometimes drastically. Go ahead & enter your domain in question to see what value they place on it. Check NameBio.com to see if there were past "reported" sales with the keyword you are talking about to see what prices they sold for.

I don't know what domain name you are talking about so I don't know if your exact match domain matches the quality of "creatine" but if does... maybe $10K is a good investment.