keyword rich domains don't help w/ranking?

7 replies
I was told by the owner of a web dev co. the other day that keyword rich domains no longer help w/ranking since the panda update.

Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks.
#domains #keyword #ranking #rich #w or ranking
  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    I disagree, but it depends on how you use them. If you overdo it with the optimization on the rest of the site, the emd just aggravates to the Google spam-o-meter.

    If you're smart with them, they still help.

    You always have to watch for over optimization, but with EMD moreso.
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Exact Match Domain names are more closely watched for over optimization. But if your website has the following things, it should be safe;

      At least 30-50 pages of content.
      at least 60% of the incoming links are nofollow.
      At least half the incoming links point to other pages besides the home page
      The title tags aren't over optimized
      Your keywords density is under 2%. 1% is better.
      You have a few links going out.
      Your internal links point to pages other than the home page at least 50%
      You have a few links from videos sites, Facebook, etc.

      You'll be pretty safe.

      Don't repeat keywords in the Domain name. Don't use dashes ( -) between words in the domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    I can confirm the opposite.

    Just launched a site in the plumbing industry... city + keyword as the domain name.

    Has nothing on it, it's just the skeleton.

    It's #10 in Yahoo for 2 keywords, #18 and #20.
    It's #12,13,18,20,27 in Bing (12 is the main keyword, the others are closely related)
    It's #25 for the main keyword in Google and #57 for the plural form of the keyword.


    On January 8, 2013 I launched another site
    domain name is
    best+keyword+city.com
    I'm not interested in the best version.
    I got busy with other things, didn't do anything with it, just put
    content on the home page, created categories.

    On January 10th, 2 days later, it premiered in Google at
    58 (the keyword I'm after)
    36 (the plural of the keyword I'm after).

    Yesterday, I checked positions again
    I'm at 23 (from 58) and 22 (from 36).
    In addition, I'm 84,47,45,35,83 for some other keywords.

    My point, I launched pre-Panda EDM's, equal keyword difficulty,
    and the opening positions were similar and I had a bunch or related keywords
    pop up within a short time in about similar positions.

    So, my experience, it's working nicely.




    Originally Posted by PaulintheSticks View Post

    I was told by the owner of a web dev co. the other day that keyword rich domains no longer help w/ranking since the panda update.

    Can anyone confirm this?

    Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Robert Domino
      Originally Posted by DABK View Post

      I can confirm the opposite.
      Same here.

      Keyword domains are extremely powerful. I have some domains with no links and very little SEO (since I ended up never working on them) and they still rank #1 after whatever the latest Google updates are.

      No 50 pages.
      No links or a handful.
      No nothing.

      Still #1.

      Obviously it wouldn't be enough in very competitive markets but for your average local SEO? It's one of the biggest factor in the algorithm that I've found.
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by Robert Domino View Post

        Same here.

        Keyword domains are extremely powerful. I have some domains with no links and very little SEO (since I ended up never working on them) and they still rank #1 after whatever the latest Google updates are.

        No 50 pages.
        No links or a handful.
        No nothing.

        Still #1.

        Obviously it wouldn't be enough in very competitive markets but for your average local SEO? It's one of the biggest factor in the algorithm that I've found.
        Amazingly, it's your lack of any SEO on the websites that protects them.
        Google is looking for all the SEO we do to get our websites ranked. Now, those things can get you penalized. But we just need to be more intelligent about it.

        Yes, it's very difficult to get penalized for doing nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author The IM Factory
    EMD work but you have to handle them with care, they aren't as efficient as they were. Here is a good article with some tips: You can check out this Article by SEOMoz I hope it helps: The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs | SEOmoz
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  • Profile picture of the author linkmetro
    R u kidding? I'm started using free websites to rank also. Take 2 days to rank in top 3 place.
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