LOL here is a good one for you (how important are EMDs) Proof they are not

I never said they were the holy grail. I said the opposite in fact. An EMD alone will not put you on page one for most SERPs.

Just because one site has more backlinks than another site does not prove anything either. There could be a vast difference in the quality of the backlinks.

And if you really want to prove this, find 10, 20, 50, or more examples of this with a useful way to measure both the quality and quantity of the backlinks, the onpage factors, the content of the pages, etc. Then you can say whether or not EMDs play a role.

One example, a bad one at that, does not prove anything.

You are not paying attention. I never said that they were a miracle ranking mechanism. They do give a boost, but it's not a boost that cannot be overcome.

Nobody, who is not an idiot, has ever said that an EMD is necessary to be #1, like you seem to be insinuating.

I disagree about the anchor text. I have #1 rankings for some keywords where I do not have a single backlink with anchor text matching that keyword. You can find plenty of examples of this same thing. Someone yesterday in another thread posted the SERP "buy green tennis shoes". The #2 site does not have links with that anchor text in it. Explain that one.

Unless you are going to provide the URLs of the sites, there is no point in even mentioning this.

Ok. Just think of it this way. If everything else is equal... two sites have the same quality of backlinks, nearly identical content, same on page factors, etc., but one has an EMD and the other does not, which one ranks higher?

There is your answer.

Your one example (and again, a bad one at that), does not overrule what so many other people have found to be true.

This is the point I have been trying to make the entire time. There are far too many variables for you to draw the conclusion that EMDs don't work. Even if their rankings were reversed, there are too many other factors to say that it is 100% proof that EMDs do work.

Outwest I own maybe 3 or 4 EMDs out of a whole bunch I have not numbered so I am not a blind advocate of EMDs. However you have a bee in your bonnet about EMDs and frankly you use poor logic.

You make ridiculous comments like EMDs have no significance etc. Too far is all. Using your logic in this thread if you do a search for "click here" it would prove that content is of no significant weight because Adobe manages to rank for that term without the keywords on page. :rolleyes:

As a matter of fact there were some Yoyos that used to run around in here about two years back claiming just that - content does not matter its just links and they used that single example (despite the fact that that was always a very exclusive example that no one was ever going to reproduce because they don't own the world's most widely known online document viewer - adobe pdf)

Now you are not a Yoyo because there is a point to what you say but you are arguing like anyone believes that Google's algo is not a layered one. Sure you can overcome the effect of an EMD with a site that has more links but just like the "click here" example it does not mean tht EMDs have no boosting factor. It just means that in a layered algo with many factors you can overcome one with another.

Yukon,

Whether or not they work and whether or not they are useful are two different arguments.

I agree with you. I don't put too much stock into their value.

However, I have no doubt that they work.

This really is the crux of it and it's why I moved away from EMDs long ago.

Wish we could all be SEO gurus like you

Man I could kick myself for not understanding just how valuable EMDs are
I got to get searching now, thanks for explaining that to me

outwest,

Your keyword is still "Batangas Beach Resorts", right?

When I purchase a domain I do keep the topic I want the website in mind for the potential URL. Out of pure luck it looks like an EMD, except that it has other words in it, usually at the end.

Now, there are certain keywords that I won't buy as a URL; anything way to specific is definitely out.

The keyword I choose for my domains is as general as I can get it for that SPECIFIC topic, but of course it does have a generous search volume to go along with it.

I Do this so that I won't be hindered on what I can write about on that topic. If I created a website like: fastbluecars.com, then I will be limited to writing about blue cars that go fast. If I want to write about other kinds of cars then I would have to create a new website.

Well lets say that I just want to write about fast cars in general, no matter the colour. Then I would buy a domain that mentions fast cars; fastcars.com, listoffastcars.com, etc etc. Or at least something along those lines.

Even though I prefer that the keywords that I put in the title have a good search volume, I don't rely on having an EMD like domain to get me my rankings.

Do EMDs help in rankings? Yes, but how much? Not as much as the fanatics think, and better than the naysayers say.

Now, if you are a business, and you want to BRAND yourself, well then that is something entirely different. You would have the main URL as your company name, or whichever one you wanted to brand. You don't need to go changing your website into a nondescript generalized site, just for SEO purposes.

-- Jeff

I agree but they are far from COST-effective.