Does not having an exact match domain really take a lot longer to rank?

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15
So has anyone done any real world testing as far as how much longer it takes to rank a site when you don't have an exact match domain and had to add a suffix like "review", "hq" "site", etc. to end of the keyword for the domain (all else being the same as far as onpage SEO and offpage SEO?

If a keyword that takes like 3 weeks to get to page 1 with an exact match domain and you did the exact same thing as far as onpage and offpage for another domain and the only difference was the domain was not exact match (had a suffix added, but still had the keyword there) would like like take twice as long to rank, another week, same time?

I'm trying to redo some of my sites that got hit (all these were exact match domains) and wondering if I should expect a longer time this time around as far as getting the rankings I did last time with those exact match?

Also when you can't get a exact match domain is there a word or suffix that seems to work better to emulate a exact match domain or it doesn't really matter what other words, letters, numbers you add at the end of the keyword? I've heard from others that adding a "z", "x" "v" will better than say using "review", "hq", "site", "1", etc. when it comes to ranking a domain that is not exact match.

Anyone have any feedback or findings they would like to share?
#search engine optimization #domain #exact #longer #lot #rank
  • I don't have any case studies, but I think on-page optimization is more important than EMD. Obviously, if you have EMD it is better but adding a word after, you should be able to rank almost as quickly, and if done right you can probably beat out the site with EMD.
  • Another question regarding exact match domain is regarding plural and singular. If the plural version say gets 3000 exact searches a month and singular gets 500 exact searches a month, but .com/net/org/info are all taken for plural while net/org/info is still available for singular should I go with the say .net with singular or take the plural and use a .com by adding an extra letter or word at the end?

    If I take the singular .net version and just optimized the site for the plural version as far as title, meta description, h1, article content on homepage will rank quickly enough for the plural version (assuming I do proper offpage SEO as well) compared to doing the exact same onpage SEO and offpage, but using the plural version with the added suffix?
  • The amount of SEO boost you receive from having an EMD is so incredibly small. There's really no reason to worry about it at all. Just pick the domain name you want the most. Whether it's EMD or not, it really doesn't matter that much.

    I usually choose an EMD because I'll take the EXTREMELY small edge, and my laziness prevents me from trying to come up with something more creative.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for the info. So if you were in my position as far as which domain to pick when it comes to the singular/plural example I gave in my last post which one would you go with?

      Also is the whole microniche site method still working out for you guys? I'm about to start over with some of my sites that got hit with Penguin and get those that were good earners back on the SERPs with new domains and new content. So can we still get some page 1 rankings if we just at first do like 5 posts per site to see where our rankings are and then build up from there? Right now I don't see many of the those exact match domain/microniche sites on the first page like before when I was doing my keyword research.

      Any feedback?
      • [1] reply
  • I've had it so much easier to rank with an EMD. I don't even have backlinks to one of my sites and it ranks far better than my non-emd with like 1k backlinks. They aren't the same of course but I don't even have backlinks built to my EMD and it ranks far higher.
    • [1] reply
    • Well that might be just to the low competition for that niche and if you got say a domain and added suffix to it and put up similar, but unique content and then compare the two then we could come to a conclusion if an EMD really makes that much of a difference. I think comparing two different niches with EMDs might be the best way to tell.
  • Yes it takes longer time to rank a website without the exact match domain than a website with exact match domain. But don't have any case studies or examples to prove that.
  • But not as easy as it was before Penguin in my experience.
  • Exact match domains appear to still be in the game. Mine have actually increased in rankings with very little backlinking.
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    Does not having an exact match domain really take a lot longer to rank?

    So has anyone done any real world testing as far as how much longer it takes to rank a site when you don't have an exact match domain and had to add a suffix like "review", "hq" "site", etc. to end of the keyword for the domain (all else being the same as far as onpage SEO and offpage SEO? If a keyword that takes like 3 weeks to get to page 1 with an exact match domain and you did the exact same thing as far as onpage and offpage for another domain and the only difference was the domain was not exact match (had a suffix added, but still had the keyword there) would like like take twice as long to rank, another week, same time?