Importance of an Exact Match Domain in Light of Penguin Updates

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  • SEO
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If you were looking to get a top 5 ranked website for the terms 'rabbit races' 'red rabbit races' and 'red rabbit' how would you decide what domain name to get?

Follow up question on that, lets say you wanted the domain 'rabbitraces.com' but that domain was taken. Could you just get 'rabbitracesx.com' and it would have the same affect (by simply adding an extra letter)?

Also, since 'over-optimizing' a website has hurt many top ranked sites recently, would it be best to simply get a domain name that is a brand name and create sub pages with the terms I want, i.e., brandname.com/rabbit-races, brandname.com/red-rabbit-races, and so forth?
#domain #exact #importance #light #match #penguin #updates
  • Profile picture of the author Cosmit
    rabbitraces.com << Matches "rabbit races" exactly.
    rabbitracesx.com << Contains "rabbit races" but has 1 additional character, which could be characterized as another word.
    brandname.com/rabbit-races << Contains "rabbit races"in the URL, but not in hostname.

    If you were designing a search engine, which one would you naturally favor more? Which one is the second one? and third? The amount of "boost" you get from matching domains is debatable. But overall, this gives you an idea.

    If I decided that my niche is "rabbit races" then I would set it up something like this.

    For top level domain I would go for the LARGER keyword. For example

    rabbitraces.com
    rabbitraces123.com
    123rabbitraces.com

    And then for every "smaller" keyword within the niche, such as "red rabbit races" or "blue rabbit races" I would do:

    rabbitraces.com/red-rabbit-races.html
    rabbitraces.com/blue-rabbit-races.html

    and so on.

    The bottom line is, more importantly than picking the right domain name is picking the right niche. You can create a successful website with a stupid domain, so long as you have the right niche.

    In case nobody noticed, the #1 website for "dog training" is "dog-obedience-training-reivew.com". The stupidest domain i've ever seen. But it's #1 and it dominates it because they put in the effort and focused on 1 specific niche.

    Blessed art thou who picketh the right niche and not dwell on silly minute things like domain names.
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    • Profile picture of the author Adamw
      Yeah I agree, I'd still go for an exact match where possible, but I don't think it is as important as it used to be. You now need to make sure you have secondary keywords on their own page or category and optimise those on their own page. Leave your home page for your main keyword and let the other pages support them with the longer-tailed keywords, but above all else have lots of unique, relevant fresh content.

      As a personal preference I don't like seeing an x added to the end of a domain just to get a close exact match. I wouldn't be surprised if these sites aren't targeted in the next Google update.
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