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Exact Match Domains worth developing anymore?

by wsmreviews
27 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I am sure this has been discussed here, but I was not able to find a thread on it.

Since Google started penalizing "low quality" Exact Match domain sites back in September, have exact match domains lost their sale value? And furthermore is it worth developing exact match domains anymore in attempt to get the top rank for the exact match keyword.

I have a keyword domain that gets over 10,000 searches a month, with relatively little competition. Thinking about developing it but don't want to waste time if this is a loosing battle.

Thoughts?
#anymore #developing #domains #exact #match #worth
  • Profile picture of the author Al amin
    All of your answer regarding EMD here...

    The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs | SEOmoz

    Hope this will help.
    Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Rbtmarshall
    Exact match domains are still good to have. think if you were searching for something and the header and snippet were identical for the top 2 results, would you rather click on an EMD or not


    "New exact-match domain (EMD) algo affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin." - Matt Cutts


    there are two separate issues: a low quality site, and exact match domains.
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  • Profile picture of the author wsmreviews
    Thanks guys. Very informative article. Answered all of my questions and gives me the confidence to go ahead on development with a couple of my EMDs.
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  • Profile picture of the author MonitorScout
    You've answered your question by your own knowingly or unknowingly.
    As you said "Since Google started penalizing "low quality" Exact Match domain sites back in September"


    I have highlighted the word above; yes that is the answer- LOW QUALITY
    Exact match domains doesn't have lost their sale value, but you have to be very careful while you start optimizing the site from both perspective building back link & on page optimization.


    More over it has to be high quality website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anomalous
    I personally don't find value in EMDs. Concern for having one represents a dependence on search traffic. It can also mean the importance of branding is being overlooked.

    Don't put all your eggs in the search basket. Except for basic on page SEO, I've stopped focusing on SEO entirely. I save an incredible amount of time this way, and make more money focusing my efforts elsewhere.
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny10
      Originally Posted by Anomalous View Post

      I personally don't find value in EMDs. Concern for having one represents a dependence on search traffic. It can also mean the importance of branding is being overlooked.

      Don't put all your eggs in the search basket. Except for basic on page SEO, I've stopped focusing on SEO entirely. I save an incredible amount of time this way, and make more money focusing my efforts elsewhere.
      Where do you focus your efforts?
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      • Profile picture of the author J Bold
        Originally Posted by Danny10 View Post

        Where do you focus your efforts?
        if you check his sig it's looking like PPC to me.
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        • Profile picture of the author Anomalous
          Originally Posted by J Bold View Post

          if you check his sig it's looking like PPC to me.
          Yes, PPC, but that is not what I was thinking of when I responded to the OP.

          Where you place your focus is niche dependent. I have been in many niches: self-help was my first, then sports, skin care, dating, real estate...

          I now focus strictly on IM. I have learned so much about it, it just makes sense.

          I use traffic exchanges and PTC ad platforms. I only use PPC when I'm in other niches like the ones I mentioned above. My efforts are focused on list building now. And, under no circumstances, will I use solo ads and safelists to build my lists.

          I also focus on guest posting and classified ads. And when I say classifieds, I mean strictly white hat, staying with in the TOS of the classified ads service.

          I also have an ebook in circulation that brings me a substantial amount of traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author napoleonfirst
    Well, big G takes into consideration A LOT oif factors when it comes to search engine rankings and the exact match of a domain is important but it is just ONE factor among a lot of them inside the algorithm of Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
    Some points to consider:

    http://domainprofitsacademy.com/unde...-match-domains
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  • Profile picture of the author raffman999
    You said it yourself: "low quality" exact match domains. It's the "low quality" bit that's important part; EMDs still work, but your content needs to be unique, high quality, engaging and frequently updated.

    Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author ArielT
      Originally Posted by MonitorScout View Post

      Exact match domains doesn't have lost their sale value, but you have to be very careful while you start optimizing the site from both perspective building back link & on page optimization.
      careful in what?
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    Snap out the EMD mindset and free yourself.

    Tumblr, Yahoo, Google, Twitter, Pinterest.... no "EMs" in those "Ds".....
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    • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
      Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

      Snap out the EMD mindset and free yourself.

      Tumblr, Yahoo, Google, Twitter, Pinterest.... no "EMs" in those "Ds".....
      EMDs and brandables serve two different purposes. If you have a massive budget and want to focus your effort on one website for years to come, choose a brandable. A brandable name takes a long time and large promotional budget to become recognized.

      If you want your website to be recognized immediately, get the benefits of higher click-through rates in the SERPs, build many secondary keyword specific sites using EMDs.

      Or, combine both. If you're building a long-term brand, choose a brandable domain name and use EMDs as secondary "gateway" sites leading prospects back to your main "brand" site using the power of keyword-specific searches.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rbtmarshall
      Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

      Snap out the EMD mindset and free yourself.

      Tumblr, Yahoo, Google, Twitter, Pinterest.... no "EMs" in those "Ds".....

      As mentioned above. Those companies also had million dollar venture capital budgets to promote their brands initially. If Google were a domain name owned by anyone in our warriorforum crowd, it would probably just be an outdated landing page on page 200 of search.com results
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  • Profile picture of the author thedanbrown
    I think they've lost their seo value in terms of purely ranking but people are more likely to click exact match domains
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    Two people in a row stated "EMDs get a higher click rate."

    What test was this? I would assume the title of the index page would be more responsible for 'click throughs.'

    Where are you guys getting this data from? Have you tested a brandable domain and an EMD against each other?
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    • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
      Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

      Two people in a row stated "EMDs get a higher click rate."

      What test was this? I would assume the title of the index page would be more responsible for 'click throughs.'

      Where are you guys getting this data from? Have you tested a brandable domain and an EMD against each other?
      My own experience as a full time domainer for 9+ years. I own thousands of domains, and EMDs almost always perform better in SERPS. The title is a major factor. However, when using the same title on a EMD and non-EMD, the EMD wins in most cases. This is assuming everything else is equal.
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  • Profile picture of the author rankingconsult
    We develop numerous domains for clients and the EMD ones definately get to a higher ranking in Google QUICKER than the others, but not any higher overall, given the same amount of effort. Content, after all, and after some time, is still king.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lightlysalted
    I've found that exact march domains still work very well to be fair. My traffic is still holding up well.
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    • Profile picture of the author ArielT
      Originally Posted by Paid Surveys View Post

      I've found that exact march domains still work very well to be fair. My traffic is still holding up well.
      Do you put the word/s in your domain as keyword site? Do you use wordpress or static html?
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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    I use EMD for niche products stores in eCommerce. There was about a week and a half where a lot of my niche stores lost a lot of traffic but within a couple days they returned to their position.

    The reason why I chose EMD is because I wanted to target traffic for items that weren't branded that someone might only search up based on keywords- and the monthly amount of traffic was relatively low but still worth ranking for.

    I also chose EMD's at the time because I was spending too much time and effort trying to "brand" my sites as a good majority of the names I wanted to use were already taken. Because I buy about 200 domains a month and have sites built based on the items Im selling, it's much easier for me to use keyword heavy domain names but making sure the domain name itself doesn't become unreasonably long.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joey Starkey
    I don't do much with domains any more as I have discovered and found my niche with list building. But I do know Gene Pimentel and know of his expertise in domains.(Not sure if you remember me Gene but I made some pretty good money with your advice).

    It is amazing to me where the info ever came that EMD were disliked by Google. All Google did was make a little adjustment that made it a little more difficult for an EMD to rank. It used to be that a pretty much blank website using an EMD would be found on the 1st page of Google.

    If they have a developed site with a EMD ( I have several ) they still rank just fine. More then one o fmine are on the #1 position.

    It really just depends upon what you want to do with that domain.

    Good Luck to all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ten
    I've mostly stopped pursuing EMD's.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Rbtmarshall View Post

      Exact match domains are still good to have. think if you were searching for something and the header and snippet were identical for the top 2 results, would you rather click on an EMD or not
      Truthfully? I'll click on the non-EMD first, pretty much every time. Especially if I'm looking for reviews or product specs/support. I know from experience that the EMD most likely belongs to someone who is relying on the EMD to sell something.

      I will click on a partial match, though. As in the product manufacturer's home site, or a page on a major retailer like Amazon. Much like the distrust .info domains had for awhile, I've learned to distrust EMDs for long tail searches.

      Good thing for all you micro-site, EMD operators that I'm not your average prospect, eh?


      Originally Posted by Rbtmarshall View Post

      "New exact-match domain (EMD) algo affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin." - Matt Cutts


      there are two separate issues: a low quality site, and exact match domains.
      Now this part rings true...
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  • Profile picture of the author GamingOn
    Just make good EMDs and you will not have a problem ranking!

    I have exact match domains that rank top ten for domain keyword as well as other keywords. For example phlebotomy uniform the domain is Phlebotomy Tips.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dani16
    Its worth only thing is update with one 500W article unique content for every 2-3 months
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