Keyword in Domain Is Beneficial, Right?

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  • SEO
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I'm pretty sure that the EMD penalty everyone went on about was blown completely out of proportion.

In fact, I think that it's better to have your keyword in the domain (when you look in the SERP's you always seem to see EMD's ranked highly).

Just want to confirm that this is the case, as I'm planning on using an EMD for a change, instead of a brandable name.

What about using the KW followed by a suffix. For example, the KW is TV Reviews, but the word world/bay/zone/city etc is tapped onto the end of it?
#beneficial #domain #keyword
  • Profile picture of the author jupiter0
    I have a huge amount of research on this, and what I have found is that: age of domain very important.

    The first words of the domain should be your main keywords.

    The first word of your description and title should be your main keywords.

    Quality and quantity of backlinks, esp DMOZ. Google loves that directory site the most of all the links you can get, it should start with that one.
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  • Profile picture of the author dome
    EMD or Keyword rich domain was always beneficial and will forever.

    but remember tiny site with low content low backlinks will always get hit even if your EMD or non EMD domain.

    work on your site with ON SITE SEO + try to add more quality content.
    Then go for Quality backlinks you'll get most of your EMD
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  • Profile picture of the author smodha
    Despite what your hear, EMDs still rank. I have sites that are still ranking after all the Google <insert animal name> updates.

    However, I have stopped using them for two reasons:

    1) There's always an unnecessary cost involved. Every time you target a keyword or product launch, you have to register a new domain name. This sucks especially as the domain you want is probably long gone.

    2) Building an authority site is the way forward. You can rank for any keyword (without purchasing domain names or running into copyright issues) and over time, it's easier to outrank the competition as you will be building up authority/PR and therefore will require little or no backlinking.
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    • Profile picture of the author dreamtoreality
      Originally Posted by smodha View Post

      Despite what your hear, EMDs still rank. I have sites that are still ranking after all the Google <insert animal name> updates.

      However, I have stopped using them for two reasons:

      1) There's always an unnecessary cost involved. Every time you target a keyword or product launch, you have to register a new domain name. This sucks especially as the domain you want is probably long gone.

      2) Building an authority site is the way forward. You can rank for any keyword (without purchasing domain names or running into copyright issues) and over time, it's easier to outrank the competition as you will be building up authority/PR and therefore will require little or no backlinking.
      1. Not if you're focusing on just 1 niche, such as TV review, power tool reviews, car radio reviews etc. I never understand why people target just 1 product.

      2. That's what I usually do. I typically go broad, but in this case, there only seems to be one niche that fits my criteria. I thought I might as well go down the KW in the domain route, as I'm only focusing on 1 type of product, and the KW - ABC Reviews - gets a decent number of searches a month.
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      • Profile picture of the author smodha
        Originally Posted by dreamtoreality View Post

        1. Not if you're focusing on just 1 niche, such as TV review, power tool reviews, car radio reviews etc. I never understand why people target just 1 product.

        2. That's what I usually do. I typically go broad, but in this case, there only seems to be one niche that fits my criteria. I thought I might as well go down the KW in the domain route, as I'm only focusing on 1 type of product, and the KW - ABC Reviews - gets a decent number of searches a month.
        I have several sites targeting one KW in the top #10. They move around a bit but generally it's the top #5/10 and they convert well.

        These are sites that I created in Q4 2012 and still rank. But I agree with you. There is no value in creating "product name" or "product name review" domains anymore. The self life is 1 year MAX.
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  • Profile picture of the author RazorSharpSamurai
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    I would keep away from EMD. This way you have less to worry about. Some people still actually go for it, but what is the point when you can rank the same keyword with a brand domain? I don't think Google gives any boost for EMD since their updates.

    Create a Brand Domain. Rank for a Main Keyword and in your inner pages, use the keyword you want in the URL.

    Example:
    http://www.LegendaryHotdgs.com
    http://www.LegendaryHotdgs.com/best-hot-dogs-intown/

    If "best hot dogs intown" is your keyword your trying to rank.
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  • I feel google will eventually push away from EMD's completely. They are going for more brand-able domains now.
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    • Profile picture of the author smodha
      Originally Posted by TheSeoGuy89 View Post

      I feel google will eventually push away from EMD's completely. They are going for more brand-able domains now.
      I doubt that very much. Most companies/brands are EMDs.

      If you're referring to them in a strictly SEO sense then I will say this. EMDs have or will lose the ranking power they once had. But that's not to say you can't rank them.

      With EMDs, it boils down to two factors: backlinks and competition. You can outrank the competition based on the quality of your links or you target a keyword that has zero competition.

      For example, you could rank "www.supermooncakessuckassweed.com" because it has zero competition and doesn't make any sense (I just made it up). In fact, you can test this theory with any made up word.
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      • Profile picture of the author SuperoMarketing
        I use EMDs all of the time and they still rank just as well as they did before the so called EMD penalty was unleashed in my opinion.

        It just depends on how competitive your keyword is and the type of backlinks that link to it.

        But don't take my word for it, run your own tests. I see people on here saying certain things don't work all of the time when I know from my testing that they do.

        I have an EMD domain sitting on page 1 of Google right now for a keyword that gets 22,000 exact match searches per month, monetizing it with Adsense, and making good money.

        As far as I'm concerned, EMDs work great. They increase click throughs to your site, they have your target keyword in the title which make them very relevant to the searcher, and they still rank just as well.
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