Exact Match Domains have been in the SEO news quite a bit the last year, so I thought I’d toss my own opinion into the mix and provide some guidance on the topic. Be prepared for a long read, I’ve  thrown out over 4500 words on the topic.

What Are Exact Match Domains?

Exact Match Domains are domain names that match a search term one would type into a search engine exactly.

Here’s some made-up examples:

• EffectiveCancerTreatments.com
• BuyHomeInsurance.org
• MakeMoneyFromHome.net
• CheapIphone4Cases.com
• BlackDogCollars.org
• Mortgages.com
• Insurance.net
• CreditCards.org
• WorkFromHome.org
• HowtoMakeMoneyOnline.net
• PianoChairs.net
• CancerTreatments.info

I’m sure if you do a keyword search for just about every product out there, you’ll turn up exact match domains in almost every niche.

About 2 – 3 years ago, it was still possible to register new Exact Match Domains (with decent traffic) but most of such terms have been registered by either domainers or internet markers who’ve tried to capitalize on the easy SERP rankings EMD’s have provided for the keyword.

Premium Exact Match Domains

These are often considered the “holy grail” of domain names — those domains that you “have to have but probably can never afford.” Every niche has one (certainly the money-making niches) and quite often it’s possible to find the .com, .net, or .org for sale — from anywhere from 500 bucks to hundreds of thousands.

I consider valuable 1 word generics, 2 word generics, and high traffic / high cpc 3 word domains as premium exact match domains. They are “premium” because you either can’t register these domain names anymore or if they are for sale, you pay x,xxx to xxx,xxx figures for them. They are a highly limited commodity. These are often the EMD’s that you see ranking for very high traffic terms.

Some examples of premium EMD’s might be:

• SkinCare.net
• Acne.org
• PaydayLoans.org
• Cars.com
• TravelGuide.com
• WeddingDresses.net
• SEO.org
• CheapTravelInsurance.net

 

There’s a big difference between Premium Exact Match Domains and regular exact match domains. “Acne.org” is a far superior domain name (in both raw traffic and brandability) than “HowtoTreatAcneQuickly.org”.

What’s the Big Deal with EMD’s?

Well, the “deal” is, Joe, that Google seems to heavily favor having the keyword in the domain as a ranking signal. If you happen to have a keyword TLD (.com, .net, .org) that exactly matches keyword entered into the search box, you get an even “bigger” ranking boost. It’s been no “secret” to SEO’s and IM’ers who know there stuff that EMD’s could help you rank way easier than if you don’t have an EMD. In many cases, you could jump into a fairly competitive niche and beat out the competition with far less backlinks (and content) just by having an EMD.

Quite a few SEO’s have been crying foul about the ranking bonuses EMD’s have been providing. There are claims that EMD’s are skewing the SERPS. Truth be told, part of the issue is that thousands of marketers have been putting out low quality mini sites on keyword domains, which to quite a few people means the web sewer has grown substantially.You can thank programs like Xfactor and Google Sniper for helping to fuel this craze.

The Benefits of an Exact Match Domain

There are a number of benefits to having an Exact Match Domain. Now, you can rank ANY website for any term and you certainly don’t need to have an Exact Match Domain to compete in your niche. But by Golly, it can sure help — and with more than just ranking.

 

1. You Rank Better with Exact Match Domains

SEO’s have known this for years, but it seems like the general “public” is just starting to catch up on this. You get a HUGE SEO boost just by having an EMD. Just having the EMD itself in low comp niches is enough to land you on the first page for that term, perhaps even close to the top spot.

Why should Google/Bing/Yahoo put a lot of weight on EMD’s for the EMD’s keyword? Search engines can only evaluate information algorithmically, using a number of different “signals” to determine how information should be ranked. One of the strongest signals about the relevancy of a website IS if the keyword in a domain. Even more so if the exact keywords ARE that domain.

 

2. Your “Click” CTR is higher with Exact Match Domains

EMD’s bring other benefits to the table, other than just giving you better rankings.

 

Search Engine CTR is Higher

It’s (now) common knowledge that search engines put a lot of weight on EMD’s for ranking. However, what many people don’t realize is that your search engine click CTR is actually higher with an EMD than with a non-EMD.

Why? There’s a strong psychological “trust” when you see an exact match domain for the keyword you type in. There have been a number of studies about this, but it seems people “like” to see EMD’s on the front page of SEARCH engines.

Think about it this way, if you are searching for “Pianio Chairs” in google and see the following results:

1. SpidersWorld.com

2. ChairWholesale.org

3. MyPersonalBlogStory.info

4. Pianochairs.com

5. PianoStore.com

6. PianosbyJudy.

7. Furniture.com

What result can you be sure relates most closely to the term you just typed in? If you guessed pianochairs.com, you guessed it right. Even though Pianochairs.com might NOT be ranked number one (you’ll find it usually might be, however), it will have a higher click rate than if the domain was not the exact keyword. It’s quite possible to take a fair share of the search traffic even if your domain is ranked say #7-8 and NOT number 1, IF you’re domain is the only Exact Match Domain on the front page (and even more so if the keyword is not in the other domains).

The fact that by just having an EMD can mean you get more “traffic” to your site (regardless of the SEO benefits) is HUGE.

There is also another reason: the keywords in the EMD (which means the entire URL root itself) are bolded. You can see in the image below that Google bolds your target search keywords in the domain results. This helps to increase the CTR. The same thing happens if your URL shows up on the Adwords sidebar too.

 

PPC CTR is Higher

This “higher click” phenomenon doesn’t just extend to the SERP’s but also to Google Adwords too. You’ll have higher CTR on your ads if you have the EMD (your URL is move visible because it’s bolded and there is more trust for that EMD term). The higher CTR you get from PPC also means you Adwords gives you a higher quality score which means you get lower cost-per-click which can save you substantial amounts of money. There have been tests done on this — read this: http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppc-generic-domains.html

3. You Get Better Backlinks with Exact Match Domains

Targeted Anchor Text

Quite often, people link to a website with the exact domain name. If your website is MyPianoStore.com, quite a few websites linking to your site will use “MyPianoStore” or “MyPianioStore.com.” If the term you are going after happens to be “Piano Chairs”, getting links with “MyPianoStore.com” won’t do too much to help you rank for “Piano Chairs.” However, if you have “PianioChairs.org” then natural links to your site will likely contain “PianoChairs.org” as the anchor  text which WILL help you rank for the money term.

You might not care about ranking for your exact keyword domain term if it’s a low traffic term. But if you happen to have an Exact Match Domain Keyword with a shitload of traffic to it, this is MONEY. Many of your “natural” links will be highly targeted ones, helping you to rank for that term, which has a lot of traffic.

More Linkbuilding Leeway

You may be able to get away with faster link building if you have an exact match domain than if you don’t. The reason is that Search Engines have allowances for “viral links.” That is, it’s possible to get a ton of links in a short period of time without getting penalized. One way is to have a lot of backlinks already and plenty of AGE. Another way that I’ve found is to have an exact match domain.

When you think about how people link, it’s usually the website name, including the domain extension. A website or article on a site that goes viral tends to have a lot of links containing the exact domain name present. But you can replicate this somewhat if you have an exact keyword domain. Sending a lot of links with your exact keyword replicate the viral linkbuilding process.

Now by all means, I am not saying just because you have an EMD, you can go buck wild and spam it. I’m just saying that you have more leeway.

4. Having a TLD EMD Locks Your Competition Out

By registering an EMD, you ensure you lock your competition out. These days you can’t register good EMD domains — marketers and domainers have beat you too it. That means if you do happen to have a good EMD, it’s unlikely that your competition (unless they registered one too years ago) will have one too. The bottom line is that most EMD’s are a valuable commodity (if there are actual SEARCHES for the term, not some non-searched, no money term).

There are only 3 domains extensions that I would consider building a non-local website on: .com, .net, or .org. I’m not a fan of the .info (which has been abused by spammers and seems to carry a taint with google), .biz, .tv, .co, or any of the other extensions flooding the market. In my experience, .com, .net, .org seem to get the best SEO boost. Why? Because the TLD’s themselves an indication of quality. With most good (common) 2-3 word EMD’s registered now and ALL premium EMD’s long since taken years ago, it’s unlikely someone is going to plunk down a shitty site on a domain that’s hundreds of dollars or more.

By having or getting a valuable Exact Match Domain, you can get a real jump start in a comparative niche. And you prevent your competition from utilizing that same advantage.

5. Type-In Traffic for (killer) Category Domain Names

If you actually have a .com category domain name (insurance.com, loans.com, cars.com, candy.com, etc), you’ll likely get a steady stream of type in traffic. Very few people have such domains and they usually cost six to seven figures. There are some instances where some guys make great money just parking a category killer domain name. The guy who owns CANDY.com reportedly made 300 bucks a day from just parking it (I note that it’s now been developed into a real site now which I’m positive makes more now). Domainers like to use this as a selling point for “premium” domains to help justify why you should pay six figures for such a domain name, but most so called category killing domain names have only trickle traffic. So really, for all but a handful of domains, this feature is a moot point.

6. (Premium) Exact Match Domains Garner More Trust

One issues I haven’t seen too many people bring up is the trust issue that a good keyword domain brings. Now I throw this out there with a qualifier: you only get the “trust” if you’ve got a premium exact match domain, and usually only if it’s a one or two word url. Sorry, if you happen to have “CheapCreditCardsforDirtCheap.com”, you don’t get the same “trust” benefits that a domain like “CreditCards.net” would have.

What do I mean by Trust here? Well for one, people seem to be psychologically preferenced to click on Exact Match Domains for the keyword they typed in. I’ve discussed that in point #2. However that Trust doesn’t just extend to higher CTR for that keyword. It extends to your abillity to network your domain effectively (i.e. Link Building). Let me tell you, it’s FAR FAR easier to approach authoritative sites in your niche or in related niches if you’ve got a strong premium exact match domain (and if you’ve managed to secure a category killing EMD, even better). If you have say StudentLoans.net or SkinCare.org (assuming you’ve got a good looking site with lots of great content of course) and approach some big sites about doing a guest post or link exchange or some sort of contest idea, let me tell you the receiving webmaster will take your request FAR more seriously than if you approach them with a domain like “TheBestSkinCareTreatmentsforYou.com.”

There’s an innate signal of quality to the shorter domain compared to the longer domain. In fact, if you’ve got a longer exact match domain, you’re site carries a bit of a spammy stigma — it makes doing manual linkbuildling much harder. Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s so hard to get a premium exact match domain, that if you have one, it sets you up as a serious player in the niche, not some 15 year old living in his mom’s basement. Whatever the reason, having a stellar Exact Match Domain can do wonders for your link building efforts if you are willing to bust your ass a bit and promote your site.

I’ve also found that people are more likely to send you NATURAL links if you’ve got one of those category killer domain names (acne.org, skincare.net, travelguide.net, mortgagequotes.org, etc). Provided your site has quality content (and no, tossing up a WordPress Blog on a Thesis theme does not count as a quality-looking site folks) and a professional layout, links do come poring in.

 

The Downside of Exact Match Domains

EMD’s have a lot of benefits, but there are also some serious cons too. Quite a few people, in the frenzy to secure the perfect EMD, overlook these.

 

1. There Are Very Few EMD’s Left

Yes, I know you can make up some baloney EMD phrase and register it. But there are few if NO Exact Match Domains with 1,2,3 word phrases. And certainly, if you are looking to hand register an Exact Match Domain name for a keyword with good CPC and even a bit of monthly traffic (500+ exacts) , you can be sure that those domains have been snapped up already.

2. Good EMD’ Domains are Expensive

The better the EMD keyword, the more you are going to pay for it. If you want a decent three 3 word EMD, you are probably going to pay anywhere from 300 dollars to 1500 for it. Domainers like to call these “premium domains” and you find them on places like buydomains.com or sedo.com. If you want a seriously good EMD, one that’s high traffic or a short tail, you may pay x,xxxx to xx,xxxx for one. At this point, you are deciding whether you want to buy a new BMW or a domain name.

3. EMD’s can be too Restrictive

Getting an EMD can pigeon hole you into a single niche. This might make you ultra specialized in one niche — which might be a good thing — but there may be a cost. What happens if real world events change the dynamics of your niche? I believe this happened with FreeCreditReport.com. The US government changed some legislation about the way “free credit reports” could be marketed online and suddenly FreeCreditReport.com was out on their ass because of that. Why? Because their domain name was too restrictive.

For some niches, you might not have to worry about this, but for other niches, the risk is there. This will only affect you IF you build up a serious websites on an EMD, however.

Some would argue that it’s better to create a BRAND then to rely on an Exact Match Domain for your business. Think about Google or Yahoo. These are BRANDs but both are associated with Search. Who cares about SearchEngine.com these days? BRANDs can also be flexibly reinvented depending on the need. So a brand could be associated with search, but with marketing also be associated with cars (think Virgin in this instance).

If you have an great exact match domain and you are going into a market/niche where there is a clear market leader already — one that’s a brand — you are going to find it tough to compete. Again look at the search sphere. You are not going to be able to compete in the search market against well known branded names like Google and Yahoo with something like SearchEngine.com.

As to whether you choose choose to make a catchy brand name over ponying out for an expensive EMD for your niche, it’s really a business call on your part. You have to decide whether that $30k sweet EMD is worth the cost, or whether you should just spend 10 bucks on registration fees and $30k on marketing. My feeling here is that if you spend $30k marketing your brand, you’ll gain far more benefits that the EMD would give you. Of course if you have a valuable EMD and a huge warchest to try and brand and market it, then you’ve got the best of both worlds, depending on the niche. Again, it’s probably best to go with a BRAND if you are trying to build up a website that can target a wide range of products rather than a specific niche. If you are targeting only one niche and you want to master it (and the niche looks to be pretty stable for the foreseeable future), then an EMD might be the way to go here.

The brand versus keyword is an interesting issue, which brings us to the next section…

Exact Match Domains versus Branding

There’s a lot of hurrah on the web right now about the imminent demise of Exact Match Domains. For marketers with a huge portfolio of mini sites on 3-5 word EMD’s, this might be a worrying thin (especially if the websites have thin content, which if they do, then be very worried).

With the past couple Panda/Famer updates (there have been 2 more “Panda’s” since the first Panda), Google has been giving more and more search authority to brand names. Unfortunately, this is resulting in a world dominated by the big guys with very little room for the small guys.

Quite a few SEO’s will tell you that you should spend your time trying to create a Brand as opposed to a Keyword-based website. To a certain degree, I agree with this. Google has been pretty clear (if you follow the writing on the wall) with the direction they are going with their search. Brand names have a lot of trust with consumers these days and it seems Google would rather err on the side of giving trust to a brand name than giving that trust to an (unknowable) small business.

Because of this focus on brand, many SEO’s have been saying keyword domains are NOT a good investment which the shift. And there are some compelling reasons for this logic. Google is giving more and more space on their Search Pages for Adwords (for many terms there is a huge ad words box RIGHT at the top of the page in addition to the usual right side), Product Pictures, and Local Search Result. Depending on your niche, you could find that the actual organic search results are 30-50% of the page with the rest of the page dominated by Google Ads, Product Pictures, and other “Stuff.” Quite a few of those results may be owned by major brand players.

Will Brand Take Over the Search?

Brands tend to dominate a WIDE spectrum of results (Amazon dominating the product sphere, for example). This is only going to get worse, however. But the little guy can still compete in competitive niches with focused sites — especially with Exact Match Keyword Domains.

The Demise of Exact Match Domains?

Matt Cutts created shockwaves around the SEO sphere when he announced that Google may reduce the weight of keyword domains. Note he didn’t specifically mention EXACT MATCH KEYWORD DOMAINS here, just “keyword domains.”  Frankly, I’ve found Cutts to be Google’s misinformation pipe to throw of SEO’s — so I don’t trust what he says as a matter of habit.

But in the event that EMD’s ranking weight are reduced, it’s not the end of the world if you’ve developed your sites the right way. If you’ve built plenty of quality content on EMD’s and done linkbuilding, I doubt you’ll suffer some end-of-the-world scenario IF Google tinkers with the EMD ranking bonus.

My feeling as that EMD’s will ALWAYS be weighted highly in the search engines (even if Google does lower the weight a bit).

 

EMD’s  count (and will count in the future IMHO) quite heavily for rankings for a number of reasons:

1. Exact Match Domains are a strong signal of relevancy

There’s a high correlation the content present on a EMD will be exactly what the user who typed the search term is looking for

2. Exact Match Domains, because they are valuable and rare these days, are themselves a mark of “quality.”

It’s possible to register a 2 + word keyword domain with some good keywords in it, but you are not going to find a valuable Exact Match Domain that’s unregistered. This has a couple implications.

• If your domain is valuable, it’s unlikely you’ll put a LOW quality site on that domain
• Only serious players in the niche will invest in a (quality) exact match domain

3. Exact Match Domains (especially .com) are a signal of BRAND

Google, at one point, had a problem with sites outranking product/brand’s for their own name. This problem went away when Exact Match Domains were given more ranking weight. Think of any band name and it’s highly likely that brand has an online presence with the brand’s EMD (and a .com to boot). If Google was to fiddle around with EMD, brand names would start getting outranked for their own names again. Google would have to throw out the baby with the bath water here and I don’t think they will.

 

A Couple Exact Match Domain Myths

There are a few myths I see people spouting on various forums/SEO sites. I want to address theres here. I’m going with my own experiences here, rather than documented case studies — so this is MY opinion and not the  gospel.

EMD’s mean you are guaranteed front page results

Absolutely not. For uncompetitive niches, yes. For medium to heavy comp niches where other sites are actively targetting the EMD keyword with backlinks and good on-page SEO, then NO. You have a power advantage with an EMD for that one keyword, but that alone won’t be enough to reach the front page.

There are no biased domain extensions

No.

.info’s, for example, seem to have a huge penalty against them. Perhaps because GoDaddy sells them for .99 and more than a few spammers and marketers have hijacked these domains for their own nefarious purposes. Google maintains there is no “bias” against certain domains, but I maintain there is. .com, .net, and .org seem to get the most benefits from the keyword bonuses. That’s not to say that having a .biz, .co, .us, .tv can’t rank well — there is a ranking bonus for ANY domain that has the exact keyword in it, but it’s been my experience that .com, .net, and .org do seem to rank better than the other extensions. There is also a bias in ranking (that I’ve noticed) among the TLD’s themselves.

My reasoning here is that getting a good keyword .org, .net, or .com is hard these days — you are likely going to have to spend money (maybe a lot) to acquire such an asset. The difficultly in acquiring such a domain is a mark of quality.

.Com Exact Match Domains Always Rank Better than other .TLD

This is a funny one that’s sometimes true. Not always, but more often than not, true.

Matt Cutts claims that there is NO preference given to the TLD extensions (the exception beeing localized domains like .ca, .co.uk which rank better in their country specific version of google). My experience is that EMD .com’s tend to rank better than the .org or .net. Now I’m not going to say this is always the case, but between .org, .net, and .com, .com seems to get a bit of a boost, enough that it might beat out the other EMD’s on the front page. Again, things like on page seo and backlinks play a role here, but I will say I feel there is a strong preference for .com’s to have a boost of .net or .org

My reasoning here has to do with why google puts so much emphasis on EMD’s. Why? Because with their whole brand-favoring approach here, it’s pretty much assumed these days that a BRAND will have the Exact Match .Com Domain for their name. By favoring the .com version of an EMD, Google ensures that brands, if you type their keywords into the search, will tend to show up high in the ranks. There was a time then google fiddled with this a few years back and Paypal itself wasn’t ranking for their own name.

Reversing the order of the EMD’s gives you the same benefits of an EMD

Not in my experience. Having CardsCredit.org instead of CreditCards.org does not give as much as a boost. You get the keyword bonus ranking benefit, but you don’t seem to get the EMD ranking benefit. Personally, I don’t like using reverse Exact Match Domains because it’s simply not as readable. It also announces to the world that you were not able to secure an EMD and so opted for a second tier domain. Better to just go with a made up brand name than that option.

 

Final Word

My feeling is that EMD’s are still great for focused niches. By setting up shop on a great EMD, you can make yourself a “player” in that niche. Not only do you reap the benefits of easier rankings, you can increase traffic through higher CTR, and you set yourself as one of the dominate presences in the niche. If the other EMD’s are locked up and you happen to be the only EMD, even better.  I think the wild west era of internet marketing is coming to an end.  Gone are the days when you could just set up shitty content on an EMD and dominate the niche. You can still rank easier because of an EMD, but it’s not a shoe-in to the front page for medium to highly competitive niches. Building a website is becoming more and more like building a real world business.

To REALLY take advantage of a good EMD, you need to:

• Offer Compelling Content/Information
• Build Links — real ones, not automated crap
• “Brand” your EMD by using social media AND by connecting with your customers/readers — you need to BUILD an active online presence not just a passive one

At the end of the day, an Exact Match Domain is simply another TOOL. Don’t get caught up in the “have to have that exact match domain mentality” that some marketers have. I think there are a lot of advantages to having one over not and in many cases, it might be worth paying thousands of dollars for the perfect one, but if you can’t get the perfect EMD, you’ll just have to make your way with fantastic content and backlinks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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