Exact match domain
-
Will buying an exact match domain and redirecting it to our main site a good idea, if such a domain is available ? What are the pros and cons ?
Are exact match domains still powerful for ranking purpose ?
-
A very similar discussion here....
-
My experience fits best with what Robert is saying. Simply purchasing a domain and expecting a benefit from a redirection is likely to lead to disappointment, unless the new domain is so appealing and memorable that you plan to use it elsewhere to grow awareness. Otherwise, you should do some additional work to get any benefit from this. But to answer your question ... it's not a bad idea.
We recently moved a client site from page 3 to page 1 for some keywords in the pcb manufacturing industry by moving the entire site to a new keyword domain, being sure of course to implement 301s, flag the change in Webmaster Tools and so forth. It helped that, bizarrely, this particular client had been sitting on the domain for some time and in fact some of their inbound links already referred to it. The transfer of authority therefore has been smoother than might normally be expected. But since nothing else about the site has changed the jump can really only be attributed to keywords in the domain.
-
Thanks to all of you for your useful insights. The takeaway is that it's better to buy an exact match domain and build a useful site rather than redirecting.
-
Hi Atul
James is correct in his answer and likewise Robert provides a good answer also.
Check out a blog post from back in December 2010, 'The Problems with Exact Match Domains' which highlighted the issues associated with exact match domains being given too much weight and SEO benefit.
This was shown in blog post by Rand himself entitled 'Are Exact Match Domains Too powerful? Is Their Time Limited?'
Since then, it is widely believed that Google has changed the weighting that is given to exact match domains and they now count for less than previously. Check out this blog post entitled 'Google: Exact Match Keyword domain Does Not Mean Rankings' by Barry Schwartz over on Search Engine Roundtable.
Going back to your question, there will be Zero SEO benefit from simply buying a new domain and redirecting it to another site. If you were to buy an existing strong relevant website with it's domain and redirect that, there would be some SEO benefit, though mainly from the website rather than the domain name.
I hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
-
This is what we did with one client who was not ranking in the first 5 pages for anything in his profession/niche. We bought an exact match domain utilizing hyphens for a major keyword (3 word phrase). His original domain was his name and Lawfirm. You must understand that law firm is not a good keyword.
We then built a new site that was fully optimized around his discipline and what will be most beneficial to him from a client type point of view.
We then did a 301 redirect of url to url www.oldlawfirm.com to www.new-law-term.com in the .htaccess file. Over the first three months we got about 80% of the previous authority and are still getting some now.
Understanding that we are good at SEO and that we write new content, get new links, have him blog, etc. We now have him ranked on Page One of Google and Bing for about half of the best terms for him.
Was it the exact match domain that did it....not alone, but I do believe it helped. I think it still does but don't believe that will be true in say 2 to 5 years.
So, to just get it and use it as a redirected to the old site I would say, don't waste the time or energy. If you are willing to work a bit, you can do some voodoo with it.
Best -
I totally agree with James!
If you are buying that domain name, then with a small effort you can get it "rank well" (it depends on niche).
Istvan
-
To be honest it will work better if you buy the exact match domain and then build a small site on it and have it rank for the keyword.
Just buying an exact match domain will not mean you will get it ranked if it is a 301 re direct, the only traffic it will yield will be direct type in traffic for the domain and this is only small.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Which better to rank with 40 DA domain redirect the domain 301
hello, which better to rank with 40 DA domain redirect the domain 301 to my website or host domain and create posts with my website link + if i do the 301 redirect the Crawl Errors of old 40 da domain will display on my new website or not+how much links can i get from one website pbn
Technical SEO | | cristophare79
+
which better get links for home page or postsbest regards ,0 -
Followed Linking Root Domains and No Followed Linking Domains
If you have more NoFollowed Linking Root Domains than Followed Linking Root Domains is that a problem?
Technical SEO | | INN0 -
What should the combined domain rank of 2 sites?
We have just combined 2 sites by redirecting a site with a domain ranking of 35 to a site with a domain ranking of 27 (this is because the we want to use the address with a ranking of 27) After a week I now have 1 domain with a ranking of 26?? So my questions are; Should the ranking have increased already? What should I expect the ranking to increase to if at all? Is there something I could have done wrong when transferring? Thanks
Technical SEO | | benj450 -
Lots of Domains Going Nowhere - Point to a Real Domain?
I have hundreds of domains that I have purchased over the years that arent going anywhere except GoDaddy's Cash Parking system, which returns very little revenue, if at all. I wonder if it would make more sense to just point these domains to actually e-commerce sites that I own. If so, how best to take these domains and point them so that SEO credit is given properly. Most of these available domains dont have anything to do with the e-commerce stores. So not sure it would help. Furthermore, if I were to purchase new domains that were more relevant to the keywords to our e-commerce sites, how best to set them up so we can generate traffic on them and point them over to the actual domains? Many thanks.
Technical SEO | | findachristianjob0 -
Subdomain and Domain Rankings
I have read here that domain names with keywords might add a boost to your search rank For instance using a completely inane example monkey-fights.com might get a boost compared to mfl.com (monkey fighting league) when searching for "monkey fights" There seems to be a hot debate as to how much bonus the first domain might get over the second, but leaving that aside for the moment. Question 1. Would monkey-fights.mfl.com get the same kind of bonus as a root domain bonus? Question 2. If the answer to 1 above was yes would a 301 redirect from the suddomain URL to root domain URL retain that bonus I was just thinking on how hard it is to get root domains these days that are not either being squatted on etc. and if this might be a way to get the same bonus, or maybe subdomains are less bonus prone and so it would be a waste of time Thanks
Technical SEO | | bThere0 -
Are multiple links devalued on the same domain?
I'm in negotiations to get links placed on a popular blog with good stats. I'm allowed to pick older posts on the site, and I get to pick the anchor text. Is it best practice to diversify the links by having different keywords pointing to different pages or am I better off pointing as many links as I can at one page (varying anchor text)? Also, is it best to pick a more recent blog post, or is it ok to pick one from say, 2009?
Technical SEO | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Is my non-www domain working
I believe we may have an issue with out domains and links which is causing our seo to suffer. As far as I'm aware, our non-www domain is being treated as a different domain name. Open Site explorer returns different information for each one. However, when I go to the non-www domain in my browser (I have to force it using the http as otherwise the browser auto inserts the www) my browser returns a page cannot be found. But there may be a chance this is actually an issue with the server we access the internet via at work. I need to establish 100% beyond all doubt that our non-www domain is not working. This is the www: http://www.jetbookingdirect.com/ This is the non-www: http://jetbookingdirect.com/ If it is definitely not working, is the right thing to do to ask my web host to setup a 301 redirect? Further, I thought redirects could only point to one address. If we 301 redirect, if someone accesses a specific page via the non-www domain, does it then take them to the correct page? Also, is it safe to say that our non-www domain not working has affected our SEO, and if we fix it, will it improve things for us? Thank you so much for clarification on this issue.
Technical SEO | | JetBookMike0 -
Consolidating domains on root subject
I had several sites regarding a core subject. The main site was xyz.com and then I had multiple sites for the inner categories of xyz.com . I decided to consolidate everything to a single site and so did a change of address in webmaster tools and 301 redirected all niche sites to the appropriate page on the primary site of xyz.com. Shortly after we lost rankings for those niche pages. Any thoughts?
Technical SEO | | Hakkasan0