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
-
301 Domain Redirect from old domain with HTTPS
My domain was indexed with HTTPS://WWW. now that we redirected it the certificate has been removed and if you try to visit the old site with https it throws an obvious error that this sites not secure and the 301 does not happen. My question is will googles bot have this issue. Right now the domain has been in redirection status to the new domain for a couple months and the old site is still indexed, while the new one is not ranking well for half its terms. If that is not causing the problem can anyone tell me why would the 301 take such a long time. Ive double and quadruple checked the 301's and all settings to ensure its being redirected properly. Yet it still hasn't fully redirected. Something is wrong and my clients ready to ditch the old domain we worked on for a good amount of time. backgorund:About 30 days ago we found some redirect loops .. well not loop but it was redirecting from old domain to the new domain several times without error. I removed the plugins causing the multi redirects and now we have just one redirect from any page on the old domain to the new https version. Any suggestions? This is really frustrating me and I just can't figure it out. My only answer at this point is wait it out because others have had this issue where it takes up to 2 months to redirect the domain. My only issue is that this is the first domain redirect out of many that have ever taken more than a week or three.
Technical SEO | | waqid0 -
Old domain still being crawled despite 301s to new domain
Hi there, We switched from the domain X.com to Y.com in late 2013 and for the most part, the transition was successful. We were able to 301 most of our content over without too much trouble. But when when I do a site:X.com in Google, I still see about 6240 URLs of X listed. But if you click on a link, you get 301d to Y. Maybe Google has not re-crawled those X pages to know of the 301 to Y, right? The home page of X.com is shown in the site:X.com results. But if I look at the cached version, the cached description will say :This is Google's cache of Y.com. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on July 31, 2014." So, Google has freshly crawled the page. It does know of the 301 to Y and is showing that page's content. But the X.com home page still shows up on site:X.com. How is the domain for X showing rather than Y when even Google's cache is showing the page content and URL for Y? There are some other similar examples. For instance, you would see a deep URL for X, but just looking at the <title>in the SERP, you can see it has crawled the Y equivalent. Clicking on the link gives you a 301 to the Y equivalent. The cached version of the deep URL to X also shows the content of Y.</p> <p>Any suggestions on how to fix this or if it's a problem. I'm concerned that some SEO equity is still being sequestered in the old domain.</p> <p>Thanks,</p> <p>Stephen</p></title>
Technical SEO | | fernandoRiveraZ1 -
Keyword in Domain Name
Hello!My website is www.enchantingquotes.com. I also own the domain www.enchantingwallquotes.com,which forwards to my site. About 90% of my business comes from the keyword "wall quotes". Should I consider changing switching to the enchantingwallquotes.com domain and redirecting? And if I do, do I need to recreate the entire website or is there an easier way that I am overlooking? Thank you for any advise/insight!
Technical SEO | | eqgirl0 -
Htaccess - multiple matches by error
Hi all, I stumbled upon an issue on my site. We have a video section: www.holdnyt.dk/video htaccess rule: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
Technical SEO | | rasmusbang
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^video index.php?area=video [L,QSA] Problem is that these URLs give the same content:
www.holdnyt.dk/anystring/video
www.holdnyt.dk/whatsoever/video Any one with a take on whats wrong with the htaccess line? -Rasmus0 -
Redesigning the site with same Domain (IMP.)
technical SEO question - If we take down a site and use the same domain but just redesign the whole site. I guess sometimes in this case Google still keeps indexing old pages though they do not exist now! What the solution for this? Google suggests redirect them to a 404 page but in this case as its same domain- Is it possible that we throw 404 errors and redirect them to 404 page and this 404 page exists in the new site itself (but of course we don't have link our menu to this 404 page) (if that makes sense)? Would appreciate if you can suggest or add anything to above topic.
Technical SEO | | Personnel_Concept0 -
Multiple Domains on 1 IP Address
We have multiple domains on the same C Block IP Address. Our main site is an eCommerce site, and we have separate domains for each of the following: our company blog (and other niche blogs), forum site, articles site and corporate site. They are all on the same server and hosted by the same web-hosting company. They all have unique and different content. Speaking strictly from a technical standpoint, could this be hurting us? Can you please make a recommendation for the best practices when it comes to multiple domains like these and having separate or the same IP Addresses? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | Motivators0 -
Exact match subdomains
Hi, I have seen significant SEO benefits from owning exact match domains and was wondering whether exact match subdomains hold the same (or some) of these benefits? eg. halloweencostumes.co.uk vs. halloween [dot] costumes.co.uk Many thanks.
Technical SEO | | martyc0 -
Sub-Domain Choice Dilemma
We have successfully rolled out 5 sub-domains using very industry specific KWs as the sub, e.g. familylawyers. We're rolling our an employment focused sub.and ideally would use employmentlawyers.XXX.com. However I'm tempted to use a long established (5+ years) sub-domain with a topic related KW that now hosts a non-active blog with PR3 - employment-law.XXXX.com. It has 49 indexed pages, some with PR2. So there's potential for getting a kickstart on traffic and trust with some redirects. Should I go for instant gratification or build for the long haul with the slightly more beneficial URL KWing? I should add that this sub-domain will have thousands of pages that are geo and sub-category focused - a typical URL would be. sub-domain.XXX.com/TX/Austin/wrongful-termination-lawyers.html THX for any opinions.
Technical SEO | | legalseo0