Exact match domains DOMINTATING the serps
-
For longer tail keywords with typical local monthly search volume of 50 or so, there are exact match domains that are just killing it. Take for instance "alabama registered agent", I'm showing www.alabamaregisteredagent.com in the first spot ahead of the state department, etc. This site has zero links in OSE (DA and PA 1) and is a very small site in general. Can anyone explain why this domain is doing so well?
-
Hi Mike,
If the businesses you're searching for are local in nature, then EMD one-boxes are a known, documented phenomenon currently troubling the SERPs. This is fallout from the Hummingbird update. Read more about this here:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/01/08/mining-for-google-hummingbird-guano-in-so-cal/
I'm positive that Google is aware of this unintended outcome of the update in which weak, spammy or even closed businesses are ranking in one-box fashion, but as to when Google will tweak the dial to fix this, we just don't know. Hang in there. Lots of people are writing about this, because it is creating such a blatantly poor user experience.
-
Anyone who is concerned about this should spend the money required to purchase an EMD. If you think that the EMD makes a difference in the SERPs this will be the easiest and fastest SEO that you will ever do. Just find the guy who owns it, pay him his price and write a decent page of content. DONE!
All of my websites are EMDs. They do have a tiny advantage in the SERPs if you publish decent content on them. I am willing to pay good money for an EMD when I decide to build a new site (which isn't very often because the cost of a good domain and the content for a good site is quite high).
Up until a couple years ago an EMD was a huge advantage in the SERPs. Then Google cranked back their impact upon SERPs. Today in light competition an EMD can rank you above thin competition with the effort of writing decent content for the topic - but at the same time they can be easily defeated by a person who is willing to work. In heavy competition the EMD is a very small advantage compared to the other work that must be done to win those SERPs.
In my opinion, the conversion rate on an EMD can be higher than on other sites. That is worth the price in my opinion. Also, owning the EMD gives me mental energy to work on the site. That makes all of the difference in competion. They guy with mental energy beats everyone who is slacking.
-
EMD is not by itself enough to cause Google to take action. The key is the quality of the content and value to the visitor. Typically Google is after EMD sites with thin or poor content, affiliate smothered etc.
-
Hi Mike,
I Agree with you. I am also seeing the same thing but don't know how long it will stay as it is.
In Past, Google killed the Exact match domains and now again favoring it.
Thanks
-
Hi Mike
I think this is unlikely just because they have an exact match domain.
The domain you have given as an example is nearly 5 years old so it is likely they have had their site working for them for some time. There are a decent number of pages on the site with information all based around the same subject and they have a registered address in Birmingham AL.
There's likely to be other factors at work too, but as I said, having an EMD won't be the main factor.
I hope that helps,
Peter
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
-
My domain as a sufix on GA reports
Hi, There's a friend of mine who asked me with some weird results on her sites' Google Analytics reports (http://esther-roche.es). I've searched the GA code and its GA account config and I've no clue about where this esther-roche.es is to remove it. Any idea? Thanks in advance, BzgPcAo.jpg
Reporting & Analytics | | Webicultors0 -
Best to Leave Toxic Links or Remove/Disovow on Site with Low Number of Linking Domains
Our site has only 87 referring domains (with at least 7,100 incoming links). LinkDetox has identified 29% of our back links as being toxic and 14% as being questionable. Virtually all of these links derive from spammy sites. We never received a manual penalty, but ever since the first Penguin penalty in 2012 our search volume and ranking has dropped with some uneven recover in the last 3 years. By removing/disavowing toxic links are we risking that over optimized link text will be removed and that ranking will suffer as a result? Are we potentially shooting ourselves in the foot? Would we be better to spend a few months building quality links from reputable domains before removing disavowing bad links? Or toxic links (as defined by LinkDetox) so bad that it should be a priority to remove them immediately before taking any other step? Thanks, Alan
Reporting & Analytics | | Kingalan10 -
Domain Sub folder tracking from Google webmaster tool
I have created separate google webmaster access for this sub folder http://lineonebus.com/content/ Original domain http://lineonebus.com/ Search results in webmaster shows no search queries though this subfolder created in wordpress is ranking for some keywords.
Reporting & Analytics | | csfarnsworth1 -
SERPS showing wrong page
Hi there, searching Google UK for the term 'wireless alarms' returns the following page at position 39'ish - http://www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/security-information/gsm-gprs-alarm-systems The page that should be returned for that search is - http://www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/security-equipment The page being returned by Google at present is not optimised in any way for 'wireless alarms' but the page it should be showing is optimised for that term and the Moz grading tool agrees. The correct page also has a higher PA and 533 inbound links and the page being displayed has a lower PA and only 3 links. Could some kind soul tell me what i am doing wrong please? Thank you Si
Reporting & Analytics | | DaddySmurf0 -
Google analytcics sub domain dot or not?
Buongiorno from 16 degrees C wetherby UK famous for the Wetherby Whaler Chippy 😉 OK... on this site http://www.philpotts.co.uk/ I've set up sub domain tracking as so:
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing
Parent site:
http://www.philpotts.co.uk/ Sub domain
http://shop.philpotts.co.uk/ So my question is please: should a dot be placed in the sub domain line as in : _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.philpotts.co.uk']); Some advice places a dot in setDomainName other advice doesnt 😞
Any insights welcome, Grazie,David0 -
Google analytics for your mobile sub-domain
Hi All, I have just started mobile sub-domain for my desktop site. But I don't to know how to configure analytics for mobile sub-domain. I want to track result between desktop and mobile site. Can any one help me to sort out this problem? Waiting for reply
Reporting & Analytics | | Hexpress0 -
Tracking Multiple Top Level Domains in GA
Hi, I am setting up Google Analytics for www.example.co.uk and www.example.ie Is this as simple as just adding GA tracking code 'track Multiple top-level domains'? With this method how can I distinguish between each site's incoming traffic? Do filters needed to be created? Thanks in advance 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | daracreative0 -
Google Analytics: how many visits from country Google domains?
Hello, I manage a site with visitors from many different countries. With Google Analytics, it is normal to see the number of visitors from each search engine. However, I would like to identify the number of visitors from each Google-search contry domain. How many visitors from Google.com? How many from Google.co.uk. And from Google.co.zm? And so on. Anybody knows if this is possible and if yes, how can it be done? Thank you in advance, Dario
Reporting & Analytics | | Darioz0