Exact keyword in domain - does it work
-
Hi,
a hypothetical question:
let's say there is a fresh domain travelnorway.com (of course there is already domain like that, I am using it just as a example)
Will it rank first on googe for "travel norway" query on google?( I mean in situation where 30 other companies are trying to rank for the same phrase)
Thanks!
-
Yes, they have keywords in Meta Title, but to me it looks more like keyword stuffing - it just repeating keywords in different language.
When you look on the other competitors they usually do much better content wise and social media wise.
It seems that age of the website is an important ranking factor here. Pioneer privilege?
-
If you search for this keyword in Google you will see that www.campericeland.is has done one thing right! Their meta-title is:
Camper Iceland, Iceland Camper Tours, Island, Wohnmobile, Camper ...
Meaning they start with the words: Camper Iceland
which all the below website (except one) do not use in the same context!
Their domain authority is low: 28 /100 but atleast they have a link from a very popular website:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/iceland/transport/getting-around/car-and-motorcycle
If you judge the authority of the other websites and especially the one who has the same keywords in the meta-title you will see that:
Domain Authority is less: 16 /100
Also: https://www.campericeland.is is a four year old website according to the Wayback Machine!
-
I would like to continue this discussion by giving an example of Icelandic company: www.campericeland.is
(I could come up with more in this country like this)
They lack almost everything when it comes to SEO (on page optimisation,inbound links, content, the website has poor usability), yet they rank first for phrase "camper iceland"
How come? ? Is it just the lack of other websites and competitors (although there are plenty behind, who do much better job) that makes this possible ?
-
your are most welcome! if you like you can mark the answer as a "good answer" in order to show this topic as Answered!
I wish you all the best!
-
Thanks Matt for your answer!
-
Thank you for your answer!
-
Hi Leszek!
To answer your question directly—no, having the exact match keyword in the domain name will not, on its own, result in a first-page ranking. It certainly doesn't hurt (unless it's part of a pattern of spammy keyword stuffing), but the impact it will have is vanishingly small.
-
You can write a book on the subjec. Exact Match Domains or EMD work but not as much as what they used to. Google has reduced their strenght over the passed years or so, and most likely today are in their worst. So to anwser your question EMDs would maybe be a small benefit when used to target a keyword which is very competitive, but a greater benefit when used to target a non competitive keyword, but nonetheless valuable to you.
you can read more here: https://moz.com/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a-guide-and-best-practices-for-emds
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
-
Multisite domain
good morning I have a wordpress site I have activated the multisite, currently the site has a domain authority of 8, when I publish a post, it is indexed quite quickly, if I publish a post in a language other than the /es subdomain it takes 24 hours why? If the author domain is the same, why does the employee take longer to be indexed on Google? Thank you
Technical SEO | | alainscilly770 -
Trash Domain Or Redirect it (unmaintained)
We have an old website with an old domain that has not been maintained for a few years; it now has a DA of 14 and a spam score of 24%. Our current domain (same business) within a few years has a domain authority of 21 and page authority 29 spam score 1%. (Yes, this domain should have been redirected from the get-go) The question is what do you do with it now? Toss it. Or redirect it. That domain has existed for years but still not sure what its value is from an SEO perspective. I would love to hear your feedback. Is there any benefit to redirect the old domain to the current domain. Or is it a negative and what impact?
Technical SEO | | MyBambooSEO0 -
Are .clinic domains effective?
We acquired a .clinic domain for a client, they are right now running under a .ca and I was just wondering if there were any cons to making the switch. On the flip side are there any pros? I've tried to search for the answer but couldn't seem to come across anything, thank you if you have any knowledge or could point me to a resource.
Technical SEO | | webignite0 -
Forum on toplevel or sub domain?
Hiya all I am building a site for the expansion of a facebook fan page that will be sending a fair bit of traffic to the site. One feature of the site is a forum plus a store and i have to make the dissuasion on if i should have the forum and store on the main domain or on separate subdomains for each. domain.com forum.domain.com store.domain.com So my question is would it be better to keep all of these elements on the main domain or each on a separate sub domains? Will
Technical SEO | | wildwill0 -
Two Domains for the Same Page
We are creating a website for a client that will have hundreds of geographically driven landing pages. These pages will all have a similar domain structure. For example www.domain.com/georgia-atlanta-fastfood-121 We want the domain to be SEO friendly, however it also needs to be print friendly for a business card. (ex www.domain.com/121) The client has requested that we have two domains for each page. One for the Search Engines and then another shorter one for print/advertising purposes. If we do that will search engines the site for duplicate content? I really appreciate any recommendations. Thanks! Anna
Technical SEO | | TracSoft0 -
Blog for a Prestashop: WP at subfolder or blog with dedicated keyword based domain?
Hi Scenario 1: site running with prestashop at domain whatever.com There's a blog at a subfolder of domain, running with Wordpress whatever.com/blog Scenario 2: site running with prestashop at whatever.com. The blog is at a different server and domain with keywords, e.g. cloudtechnology.com What's better for the blog posts to have better SERP results? Scenario 1 or 2? From the point of view of a user, I have seen for friends and colleagues that scenario 2 works for the blog, and might work for the shop, since blog posts contain links to shop etc. However, all examples I've seen for scenario 1 are still struggling...it's hard for them to make the blog visible at SERPs...is it a coincidence or is there a reason? Thanks for your answers!
Technical SEO | | pupila0 -
Is it better for our Blog to be blog.domain.tld or domain.tld/blog ?
I'd dread the answer being the latter rather than the former as we've spent two years building it blog.domain... However I noticed SEOmoz are domian.tld/blog and it got me thinking.... Cheers. R.
Technical SEO | | RobertChapman0 -
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 ?
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050