Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your reputation grow with Reviews AI
      Moz Local

      Let your reputation grow with Reviews AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Link Building
    4. Exact Domain Match does it help or distract?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Exact Domain Match does it help or distract?

    Link Building
    4
    7
    996
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Cfarcher
      Cfarcher last edited by

      Does owning / buying an exact domain match help or not necessary?

      For example our main website ranks for nearly 14,800 Keywords but one KW we are trying to get in the top spot for we are currently at the bottom of page #1. We do see an exact domain match available so we purchased it but i don't know if it would actually help us or distract us.

      I was thinking we could create an article about the keyword on that exact domain then do some on page seo and back linking. But would that be more of a distraction VS. just focusing on getting more high quality back links to the main website we have ranked on Page 1 at the bottom?

      Any ideas or benefits to use an exact domain match to help boost also?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • sarahwalsh
        sarahwalsh last edited by

        We see this quite often; sometimes, an exact match domain will rank much higher than websites that seem to have better organic SEO.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • BlueprintMarketing
          BlueprintMarketing last edited by

          I don’t think it will do much. Unless you’re current  domain is really no doing well.

          It would need constant content to rank well.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Cfarcher
            Cfarcher last edited by

            The keyword is Multiple Listing Service. The domain we purchased is multiplelistingservice.com  do you think we should write one article based around the keywords Multiple Listing Service then have internal links that point back to our main website that is already ranked for this KW?

            or will that not do much? As multiplelistingservice.com is a new domain with no domain authority or links so even though its an exact match its not going to pass along much Link Juice .

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • BlueprintMarketing
              BlueprintMarketing last edited by

              They matter a little bit but only for that one keyword if you have a great brand it is much better for you to use that brand name. Recently it seems Google is giving less and less attention to exact match domains I would not rush out and buy one.

              Will be creating a doorway page and even if it ranks number one you'll have to put a lot of good content into it not just by the domain

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Cfarcher
                Cfarcher last edited by

                I haven't looked at the age of the domain or if it was used. I have a feeling it is a fresh domain that wasn't used for anything.

                But I'm trying to weigh out if we should create content, an article on that domain based around that exact keyword then do backlinking OR if we should just get more anchored text back links to our main page.   or if we have any other options to use an exact domain match to help us rank either that domain or our main domain for the KW ya know?

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Optimal_Strategies
                  Optimal_Strategies last edited by

                  Hi,

                  Exact keyword match in case of domain is always a good thing, however I wouldn't personally be able to predict if steps mentioned by you will help you rank for this KW for one particular reason. The reason is links - their quality and numbers. Also, what's the domain age? Did you check "Wayback machine"? If you didn't then have a look what was domain previously used for. Exact match is not everything now with more and more experts stating that you have to have good mixture of exact keyword match and url's. Hope that helps.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  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.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • MizbaCMU

                    Why did my Domain Authority drop?

                    domain authority link building

                    I had an ok domain authority. We focused on building backlinks for our website and it shows that we received a significant number of backlinks. However, today, our DA fell significantly. I don't understand why that happened. Can someone please help me with this situation? Thank you.

                    Link Building | | MizbaCMU
                    1
                  • shelbythomas

                    Why are there less backlink domains in Moz vs. Semrush?

                    For our domain studyville.com, Semrush is reporting 46 linking domains, and Moz is reporting 7. Does anyone know where there is such a large discrepancy?

                    Link Building | | shelbythomas
                    0
                  • AlexLenhoff

                    Does an external link to an image file on my site help my SEO?

                    I found a few websites that are displaying images from my site.  Curiously, they have also linked these images to the source image file on my website.  I found these because Moz showed these sites in my list of backlinks.  I assume that means it impacts my Domain Authority.  But does this actually help me in search engines since it's not linking to a page on my site?

                    Link Building | | AlexLenhoff
                    0
                  • Ishrat-Khan

                    1000's Backlinks from ONE Root Domain - Positive or negative?

                    One of my website's link is placed over a comment. This website has a "recent comments" section in the footer which is hence appearing on all the websites pages. All tools including - Google Search Console, Majestic and MOZ are showing 45000+ links from that root domain. Questions: Are these links harmful to my rankings? Should I get all those links disavowed? Should I disavow the root domain or leave the link that lies on the home page? What if there are up to 10 links coming from a domain? is that harmful too? Apart from disavowing, is there any other option to get this fixed? If at all this counts as an issue... Thanks in advance!!

                    Link Building | | Ishrat-Khan
                    0
                  • asbchris

                    Backlinks from ads on parked domains? Is this possible?

                    Hello Moz Friends, So as I was researching some competitive backlinks and I noticed a lot of backlinks that a clients competitor has are on parked domains and they appear to be google ads from some point. You know the pages that this page no longer exists, or hey do you want to buy this domain? and it has like 6 google ads on it? Yep those pages. My clients industry is construction and their competitor has links from zombie websites, foreign, websites and more. But the links are no longer on the page. Like when it was crawled, their ad was showing. Does this make any sense and is it usually temporary? Thank you for your thoughts friends!

                    Link Building | | asbchris
                    0
                  • Deacyde

                    Would you consider these domains spammy or at risk for penguin penalty?

                    I'm doing a bit of competitor backlink auditing and am curious how you view these domains? I also am doing this for others as a comparison and growing reference maybe of domains that they can crosscheck with their own backlink profile and make sure these aren't on there, in preparation for penguin algo release to core. Either chime in with known domains to be spam, and I will create a live list based on answers here. Domain                     Domain Rating directoryworld.net     64
                    prlog.ru                     60
                    torchbrowser.com     60
                    jzip.com                    58
                    localbiznetwork.com 58
                    gimpsy.com               54
                    pageonepower.com  52
                    nashvillelife.com       49
                    2thetopdesign.com   49
                    seocounsel.com       48
                    healthywealthyaffiliate.com 48
                    hollinslegal.com        48 On a working Disavow list either in root domain or extended url form seocourt.com
                    wldirectory.com
                    onpaco.com
                    lostdirectory.com
                    ligginit.comligginit.com
                    alivedir.net
                    tiptopdirectory.com
                    onemilliondirectory.com
                    submittolinkdirectory.com I've read that sitewide footer links even from parent company sites will only count as one, regardless of how many links they have, I was wondering if that was true as well?

                    Link Building | | Deacyde
                    0
                  • TicketCity

                    .Org domain authority

                    When it comes to .org domain authority is it more important to be getting the link from a .org regardless of DA, or does their domain authority still have a big impact here? Thanks!

                    Link Building | | TicketCity
                    0
                  • maldiniii

                    It is ok to link together multiple domains on the same ip?

                    I have multiple domains (more than 50) in the same niche. All domains are on the same ip. It is ok to link them together, or to create a piramid link between them?

                    Link Building | | maldiniii
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.