undefined
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
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • 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.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    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
    • 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.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • 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. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
  4. Exact match domain names

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 match domain names

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
9
13
3.0k
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.
  • RikkiD22
    RikkiD22 last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 4:10 PM

    Hello, Someone approached a client of mine to sell a exact match domain name for a very competitive and high converting keyword. Would this be of any use and what are the best tactics to employ if it is purchased? I was of the opinion that the 'power' of exact match domain names are dying fast but would be interested to hear what people with experience in this think and what they have done with them (i.e. set-up a website on that domain or re-directed it)? Thanks, Rikki

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • RikkiD22
      RikkiD22 last edited by Dec 5, 2011, 10:13 AM Dec 5, 2011, 10:13 AM

      Thanks for your help all. Decided not to buy the domain and keep going with things as they are!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • EGOL
        EGOL @AdenBrands last edited by Dec 4, 2011, 2:22 PM Dec 4, 2011, 2:22 PM

        I find it infuriating that spammers are still able to get their hands on exact match domain names

        I've bought a few of these domains and had to pay a freeking fortune to get them.  The fact is, however, I decided that I wanted them in 2005, 2008, 2011 and the people who I bought them from had owned them for a long time collecting ad revenue from the type-in traffic.  Their price was waaay waaay more then the appraisal but if you want the domain and know how to use it you can make a freeking fortune back.

        Should google give them a ranking advantage?  I think the answer is yes, a small advantage and anyone who wants that advantage can obtain it simply by paying the price to get them.  If you are willing to pay or was smart enough to register the domain early then that advantage is your reward.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • AdenBrands
          AdenBrands last edited by Dec 4, 2011, 1:41 PM Dec 4, 2011, 1:41 PM

          I find it infuriating that spammers are still able to get their hands on exact match domain names and leave the actual brand sites who exist within the niche looking for business rather than click throughs suffer in the SERPs! Will Google eventually phase this out?

          EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Dec 4, 2011, 2:22 PM Reply Quote 0
          • AlanMosley
            AlanMosley last edited by Dec 4, 2011, 1:44 AM Dec 4, 2011, 1:44 AM

            They still have value, you can usually get them to rank quite easly, but if they are spamming like THB suggests i would not bother.

            But are they cheap? if so, you may be able to resell them. I have a few that i am sitting on till i get the right offer.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • THB
              THB @EGOL last edited by Dec 4, 2011, 12:29 AM Dec 4, 2011, 12:29 AM

              My thoughts exactly (and other great points by other comments here).

              There are many factors that go into this issue, and of course, I'd love to have say, houses.com or realestate.com for a website that was offering real estate for sale.  But that doesn't mean that I should create some long-winded, keyword-stuffed domain name (real-estate-and-homes-houses-for-sale.com) as that will not do anything for my cause.

              I'm sure, as everybody has pointed out, that there is still some consideration into the domain match for the genre in question; however, domain name are basically impossible to come by nowadays for any popular/common item you are planning on building a website around.  I'm sure the search engines have also thought about that.

              But in all honesty, look at a lot of the major players in any niche, and majority of them have a unique, highly-branded name that doesn't have anything to do with the industry.  Not to say you shouldn't do it, but with a legitimate link-building campaign and top-notch SEO tactics deployed throughout the site, you can rank for anything under any domain name.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • EGOL
                EGOL last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 11:28 PM Dec 3, 2011, 11:27 PM

                I own several exact match domains.  I can say with confidence that they used to be very powerful in ranking a website.  However, google has turned down that benefit significantly as recently as this year.  I do think that they still give some value - but only for exact match queries.

                I like them for reasons beyond that....

                1. in my opinion they have extra good conversion rates because people who land on them think... "Oh... this is widgets.com... they must know their stuff about widgets."

                2. this implied credibility - even if undeserved - makes them a better target for likes, links, tweets, mentions and they can easily become the "go to place" for their product or topic if you are willing to put work into them

                3. finally, they give me mental energy.... If I owned baloney.com I would become the world's expert on baloney and build a fantastic site... if you own a domain like that you owe it to the domain to do a good job.

                So, I would be willing to pay a good amount of dough for an exact match domain ... but only if I am the right person to control it.  I would not want knitting.com or even wine.com because I don't know anything about these subjects.

                THB 1 Reply Last reply Dec 4, 2011, 12:29 AM Reply Quote 2
                • JamesNorquay
                  JamesNorquay last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 10:02 PM Dec 3, 2011, 10:02 PM

                  Exact match domains can be good, but I do agree they are becoming less powerful compared too say 2 years ago.

                  You can still get the following with a EDM:

                  • Good for branding

                  • Great for type in traffic selling Auto Insurance, 2-3% of people direct type in domains example autoinsurance.com

                  • EDM SEO ability still evident yet it is dropping.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • leadsprofi
                    leadsprofi last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 8:37 PM Dec 3, 2011, 8:37 PM

                    I think, exact domain name, is not bad, if you down white-hat strategy to rank it higher, it's nice, but if you use spam tactics its bad for exact and non-exact match domain name.

                    for example if you search "shoes" on google.com you will see the domain "shoes.com" on 1st or 2nd position on 1st serp. this is not bad if you down the right seo for a domain.

                    for the keyword "seo" is the same too.

                    from my side, take it, down the whitehat tactics seo, and finish that's all.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • jeffreytrull1
                      jeffreytrull1 last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 8:25 PM Dec 3, 2011, 8:25 PM

                      I think you're right that Google has discounted the value of exact match domains now as it's not as easy to increase rankings solely on the merit of the domain alone. However, I don't agree that exact match domains aren't helpful at all anymore. I see cases all the time where exact match domains are very higher in search rankings in Google. Value of having the exact match domain may be "dying," but I wouldn't say it's dead yet. If this is a new domain with no domain authority, it does you no help to simply redirect from that domain to yours regardless of how good the keywords in the new domain are. At minimum you would need to build up the new domain to get any value out of it (unless you you want to buy the domain just to ensure competitors don't get a hold of it).

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • marker-311528
                        marker-311528 @RikkiD22 last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 5:56 PM Dec 3, 2011, 5:44 PM

                        I’m new to SEO but wouldn’t it still help? If you are trying to rank for the keyword "pickles" and your url is pickles.com, every link back to your site will contain the word "pickles" because its in your url. Where as if your site was called peanutbutter.com and you weren’t able to change the tag it would say peanut butter. Wouldn’t Google say pickles is way more relevant to pickles than peanut butter is, wouldn’t they give the pickle url more consideration? Again new to SEO and I might be missing something here.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • RikkiD22
                          RikkiD22 last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 5:04 PM Dec 3, 2011, 5:02 PM

                          Thanks THB. You re-confirm what I was thinking really but it's just when they are offered I think they make you think about it a bit more. Would be interested to hear any other views on this?

                          marker-311528 1 Reply Last reply Dec 3, 2011, 5:44 PM Reply Quote 0
                          • THB
                            THB last edited by Dec 3, 2011, 4:27 PM Dec 3, 2011, 4:27 PM

                            You are correct in that "exact match domain names" are dying out, and that is due entirely in part to spammers (don't they just ruin everything??). It's all about branding now, which means you can basically have any domain name you want and rank for anything you want. Mind you, you're not going to see cars.com trying to rank for telephones anytime soon, but you know what I mean. While it might be tempting, it is not necessary to have your niche keyword in your domain name anymore. Last I heard, Bing was the only search engine actually taking these things into consideration, and that was over a year ago, so I'm not sure whether they still do.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 1 / 1
                            1 out of 13
                            • First post
                              1/13
                              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

                            • Saba.Elahi.M.

                              When creating a sub-domain, does that sub-domain automatically start with the DA of the main domain?

                              We have a website with a high DA and we are considering sub-folder or sub-domain. One of the great benefits of a sub-folder is that we know we get to keep the high DA, is this also the case for sub-domains? Also if you could provide any sources of information that specify this, I can't see to find anything!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Feb 23, 2020, 9:27 PM | Saba.Elahi.M.
                              0
                            • Joseph-Green-SEO

                              One domain - Multiple servers

                              Can I have the root domain pointing to one server and other URLs on the domain pointing to another server without redirecting, domain masking or HTML masking? Dealing with an old site that is a mess. I want to avoid migrating the old website to the new environment. I want to work on a page by page and section by section basis, and whatever gets ready to go live I will release on the new server while keeping all other pages untouched and live on the old server. What are your recommendations?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | May 9, 2017, 8:58 AM | Joseph-Green-SEO
                              0
                            • kcb8178

                              Sub Domain Usage

                              I see that the gap uses gap.com, oldnavy.gap.com and bananarepublic.gap.com.  Wouldn't a better approach for SEO to have oldnavy.com, bananarepublic.com and gap.com all separate?  Is there any benefit to using the approach of store1.parentcompany.com, store2.parentcompany.com etc?  What are the pros and cons to each?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Mar 7, 2017, 1:20 AM | kcb8178
                              0
                            • vtmoz

                              Linking from & to in domains and sub-domains

                              What's the best optimised linking between sub-domains and domains? And every time we'll give website link at top with logo...do we need to link sub-domain also with all it's pages? If example.com is domain and example.com/blog is sub-domain or sub-folder... Do we need to link to example.com from /blog? Do we need to give /blog link in all pages of /blog? Is there any difference in connecting domains with sub-domains and sub-folders?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 17, 2016, 2:45 PM | vtmoz
                              0
                            • Agguk

                              Backlinks from old domain

                              Hi, We have gone through a change of company brand name including a new domain name.
                              We followed google recommendations at: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en and it seems to have worked really well, the new domain has replaced the old in the google search results. My question: Still most of our backlinks, both anchor text and links use the old brand name and domain and it´s a slow process trying to update all references. Although they get redirected fine to the new domain (also following google recommendations), I wonder if the current scenario is doing any harm, SEO wise (other than the missed visual exposure of the new brand name) ? ...since the old brand name is not present at the new site I´m thinking of including "New brand name - previously old brand name" somewhere just to provide some sort of connection to all old backlinks, would that be unnecessary? I should mention that the old brand name actually includes our most important keyword but the new brand name does not. Thanks!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Oct 6, 2016, 10:26 AM | Agguk
                              0
                            • 94501

                              What are the pros & cons of recycling an old domain name?

                              Hi, Old domain name is about books and book buyback. It had about 1000 pages at one time, been around since 2006, and still shows in Open Site Explorer as 86 links from from 46 domains, PA 43 DA 35, spam score of 4. The 4 evidently relates to low number of internal links and no contact info. The domain name's ownership hasn't changed, but for the last year has either not been up at all or only the homepage in the last couple of months. Now the idea is to maybe re-purpose it for place rating content... no more book content... totally different subject matter. Is this an organic search advantage or would it be better to start fresh with a new domain name? Is Google going to have a harder time seeing it as relevant for a new subject (with good new content) or seeing a new site as important? Thanks... Darcy

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jul 2, 2015, 1:30 PM | 94501
                              0
                            • kinimod

                              Microsites: Subdomain vs own domains

                              I am working on a travel site about a specific region, which includes information about lots of different topics, such as weddings, surfing etc. I was wondering whether its a good idea to register domains for each topic since it would enable me to build backlinks. I would basically keep the design more or less the same and implement a nofollow navigation bar to each microsite. e.g.
                              weddingsbarcelona.com
                              surfingbarcelona.com or should I rather go with one domain and subfolders: barcelona.com/weddings
                              barcelona.com/surfing I guess the second option is how I would usually do it but I just wanted to see what are the pros/cons of both options. Many thanks!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | May 28, 2014, 5:48 AM | kinimod
                              0
                            • essdee

                              Merging Domains... Sub-domains, Directories or Seperate Sites?

                              Hello! I am hoping you can help me decide the best path to take here... A little background: I'm moving to a new company that has three old domains (the oldest is 10 years old), which get a lot of traffic from their e-letters. Until recently they have not cared about SEO. So the websites have some structural, coding, URL and other issues. The sites are indexed, but have a problem getting crawled and/or indexed for new content - haven't delved into this yet but am certain I will be able to fix any of these issues. These three domains are PR4, PR4, PR5 and contain hundreds of unique articles. Here's the question... They want to move these three sites **to their main company site (PR4) and create sub domains for each one. ** I am wondering if this is a good idea or not. I have merged sites before (creating categories and/or directories) and the end result is that the ONE big site, is much for effective than TWO smaller, less authoritative sites. But the sub domain idea is something I am unsure about from an SEO perspective. Should we do this with sub domains? Or do you think we should keep the sites separate? How do Panda and Penguin play into this? Thanks in advance for the help! SD P.S. I'm not a huge advocate in using PR as a measurement tool, but since I can't reveal the actual domains, I figured I would list it as a reference point.

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Aug 27, 2012, 11:14 AM | essdee
                              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
                            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.