Exact Match Domains - Why are they still dominating?
-
Fantastic day!
I am seeing exact match domains still dominating. SEOmoz has some insight: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/exact-match-domains-are-far-too-powerful-is-their-time-limited
But that's from two years ago. Is Google ever going to target the manipulators that buy up all the exact match domains?
One of our partners is getting the itch, and I am running out of explanations on why we don't manipulate. But if these practices are dominating their industry, what to do? I have to get paid to feed the family so just telling the client buh-bye isn't going to work. At least not in this stage of agency building.
Their root domain doesn't do much for them, however, you know we well optimize those subdomains and rank those fine.
But if my client can just buy an exact match domain, and it will take less SEO work to get it ranked then why not? He has the SEO expert in his back pocket to clean up the mess IF they would even get a penalty or drop in rank.
Is all SEO really is find algo hole, manipulate, penalty, fix, find algo hole, manipulate, penalty, fix. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Please share your experiences and insight!
Thanks,
Ben
-
Maybe another factor is how if other people complementarily link to your site without you knowing they aren't necessarily thinking about your SEO, so an exact match provides automatic anchor text?
-
It's the king of content himself! It's been awhile. Hope things are great with you!
I think I'll take the "bite my lip" approach then deep breath then try to explain it one more time. Wish me luck!
-
You have a big bug in your bonnet about exact match domains.
You think that they are helpful for ranking a website and I agree.
But, building a site on those domains is not black hat or manipulation. It's simply a good idea. It is no different than buying a great piece of land on a high traffic highway to build a store.
Anybody can own these domains. You simply have to be willing to pay the price. I've paid an obscene price several times and it has been a fantastic investment in the long run.
You can do it too.
But owning those domains will not automatically get you rankings. You still have to do a lot of work to make that happen in valuable SERPs.
Building a great website is the best way to dominate a niche. If you do that traffic, links and rankings will all improve over time and you can make a lot of money tending to just the basics of SEO.
-
Thanks Greg!
I educate until I'm blue in the face then they read some black hat strategy, go look at their SERPs, and see it working for their competitors. LOL
But yes, preaching the long term is what it's all about.
You're two cents is worth a dollar, my friend!
Here's the thing. There is no limit to buying LLCs. So if they match the domain to the LLC, how in the world will Google be even able to detect the manipulative brands that are brands but not really brands.
Thanks again!
-
Hi Ben.
Now more than ever Google is focusing on Brands rather than standard "keyword rich" websites.
Brands offer trust more than anything and is by far the best way to go if you plan on building a long lasting online business...
"Budget Car Rental" is a real brand, but then its also a money making term. Google has clearly recognised the term as a brand which is great and if your client can do the same, then no harm done.
It gets manipulative when your brand is "ABC car rental" and your website is "Budget car rental.com"
The only reason exact match domains are still ranking I presume is because Google is still tied up in identifying which are brands, and which are there solely for ranking benefits. Google's not stupid and things are changing fast.
I guess the best way to explain it to your client is to say:
For short term ranks with no guaranteeing on future success, then choose a URL with the sole objective of manipulating Google into ranking you well.
Or
Choose a brand name and built trust that will last for years to come.
If they choose to go the manipulative route, then at least you have done all you can to educate them leaving you with a clean conscious for when they regret the decision made.
Just my 2c worth...
Greg
-
Let me add that they will also buy the LLC to match the domain...
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
-
To buy or not to buy? Domains with history..
I am involved in setting up a new business which as of yet is to decide on a brand name.. As the availability of domain name in local tld (and ideally .com) is of so much importance, the brand naming process is inextricably linked to this. Therefore, upon finding a suggested name was available to register (without premium) there was a degree of satisfaction. However on looking at archive.org it was discovered that the .co.uk had been a sex/marital aid store back in 2004 and more recently in 2014 a travel blog / affiliate. Q is; Is the past history of what is a site with possible black hat links a reason to avoid registration? Or, does time cure all? And, is there a way in which domain health can be reliably confirmed? Thanks in advance for your input..
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | seanmccauley0 -
Best URL structure for SEO for Malaysian/Singapore site on .com.au domain
Hi there I know ideally i need a .my or .sg domain, however i dont have time to do this in the interim so what would be the best way to host Malaysian content on a www.domainname.com.au website? www.domainname.com.au/en-MY
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | IsaCleanse
www.domainname.com.au/MY
domainname.com.au/malaysia
malaysia.domainname.com.au
my.domainname.com.au Im assuming this cant make the .com.au site look spammy but thought I'd ask just to be safe? Thanks in advance! 🙂0 -
Does Ezine articles still make any good?
In the past many of the articles we posted in our blog we post on Ezine articles. After Penguin still make any sense to post on Ezine? Can the post on Ezine make any bad or Good to our ranking? What kind of tactics are guys using to promote articles/post in your blog?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Felip30 -
Domain Structure For A Network of Websites
To achieve this we need to set up a new architecture of domains and sub-websites to effectively build this network. We want to make sure we follow the right protocols for setting up the domain structures to achieve good SEO for the primary domain and local websites. Today we have our core website at www.doctorsvisioncenter.com which will ultimately will become dvceyecarenetwork.com. That website will serve as the core web presence that can be custom branded for hundreds. For example, today you can go to www.doctorsvisioncenter.com/pinehurst. Note when you start there, you can click around and it is still branded for Pinehurst or spectrum eye care. So the burning question(s). - if I am an independent doc at www.newyorkeye.com, I could do domain forwarding but Google does not index forwarded domains so that is out. I could do a 301 permanent redirect to my page www.doctorsvisioncenter.com/newyorkeye. I could then put a rule in the HT Access file that says if newyorkeye.com redirect to www.doctorsvisioncenter/newyorkeye and then have the domain show up as www.newyorkeye.com. Another way to do that is we point the newyorkeye DNS to doctorsvisioncenter.com rather than a 301 redirect with the same basic rule in the HT Access file. That means that, theoretically, every sub page would show up, for example, as www.newyorkeye.com/contact-lens-center which is actually www.doctorsvisioncenter.com/contact-lens-center. It also means, theoretically, that it will be seen as an individual domain but pointing to all the same content under that individual domain just like potentially hundreds of others. The goal is we build once, manage once and benefit many. If we do something like the above which will mean that each domain will essentially be a separate domain, but, will google see it that way or as duplicative content? While it is easy to answer "yes" it would be duplicative, it is not necessarily the case if the content is on separate domains. Is this a good way to proceed, or does anyone have another recommendation for us?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | JessTopps0 -
Multiple domains pointed at one site
I know things are changing and the things Google thinks are cheating searchers from finding what they are really looking for are changing too. So, I have multiple domain names that are related to my site, but not the actual site name. For instance, I have a certification program called Certified NetAnalyst that has a few domains for it... .com, .org and other derivatives like NetAnalyst. I would like to point the domains to my main company web site and not create a site just for the certification. Does Google think it is cheating to point domain names with my company branding names to my main web site? What about domain name forwarding to a specific URL, like taking the certification name domains and pointing them to the certification page instead of the main site? Wondering if one could no follow (don't know how to do that) the domain forwarding links so it is not duplicate content? Is that possible in some way? Could you put another robots.txt file with excludes in the domain forwarding url landing page so it would not be duplicate content? For the future I want all SEO "juice" to go to the main domain, but the keyword value of the domain names is valuable. I sure would be grateful if someone that has a good understanding and specific recent experience with Google policy and enforcement could offer some sage and practical advice and perhaps a case study example where Google "likes it" or on the other hand a good explanation of why I may not wish to do this! Thank You! Bill Alderson www.apalytics.com
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Packetman0071 -
Purchasing an EXPIRING domain with quality related links
I'm about to purchase a domain that has highly trusted links pointed to it. I would like to 301 redirect that domain to point to a brand new domain in the same niche. Some of the links that the expiring domain would take me a long time to obtain so I am thinking to use this method to my advantage. I know that this is not really a legitimate way to go to build backlinks, but surely this is going to give me good serp improvement which is my main concern at the moment. I am going to test this method to see if it benefits me in anyway but I would like some opinions to this please.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | umtmedia0 -
New website :301 redirection of a established domain
Hello , I am launching a new website which would host user generated content . Based on my brandname i have purchased a new domain . In order to improve SEO rankings i was considering to purchase a good quality domain (have gr8 link backs) and then perform 301 redirection of the domain to the new brandname.co.in domain . Does this work ? Is there any harm in doing this ? . Does the Link juice pass naturally ? Warm Rgd
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ShoutOut0 -
Creating multiple domains with key phrases and linking back and forth to them
There are several of my competitors who have built multiple sites with keywords in their domain names such as localaustinplumber.com, houstonplumbers.com, Dallasplumbers.com, localdallasplumbingservices.com...you get the picture. (These are just made up examples to illustrate what they are doing) They put unique content on each page and use alias whois using a different credit card to set up each domain to hide the fact from Google that they are the same entity and then link back and forth to each of the domains with appropriate keywords in the anchor text. They are outranking me on a lot of key search phrases due to the fact that they have the keywords in the domain name. They have no other outside links other than the links from the domains that they own. Is this a good idea? is it black hat? are they going to get slapped if someone reports them as a link farm? It's frustrating for me staying white hat and getting legitimate links and then these competitors come in and out rank me after only a few months with this scheme. Is this a common practice to rank highly for certain key phrases? Thanks in advance for your opinions! Ron10
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Ron100