Whats everyones thoughts on this? Do some domains get an exact match bonus? I already know the correct answer, but I'm wondering if enough people are mis-informed enough to prove them all wrong with a test run Using keyword1-keyword2.com will not get you an exact match bonus. Using a spammy tld like keyword1keyword2.info will not get you an exact match bonus. Using keyword1keyword2.com will get you a bonus and be easier to rank. Does anyone agree, disagree, or have anything to add?
From my own personal experience I can tell you that keyword1keyword2.com will definitely help to get your website ranked well for those same keywords. Here's my story... (I have changed the identities and type of business as well as my location, for privacy reasons) I own a Carpet Cleaning business in Toronto, Canada and the name of my business is UltraSoft Carpet Cleaning . I had a website up for about six years (UltraSoftCarpetCleaning.com) and it was optimized for the key phrase Carpet Cleaning Toronto, but I was never able to get it to the top of Google for that phrase. Then one day I decided to buy the domain CarpetCleaningToronto.com and within 2 weeks my website shot to the top of Google for the keywords Carpet Cleaning Toronto and has been there for over 3 years now, in fact I have the 1st and 2nd result. I have since done the same thing with my internet marketing websites and the results have been similar
That would depend on if I was competing against a well seo'd site with the domain carpetcleaningtoronto.com, If not, I believe it would work. I've had some success using that approach with my Internet marketing sites but it's usually when there is no well seo'd site with the exact keyword domain to compete with. However, the reason anyone would buy keword1-keyword2-keyword3.com is because keword1keyword2keyword3.com is already taken and it is probably well optimized for those keywords, therefore you have to compete with that, which would make it more difficult
I mean all things equal, do you think without dashes gives a boost? I'm certain it does, but I regularly see people posting saying it doesn't matter. If enough people think it doesn't matter, I aim to run a test and prove it.
If all things being equal, here's my thoughts... #1 CarpetCleaningToronto.com #2 Carpet-Cleaning-Toronto.com #3 UltrasoftCarpetCleaning.com ... Again, that's all things being equal
Yep I would totally agree with most of what is being said here although I don't think the TLD matters much because I have seen some spammy .info sites seemingly benefiting from the exact match bonus as you call it and I have even benefited myself on a number of occasions. As for the dashes, I agree with the ranking vstar states above...
"exact match bonus" That's really a crude way of putting it, which shows you clearly do not understand why an 'exact match' domain ranks well. The way you've named it suggests that Google actually thinks that because a website contains the exact keywords it will be amongst the best websites for those keywords. This is simply not true, just because a domain contains the targeted keywords does not mean it should get any sort of "bonus" as you put it. And in fact they do NOT get a 'bonus'. What is actually happening is as follows. Take Walmart for example. If you search walmart in Google it will appear at the top. This is because Google is able to deduce that walmart is in fact a brand name and when people search for walmart, they are only ever going to be looking for the official walmart site. So, to make life easier for the searcher, walmart is promoted to the top for the search term "walmart". When you get a domain like cheapholidayflights.com intending to get a good rank for "cheap holiday flights", you may indeed get a boost, but this is only due to Google's confusion - it does not know whether people are searching for the actual brand "cheapholidayflights" or whether they are simply looking for a range of sites offering cheap holiday flights. What you are doing is exploiting an algorithm that tries to serve up brand names when people search for them. You can't really call it a 'bonus'. IMO Google is aware that people try to exploit its 'brand search' algorithm and so it would have certain filters in place e.g: domains with hyphens are less likely to be the actual company name and more likely to be keyword stuffed domains.
I think he's got a pretty good grasp on why its ranking, actually. Google is giving a boost to domains that are an exact match, with no extra characters, and no hyphens. In my opinion, you are completely wrong. Lol, make your mind up, does it get a boost or not? Its nothing to do with confusion - if you have an exact match domain for something, in general its a sign of quality. You were either first into a niche, or you paid a fortune for the domain, both signs that your site is probably worth paying attention too.
No, you are completly wrong. Just having the exact name is not in any way a reliable indicator that a website is going to be good or not. Google would be stupid to base an alogorithm on this notion alone. I can buy an exact match domain and through up some useless content with ease - does having the exact name make me a better website? NO The reason an exact matching domain is sometimes given a better position is because Google thinks you are performing a "navigational query" looking for a particular website. You know how sometimes people use Google to get to a specific website rather than just using their address bar? For instance a person may type in Yahoo into Google to get to Yahoo.com - Google puts Yahoo's website at the top because it figures you're looking for the official Yahoo website. Because of this algorithm, you can carry out an exploit by getting an exact matching domain. What you are hoping for is that Google will treat the search as a navigational query and put your exact matching domain nearer the top. When you buy cheapholidayflights.com you are hoping that Google will actually think that is your brand/company name. As much as Yahoo is a brand name, you're hoping that Google will think cheapholidayflights is your brand name. And thus when someone performs a search for "cheap holiday flights" Google has to work out if the searcher is looking for you in particular, or whether the searcher is just generically searching for lots of cheap holiday flights. If things work out in your favour, Google will think the searcher is looking for you in particular and put you nearer the top. The 'bonus' as you put it, does not come about because Google is stupid enough to associate an exact name with "being a good website on that topic", it comes about because Google has decided that the searcher is making a navigational query straight to your 'brand' name. If you need more explanation go to http://www.digeratimarketing.co.uk/2007/10/16/making-money-with-google-navigational-queries/ And please, before you reply.. make sure your read through everything I've written twice and make sure you understand it.
I understand what you've written, its not correct though. Its not an exploit by having an exact match domain - its the simple fact Google are putting extra weight on it when calculating what site to rank where. Do you think Google is stupid enough to think things like "buy chairs" or "watch television" or any other generic search term is a navigational brand search? I've not checked that link as I don't think I need any more explanation, but I will check it today out of curiosity. I will run some tests and either prove that I'm correct, or show that I'm wrong. Though ultimately it seems that you agree with me and that an exact match is getting a benefit, although we disagree on why.
Both of you have valid points. In either case, I will agree that having keywords in the domain helps. Something to think about: Google realizes that people may try to exploit the algo by purchasing keyword rich domains. However, you should also keep in mind that most generic domains can get pricy. Usually, spammers and people trying to make a quick buck won't spend lots of money/investments on a domain. More often, legitmate companies and businesses will spend that extra buck to acquire a "good" generic domain.
Steveb thats my point on why google are most likely giving weight to it - its either a sign that you were first to write about a niche, or you paid a fortune for the domain. Both are indicators (note I'm not saying a guarantee here) of quality. People can argue all day long about why its giving better serps, but I think only a fool will argue that its not giving better serps, imo.
Having keywords in domain helps, I have both sites with KeywordKeyword.com and KeywordWord.com and they did seem to get some weight if in the first place, but hehe trust me on this one, ones the competition arrives it will make no difference and it will end in simple link building.
Alrighty, I'll go with that. An agreement to disagree. And if you find a way to prove me wrong I'd certainly like to take a look at the evidence.
Google does recognize keyword1-keyword2.com as a match in the same way as keyword1keyword2.com which you can see by both versions being bold in the SERP's for a search of both "keyword1keyword2" as well as "keyword1 keyword2". As for whether keyword1keyword2.com is awarded a few more relevancy points, it's hard to measure accurately. I've run a few tests on this before and the results were fairly inconclusive.
How about this for a test - say I register keyword1keyword2.com, and keyword1-keyword2.com. I'll host both on the same server. I'll give both a few backlinks from the same pages so that the backlink profiles are the same. To prevent onpage seo affecting which ranks better, I won't use the phrase "keyword1 keyword2" on the page. Then see which ranks better. Anyone got any ways to improve it?
That's exactly what i done, but the trouble i faced is Google doesn't just work on "words" it uses word relationships, phrases etc to establish a context or meaning. So even though you don't have keyword1 or keyword2 if you have different text on both pages Google may see one more related to your two keywords without even throwing the URL in to the mix. The other option is to have identical pages like i did with my Domain Age experiment, but this throws dupe content in the mix making it difficult to achieve a 100% conclusive result either way. Even little things like the link profile can have an effect, does the backlink to keyword1keyword2.com have a fraction more weight because it's higher up the page and appears first in the source code? When i done the dash/no dash experiment, i done two tests. Not being able to totally rule out other variables and using a best guess they seemed pretty evenly matched.