When choosing a website domain what is better or does it matter - PMD, EMD, or brand. I have been doing SEO for over 12 years and I have researched that answer and from what I read I understand that EMD or PMD domains will not help your rankings. On the other hand what I see is entirely different. I even have an exact keyword as my domain name on a fishing site I did (my hobby, love to fish) and that site ranks number one for "Virginia Beach Striper Fishing" and that is the site domain name exact. Any SEO I did was 4 years ago yet there it sits at the top. So you can understand what I am reading and what I am seeing just doesn't add up. And I have seen this in other niche'. Could it be the niche, local fishing would be a small niche. I would love a professional opinion on this.
The whole Exact Matching Domain thing was just more SEO hoodoo-voodoo; I'd point out that most of the big success stories of the web don't use EITHER. What's "google" got to do with search, you'd think "searchTheWeb" would be a better domain. What's "ebay" got to do with auctions -- what's "amazon" got to do with buying/selling? What's "craigslist" got to do with being a classifieds? What the devil does the word "point" have to do with web development? EMD/PMD is dicking around worrying about something minor when you should be focusing on what's REALLY important -- ACTUAL CONTENT ON YOUR PAGES! Presenting that content in as accessible a manner as possible with graceful degradation and semantics so that EVERYONE has access to that content! It's like when people scoff at worrying about the blind who use software like screen readers when (as I often point out) search engines don't have eyeballs! It goes back to what Matt Cutts has been telling us for over a decade, design for the visitors, not the search engine. A good domain name should be short and memorable so that users can remember and find easily and part of your branding strategy. It's why I laugh at people who drop massive stacks of cash at their "perfect domain" that some sleazy squatter is on, when they could be just as successful with one nobody is currently using. The whole domain thing just reeks of the typical SEO scam artist BS that exists for the sole purpose of trying to game the system; it's hardly a surprise that pretty much as soon as it became "the next big thing" in SEO bullshit the search engines devalued it. That doesn't mean that most alleged SEO "experts" who know jack **** about HTML, CSS, accessibility, usability or even content development won't keep pushing it as yet another of their lies so as to continue duping the ignorant into forking over cash for nothing.
I would chime in that sometimes, having the "right" domain name can help - especially if you're working in trades where names aren't as important as what you sell. Personally, I run an IT support company in my town, and my domainname is basically "Bergen PC hjelp" which translates to Bergen (city) PC help. People often search for stuff like "computer problem" + city, or "hjelp" + "pc" + city etc. Hence I do come very high in the rankings. Of course the content on the page is also helping, but I'm just saying that the site itself is top ranking on most Google searches related to what I do, and that has much to do with the domain name. My competitors, with less direct names, usually drops down under me when a user search for general terms. And yes, I've done several customer surveys over the years, and many end up with "Oh, I chose you because you were on the top of the search".