I'm sure there are plenty of us doing the whole micro-niche thing, not to mention general niche marketing, where an exact-match domain name is the cornerstone of our rankings. Most of us know that, at least for relatively low-competition keyword phrases, an exact-match domain name is even by itself sometimes enough to get good rankings. Having read this article by Rand Fishkin, I'm becoming convinced Google is soon going to severely de-value EMD's: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/im-getting-more-worried-about-the-effectiveness-of-webspam If that happens, I'm sure I'm not the only one who will face some seriously uphill battles. Not to say I don't put effort into other SEO aspects, but given the value of EMD's, it would definitely be a significant blow. Any thoughts? Michael
I believe its taking force already. For the few domains I owned recently. They don't seems able to instantly rank in the first page anymore like how they can few months ago - based on the same kind of keyword selection. What used to be on the first page now start in on the 3-4 page. If I leave it there and not doing backlinking, they don't budge at all.
I think this is a fact already. Good thing about exact keyword domains is that people link to your site using that exact keyword usually. So you will still end up higher in SERPs. For example, I have a site that has a name that does not mean anything. When people link, they use that name. But if you have exact keyword domain, they tend to link more using that exact keyword.
Thanks for the replies. I'd been wondering whether this has begun happening. I launched a few sites recently with pretty unusual long-tail exact-match domain names. In the past, I would have expected to be on Page 1 almost immediately, but that doesn't seem to be happening any more. I assume an EMD will still be beneficial when trying to rank for that specific phrase, but the 'magic' of quick, top rankings might just be a thing of the past. Michael
Yap guess after Big G change their algorithm in May seems like they are setting out to stop all this Micro niche site thingy. 5 pages Miro niche site with EDM doesn't really work anymore.
Google has said it is all about quality so many times, so an EMD domain on it's own is clearly not going to be enough for anything competitive so quality will be the many factor.
I agree EMDs are not as effective as they used to be, yet don't count them out yet. I think it depends on the category or topic of the EMD -- for example, forget about it if it is in the "insurance" category or "credit" category. I just created a blog on a two word EMD in a less competitive product category, and was surprised to see it #6 on page 1 the next day (It is #1 on page 1 of Yahoo -- Yahoo still loves EMDs). All I did was submit the RSS Feed thru RSS Submit and bookmark it at one good bookmark site. Plus, the blogs posts automatically post to the twitter account I setup for it. I also back-dated the posts. It's beating out PR1's - PR3's & is now #5. I think if I get a few more good backlinks to it, it just might climb up the ranks. I also think it has to do with how many words the domain has (over 3 words works against you), and the activity the site gets on onset. Unfortunately, I think the days of set & forget are over.
Google massively changed the EMD bonus during the 1 June update. There still appears to be some sort of a bonus, but it is now far more variable. It used to be a set amount of bonus, now it appears to be proportional to the overall authority of the domain.
I own several EMDs and they are still ranked well. The reason why they rank well, is because I take pains to make them QUALITY. The problem is 90% of EMD sites are not quality by any stretch... They are web spam, simply put.
Guys I have a Question here: how many pages should i have in a Micro Niche Site or EMD so that its Safe and Secure from google. (Because according to me google is only going to attack thoes websites that Dont have any updation from last 7 to 8 months plus have only 2 to 3 indexed pages) Bypass the above statment and google will never attack you
There is no such thing as safe and secure. If you do make big bucks, your account will be subject to manual review, every now and then, and if your sites don't cut it - BOOM. It is not the number of pages, but whether it actually is useful to people and not copied or rehashed rubbish. 100 pages of crap is still crap. I have come across an EMD site ranking very high for a high paying keyword and have 1000+ pages of (copied) content, but no Adsense on it.... but it used to have Adsense. Upon checking, it seems Google recently banned the site. Funny.
Quality of the content is always going to what a person needs as their strong suit. The exact match domain is like having the ace up the sleeve or the joker card. It might give you the edge, but you've got to be in the game (of quality) to get almost all the way there first.