What is Exact Match Domain (EMD)?
Exact match domain (EMD) refers to a domain name that includes the keyword(s) a site wants to rank for.
Many bloggers purchase exact match domains, believing that it improves their ranking on Google. That was true years ago but ended with the Google Exact Match Domain update released on September 27, 2012.
The Exact Match Domain update demoted the rankings of sites with thin content and exact match domain names.
Example of an Exact Match Domain
besthikingshoes.com is an example of an exact match domain (EMD). In this case, the domain points to a site that reviews or sells hiking shoes.
The domain is considered an exact match domain because it consists of a parola chiave (“best hiking shoes”) that customers looking to purchase hiking shoes will likely search for.
Other examples of exact match domains include:
- hotels.com — for a hotel booking site
- buyusedcars.com — for a site that sells used cars
- bloggingtips.com — for a site that offers blogging advise
- howtostartablog.com — for a site that guides users on starting a blog
- cheapflightsbooking.com — for a site that offers flight booking services
- topfitnessgear.com — for a site that reviews or sells fitness equipment
It is important to note that domains like apple.com and nike.com are branded domains and not exact match domains. Search queries containing brand names are called branded keywords.
What is the Benefit of an Exact Match Domain?
Exact match domains are memorable. In many cases, a visitor can easily recall them compared to other domain names. For example, it is easier to remember hotels.com or buyusedcars.com than some other random domain name.
From the SEO perspective, exact match domains allowed sites to rank on Google, even with low-quality content. So, owning one was essentially an SEO technique in itself.
This benefitted domain speculators, who purchased exact match domain names and resold them at a profit. Many domain hosts even had marketplaces where speculators could sell their domain names to willing buyers.
Exact Match Domains and SEO
Many bloggers wonder whether exact match domains are good for SEO. The answer is yes. However, you should not rely on the domain name alone for ranking.
Even in its heydays, an exact match domain was sometimes considered a gray hat SEO technique. This was particularly true with exact match domains that published low-quality content.
Il Google Panda update, released on February 23, 2011, was supposed to demote sites that published low-quality content. However, Panda was ineffective at blocking exact match domains that published low-quality content.
So, in September 2012, Google released the exact match domain update to target these sites and ensure that having keywords in the domain name is no longer enough reason to rank highly on Google results pages.
The update followed a video in which Google’s Matt Cutts revealed that many bloggers had complained that Google was giving too much weight to domains that contained keywords. He added that Google would reduce the benefits it gave to such domains.
Today, the Exact match domain system is one of the ranking systems that Google uses to determine what results to show on search results pages. This system specifically prevents domains from ranking high on Google because they contain the exact keyword the searcher searched for.
Do Exact Match Domains Work?
Exact match domains still work for SEO. However, they no longer work as they used to. For perspective, hotels.com, an exact match domain, is among the top results when you search for “hotels” on Google.
Similarly, food.com is the top result when you search for “food.”
However, these sites are high authority sites with good E-E-A-T signals and high-quality content. Many exact match domains barely rank on Google.
All these sums up that while exact match domains may work, you still need high-quality content to rank on Google results pages. At this point, it doesn’t really matter whether your site has an exact match domain, as it would rank anyway. In all, we can conclude that Google has closed the exact match domain loophole.
Should You Buy an Exact Match Domain?
You should get an exact match domain if you want one. However, you must understand that you won’t rank on Google simply because you have one.
You still have to adhere to on-page, off-page, e technical SEO best practices, just like every other site. If you want to rank for local keywords, you must also work on your local SEO.
However, while an exact match domain will not offer much ranking benefits, they are good for your site’s user experience. For instance, visitors can understand the type of content you publish by just seeing your domain name.
Exact match domains are also memorable. This means your visitors can remember them easily.
That said, you should be ready to do a lot of research and pay top bucks, as many exact match domains have been purchased by domain speculators looking to resell them for a profit.
The cheap ones go for thousands of dollars, and it is not unusual to find more valuable ones that sell for hundreds or even millions of dollars.
You should also stick to exact match domains that end with a .com top-level domain. Non .com exact match domains are not very popular. They may also appear spammy and were likely more affected by the exact match domain update.