Building Links to Exact Match Domains

[Jvalops]

What are the pros and cons having exact match domain and how can you create a brand name and build backlinks?

Say we have a domain personalizedbirthdaygifts.com

We are quite stuck with what anchor text we need to use and how do we vary it?

I've heard that we have to stay away from using commercial keywords as anchor text heavily. We have to also use our brand name. And here we get stuck as we don't have a brand name. In this case Our brand name should be personalized birthday gifts but this is also commercial keyword.

I have seen before similar websites droped from ranking because they have commercial keywords in their domain and most of their backlink anchor texts are commercial.

If I had a website called twentyfive.com selling birthday gifts it would be a lot easier. But when you have a website personalizedbirthdaygifts.com and trying to rank for personalized birthday gifts and birthday gifts it's tough. OR isn't it?

I hope I explained it well and didn't confuse anybody...

Thanks

[NickPateman81]

Use the anchor text "personalized birthday gifts" ... I've never heard or seen anything about commercial keywords damaging rankings. Do not stay away from using 'commercial keywords' as anchor text - this would be a disaster. When you say heavily, I guess you mean having all of your links with the same anchor text; while heavy usage of anchor text clearly correlates with good rankings, it's risky business (it's not particularly natural looking).

There is a trade-off between branding and EMDs. If you use an EMD then you have huge SEO benefits (at least for now) but with branding you'll have a memorable name that people become loyal to.

[Jvalops]

One of my friend attended seomoz conference in london yesterday and he swears there was a talk that google pushes down exact keyword match domains which build backlinks with domain name as anchor text.

[NickPateman81]

That would definitely be news to me. I have a bunch of EMDs that rank well and I've built links using the same anchor text. If your website name and therefore your brand name is "Personalised Birthday Gifts" then you can bet you'll get natural links with that in the anchor text.

There's no negative effect to using exact match anchors for exact match domains. Only positive.

[Getz.pro]

Exact domain names do get ranked well in SEs and are a good choice when relevant like yours. They will get punished if what is on the site does not match the domain, or inbound links seem spammy.

If your site is about Personalized Birthday Gifts, then I see no reason why not to use the domain. I would not use exact anchor text when building manual links as most sites will list your URL as the anchor so that is covered. I would build links like this (presuming you have done your keyword research)

• Birthday Gifts
• Gifts for Birthdays
• Birthday Gift Ideas
• Personalized Gifts

The cons with exact domains is that you are boxed in as many see it. You can not easily sell wedding supplies. This comes into play with GEO TLDs such as using a location in your TLD such as San Diego or California. If you expand out of this area, then you boxed yourself in without great marketing.

Just Cabinets sells furniture, so they have marketed themselves out of selling just cabinets, but you can see the amount of effort it would take.

If you are going to sell nothing but birthday gifts, then I see no reason not to use the exact match TLD.

I hope that answered your question.

[KeriMorgret]

Did these responses answer your question Jvalops, or do you still have questions? We're going through and looking at the older unanswered questions and trying to resolve them. Any lessons you have that you can share would be great, too!

[dean1986]

Nop, not true at all, I ranked a a fairly competitive keyword No.1 with an exact match keyword domain name, we only focused on 2 variations of a keywords and no penalty.