Why is this site 1st in Google??

[manu45]

Hello

The site www.woodensigns.net is 1st in google for the keyword "wooden Signs".

All seo indicators are poor except keyword in url; wich, i thought, was not a + for google anymore.

Could someone help me to understand here?

Thank you

Emmanuel

[askshopper]

Hi

The domain is not first for wooden signs, in fact i cannot find it  however Google will rank a site higher if the domain has a connection to the keyword or phrase, but there are factors to consider, most sites will rank first place for there domain name although when it comes to more competitive keywords or phrases then other ranking factors come in to play, also if a site is new Google will often rank the site higher for a short time.

[Ryan-Bradley]

I ran it through the keyword difficulty tool and it appears it's a very low competition keyword. The site has a PA of 25 and a DA of 15, so I wouldn't be surprised that the keyword in the domain alone is the cause.  The .com also ranks #6 and it has nearly no content which makes me believe this is also the case for this domain as well.

Matt Cutts said they would be "turning the dial down" on exact match domains, not necessarily getting rid of it as a metric.  It is still a pretty powerful ranking signal, just not as much as a few years ago.

If you're trying to rank for this keyword just make sure your website design looks great and has plenty of good content, this alone should get you up there with them.  Then just follow that up basic link building, nothing serious.