Should you leave an EMD?

[NeilInFrance]

Hi

I've never recommended exact match domain names as good SEO ; the problem being that they don't help you create brand identity and even when someone remembers your site's name (seo-question-answer-forum.com for example) they are going to type it into Google and they'll see competitors all around the link in the SERP - and you'll probably only have one link, no site links.

In a recent talk at a local Chamber of Commerce I drove this point home again with the new threat of penalties from Penguin (now and moving forward) and a reported EMD penalty that may or not be active in France.

So I've pretty much convinced everyone that EMD's are now toxic and if they are thinking of launching a new site they should avoid them.

But what if you have one already? I've had this question from people that were in the audience. Should they leave their domain now and set up a new site?

Not sure how I should answer!

The question comes from Chamber of Commerce audience and therefore people with bone fide businesses - so my gut feeling for the initial reasons above is "Yes" ; not using your company name as your main online identity was an error and you should correct it now. Create a new domain name and move to it via a simple 301 rewrite rule

But am I right? Or are there cases where this is bad advice

• Neil in France

[DaveMri]

The EMD update was applied to lower the added benefits of having an EMD. I would only see an issue on domains like www.aReallyLongExactMatchDomain.com or with www.key-wo-rds.com. That being said, I do recommend using the brand instead of keywords.

To answer your question, I would personally leave good quality domains as they are, even if they are an EMD.

[TakeshiYoung]

There is nothing wrong with EMD domains, as long as you're not being spammy. Having your keywords also helps with link building, since people will link to you using your keywords as anchor text.

EMDs can still be brandable if you're smart about it.  Look at searchengineland.com for example, or seotools.net.  A domain name should say what the site is about, and sometimes that means having and EMD.

[EvolveCreative]

There are many legitimate EMDs. They're harder to brand, but it's possible. For example, FreeCreditReport.com. They're only toxic if they're idiotic like best-pay-day-loans.info.

[irvingw]

I agree with Takeshi - a hybrid of both is best, in my opinion

EMD just means you need to be extra careful with anchor text ratios and over optimization penalty.  Less is more with on page exact match keyword phrases and not too much main tail anchor texts from external sites

[EGOL]

You don't think that domains like Wine.com.... Weather.com.... Hotels.com... are great brands?

[NeilInFrance]

Takeshi,

I'm assuming that this sort of anchor text has a negative effect since Penguin

SearchEngineLand.com is not an EMD in my opinion as I don't think that people were searching for a "land of search engines" before the site existed

SeoTools.net is a good example though and for me it's a poor domain name. If I search for "seotools" in Google (here in France) I get seobook, seomoz and a few French sites before I get seotools.net and then seotools.com

• Neil

[NeilInFrance]

You're giving me a lot of examples of online businesses rather than what I imagine my Chamber of Commerce audience was: local businesses who have an existing highstreet identitiy

Hotels.com with the .com is a great brand for the online business that is behind it. Would hotel.com have been a good domain for a hotel in Paris ? I don't think so. But I don't think hotel-paris.com is a good domain either. It might have given you an advantage for this search term but it's crummy and cheap as an online identity.

The examples I'm seeing are like this

www.hotel-restauraunt-town-name.com

www.oil-industry-job-offers.com

Behind each site their is a business that has a business name

It's as if McDonald's had decided to go with www.hamburger-restaurants.com rather than www.mcdonalds.com

15 years down the line whould you suggest they change?

• Neil

[EGOL]

I agree that my examples were online business where domains can work well as a brand.

I believe that SOME local business names lend themselves well to an EMD that might attract traffic.    Examples would be

ScrantonAutoGlass.com

ClevelandRealEstate.com

There is viable search volume for "scranton auto glass" and "cleveland real estate" and these domains would work well.

Not every business has a current name that would work well, but if I had an auto glass service in Scranton I would be willing to acquire that domain and change my name (if a competitor didn't already have claim.

[NeilInFrance]

Thinking it through I think that your ScrantonAutoGlass.com and ClevelandRealEstate.com suggestions are bad advice. I appreciate your opinion though!

For a local business the disadvantages from this type of name outweigh  the one advantage you gain by having a better chance of ranking for popular search term. IMO.

This discussion has helped me think it through. Thanks all

• Neil