During the past few weeks Google has been on a rampage and they have been hammering the search rankings for exact match domains (i.e. EMD’s) — or, as some people call them, keyword domains. As a result, there are now plenty of SEO experts who are warning their clients to no longer build sites on EMD’s.
Since Google is penalizing exact match domains by severely dropping their rankings, on the surface it perfect makes sense that one should stay away from EMD’s. But I believe this thought process is wrong. Here is why.
The fact of the matter is that most exact match domains are very weak websites. The vast, and I mean “VAST” majority of exact match domains are ultra-thin affiliate sites. The owner of the website is simply trying to rank for a single primary keyword that resides in the domain name.
Most marketers have been taught by “SEO Experts” that they can put up an exact match domain, post two or three articles with the primary keyword in the title, fire some backlinks at the site with the primary keyword in the anchor text — and then quickly get the site ranked on or near Page One for the primary keyword they are targeting (i.e. the keyword in the exact match domain).
Here is where I agree with many SEO Experts: “Exact match domains that are nothing more than thin affiliate sites with very little content on them are DEAD! It’s a losing strategy and it is no way to build a long-term, sustainable online business.”
However, I firmly believe that you can put your EMD back in the good graces of Google if you simply do the following: “Add value to the market by publishing new and original content to the site.”
If you have an exact match domain that has been penalized, don’t give up on it just yet. Try adding 5 to 7 pieces of new content to your site to see if you can give it a boost in the rankings.
If you have several pieces of original content on an exact match domain and it was still penalized by Google, most likely you have encountered a backlink penalty. If this is the case, the first thing you need to do is take a look at your backlinks to make sure your anchor text is diversified.
For example, if your domain is MinneapolisDivorceLawyer.net and 75% of your anchor text links are targeting the keyword “Minneapolis Divorce Lawyer” — that’s a problem. You need to dilute your links and drop that 75% number down to the 25% to 30% range. In other words, you need to add more links to your site that do not have the keyword “Minneapolis Divorce Lawyer” in the anchor text. Also, it will not hurt you to remove a few of those “Minneapolis Divorce Lawyer” anchor text links to help you reduce that 75% number.
The main point I want to make is that we are in a “New Era of SEO.” Trying to game your way to Page One of Google with thin affiliate sites is over. The days of consistently getting high search engine rankings by building a bevy of backlinks is over as well. If you want to survive in the long run, you have to give Google what Google wants. And that is unique and original content that helps people in your market. That, my friends, is the “New SEO.”
One last point. I am a firm believer that the best way to find out if something works or not is to “TEST” it yourself. In regard to the issue of Google penalizing exact match domains, that is exactly what I am going to do.
In the next week or two I will be registering a brand new exact match domain. Then, over the course of the next few weeks I will add several pieces of original content to this domain in an effort to get the domain ranked — not just for the primary keyword in the domain name, but for other related keywords as well.
The key is that I am going to give Google what it wants — “fresh content that will help people in the market that I will be serving.” Then, let’s see if Google rewards me with search traffic for consistently publishing unique content to this new keyword domain.
Make sure you subscribe to Web Business Research in the box above this post and I will send this case study to you as soon as I have results to post. Most likely this case study will consist of multiple posts on this blog. I will keep adding content to the exact match domain in the case study over the course of the next few months and I’ll keep you updated with the results the domain is producing.
Perhaps I have this wrong. Perhaps many of the SEO experts are right and we should stay away from exact match domains. But instead of taking their word for it, let’s test it.
That is the way I prefer to learn SEO. I like to test tactics and strategies myself. It is a great way to learn this business. And I trust my own results.
All the best,
Jon Poland
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Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins
to assist with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing
very good results. If you know of any please share.
Thanks!
Roman:
There are a few SEO plugins that you may want to consider. I currently use the Genesis blog framework from StudioPress and their themes have a built-in SEO feature. I works great. Their themes are very SEO friendly and I have had no problems getting my pages ranked.
I used to use All In One SEO. I did not like All In One because my meta description was not showing up in the search results. I then switched to SEO by Yoast and found it to be a little buggy. It would not generate sitemaps for me and when I tried to contact the developer, I found out that he was on vacation for about a month. I then immediately switched to the built-in SEO feature in Genesis.
Therein lies another reason why I am not sold on SEO by Yoast. I don’t like using tools in my business that have been developed by an individual. If the developer goes on vacation or decides to check out for a while — there is no one to support the tool. I like to use tools in my business that have been developed by “companies” who have a staff that provide support at least 5 days a week.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of people in this business who are huge fans of WordPress SEO by Yoast. And I fully intend to “test” it a few sites that I will be building in the near future. I have not given up on it, yet. It’s just that my first experience with it was less than ideal.
A few days ago I purchased a monthly subscription to a SEO product called Scribe. The developer of Scribe is a company called CopyBlogger Media. CopyBlogger Media is the same company that runs StudioPress — the developers of Genesis, the theme I use on this blog. They are a professional operation and they are experts at “content marketing.” I feel very comfortable using tools developed by CopyBlogger and StudioPress.
Scribe will analyze your content and then give you suggestions on how to better optimize it for the search engines. Also, after you produce your content Scribe will reveal to you additional topics and potential keywords that you can target. These potential topics and keywords will be closely related to the content in your original article. I have just scratched the surface on what Scribe can do. As I get more acquainted with this SEO plugin, I will write more about it on this blog.
By the way, Scribe is not cheap. However, it does come with a 30 day money back guarantee. You can test it for 30 days, and if you don’t like it you can always get your money back.
One last point. The best way to get your content to move up in the search engines is to simply add more content to your blog. The SEO tricks of the past do not work anymore in this post-panda, post-penguin era of SEO. Just give Google what Google wants — and that’s great content that helps and serves your market.