In-Depth Case Study: Can An Exact Match Domain Kill the Competition?
Last week, I was left with a harsh realization after working for hours, pounding away on Market Samurai for a new keyphrase or a new niche to explore. I must have gone through a dozen keyphrases, some random, some not-so random, until I started discovering something really interesting. I remember reading somewhere that Google loves exact domain names but put it in the back of my stubborn head, not tagging it with much importance. In fact, instead of doing some hard work discovering exact domain names, I’ve always opted for “exact domain names + add-on word” (add-on words including “hq”, “review” etc). Give me advice, that’s great but it probably won’t stick unless you show me something powerful.
With this case study, hopefully we will come to a conclusion regarding the question that brought you here: do exact match domains matter? Does having an exact domain name help rank your website?
A couple of things to keep in mind: for the sake of keeping this case study cohesive, I cannot go into depth about how I found each of these keyphrases or discuss in detail every other factor that helps with site ranking. For all of the keyphrases, the local country is United States and the language is English. Lastly, I realize that the images aren’t the prettiest, but please feel free to open them in a new window/tab to take a closer look.
Let’s begin!
Keyphrase #1: “Gas Motor Scooters”
The keyphrase “gas motor scooters” admittedly does not get a high number of exact searches daily but let’s look at a few other details:
A couple of things that really stand out are that the local title competition is a bit high at 22,600 especially when compared to the total local competition at 11,500 especially for a keyphrase that only gets 24 searches a day. But I digress since the case study is really to determine if exact domain names are worth your time or not.
Without confusing anyone, I will only explain that having a low score for the SEOTCR field means low competition for that keyphrase…. and at 163%, that it’s not!
Looking at the top 10 competition analysis for “gas motor scooters” reveals that:
Without any off-page seo (backlinking), the exact domain name gasmotorscooters.org, with a PR 0 (page rank), ranks at #7 just for existing! The site itself is pretty ugly and consists of links only.
If you view sites #2-#4, you will see that they could use some on-page optimization and I strongly believe that if the gasmotorscooters.org owner was to start on a backlinking campaign, the site could easily be in any of the top spots. Optimizing the meta tag as well as optimizing the use of h1 tags could also be beneficial.
In case it didn’t register: the exact match domain is sitting at #7 without any backlinks. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Keyphrase #2: “Portable Grill”
The second keyphrase, “portable grill”, receives a bit more searches on a daily basis:
Immediately, I see that the SEOTCR percentage is on the low side, so I had to do a top 10 competition analysis:
Again, portablegrill.net is almost a replica of gasmotorscooters.org which makes me think that this must be default setup template page that people are using for a basic setup or the same person has a hold on both of them. The site is competing against other sites that have anywhere from 16 to 22,800 baclinks and an even more ridiculous amount of total backlinks to any page on those sites.
Portablegrill.net takes on spot #6 against other competing websites with a PR 0 and no backlinks of any kind. Imagine if the domain owner did a bit of off-page seo work? I knew having the keyphrase in the domain name was suppose to be helpful but I never realized that having an exact match domain could land you in the top ten without any backlinking effort!
Keyphrase #3: “Reclining Office Chair”
This case study is a bit more exciting. After seeing a few examples similar to the above, I started asking myself if I could grab an exact domain as the keyword (.org, .us, .net, .info, .biz) and rank them alongside the other exact domain name matches.
So let’s review a couple things regarding the keyphrase “reclining office chair”:
This keyphrase receives a low amount of searches on a daily basis but you know what else is low? The total competition and the title competition! SEOLC comes in at 3,520 and SEOLTC at 246. But what’s cool to observe is that:
In this example, we have two exact domain names ranking! Recliningofficechair.org is dominating this keyphrase at a PR of 1 and 48 backlinks pointing to its main domain page. Recliningofficechair.net comes in at #7 with a PR of 0 and mere 13 backlinks pointing to its main page.
First, for those wondering if .orgs are useless, here’s a small example that trumps that assumption. Often you will hear recommendations to stick only to .com and .net domains but hopefully this example shows you that .org domains are just as powerful. Second, if you have an exact domain name but see that another one is ranking, don’t let that deter you from trying to rank your own exact domain.
I believe that if recliningofficechair.net properly use their meta tag and include the keyphrase in h1, h2 tags and try building some more backlinks, this web property could easily hope up a spot or two, which in turn, will result in more exposure.
Keyphrase #4: “Best Cordless Drill”
Don’t ask me about the randomness of the examples because as you can see, these keywords are all over the place. If you ask me, that’s a really good thing. “Best Cordless Drill” receives 118 daily searches (a lot higher than any other example so far), only 146,000 websites that mention “best cordless drill”, less than 2000 in title competition, and best yet, contains 1% SEOTCR, which means that there exists weak competition:
Now this is more like it. Do I see two exact domains ranking again?
Not only are both of the sites using good seo practices like using the keyphrase “best cordless drill” in their headers, titles and exact domain names, but they are ranking in the top 4 search results. In fact, bestcordlessdrill.us with a PR 0 is outranking bestcordlessdrill.net which is PR 1 with significantly more backlinks.
Again, this shows that there are several factors used in the Google search engine ranking algorithm and that having a high page rank does not necessarily translate into a higher rank.
If both sites decide to pursue an aggressive backlinking campaign, I don’t doubt that they can both end up in the #1 and #2 positions.
My last observation is regarding the .us domain: this is another example that trumps the assumption that a .us ending domain will probably not rank well, let alone do better than a .net.
Keyphrase #5: “Best Bluetooth Headsets”
“Best Bluetooth Headsets” has the highest number of searches, low number of total competition as well as the title competition. While the SEOTCR score isn’t the lowest, I’ve seen much worse:
And decent competition there definitely is:
There it is: an exact match domain that’s a .org, in position #5! The site is search engine optimized, is an exact match domain and has a decent amount of backlinks built. Although it has a couple of PR 0 and PR 6 sites to contend with, there is at least one PR 6 site that is not taking advantage of the url and title.
Perhaps with some more time and backlinks, bestbluetoothheadset.org can climb to #3 or #4. We have seen previously that exact match domain websites with zero or low number of backlinks are easily ranked in the top 10 search engine results.
Is Having An Exact Domain Name the End All, Be All?
Not quite! It seems that where there is low competition, having an exact domain name can be quite the blessing. But as you observed in the last case, the more competitive the competition, the more stops you have to pull out.
In Summary…
I want you to go through your website or blog to make sure that you are utilizing the best on-page and off-page seo practices. For every example that I have given, I am sure that there exist a number of websites that still don’t rank despite having an exact domain name as the keyphrase. Like I mentioned earlier, every case is different. Use your gut instinct and experiment. To learn about other factors that can help rank your websites, please read 7 Factors That Can Make Ranking Your Site Easy Or Pure Hell. I do hope, however, that I have made a case for using exact match domains whenever possible. I have personally seen examples of .info, .com, .net, .us and .org all ranked in the top 10 with an exact match domain.
Note:The software tool used for this in-depth case study was Market Samurai.
What has your experience been with using domain names that match your keyphrase exactly? If you have any questions or comments, please share!
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28 Responses to “In-Depth Case Study: Can An Exact Match Domain Kill the Competition?”
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This is definitely interesting, Moon, but as you say yourself, it seems to be only having a significant impact for low competition searches. My guess is that in these situations (that is, low competition) the exact match of the domain name adds significantly to the “value” of the site. I am interested to know whether you also came across low competition searches for which the exact domain match did not rank high (in the top 10), because it seems this was always the case in your case studies?
Anyway, I really like these case studies and look forward to more of those!
Bart, great observations. With my one niche site (the case study will be included in my free report/ebook), perhaps I should make this clarification. You’ll often observe that the exactmatchdomain.com/.us/.org/.info/.net are mostly taken. Instead of ranking it, the owners of these domains are hoping to make a sale out of these domains at a big profit, which sucks for us. Hence, with some keywords, the field seems wide open but the domains are taken. I was under the impression (who knows why) that .us or .org were not effective.
Apparently not true! I came across a couple of cases where the exactmatchdomain didn’t rank in the top 10 but it did in the top 100, in which case, they probably need to optimize on-page and off-page seo efforts.
I think even in high search cases, an exact domain could take over–I’ve seen it with one keyphrase that I didn’t share (I want to test this). Let’s see what happens! Thanks for your comment, Bart.
Great points! You definitely “get” the concept. URL/Title/description hits are not everything but it is such a huge benefit that it should never be overlooked. Specifically if you are going after tough competition.
The MS data shows the PR of the page but not the PR and relevancy of the links coming in. With a topic that is a pure moneymaker like bluetooth headsets, it might be just about impossible to crack in at all without url matching.
I really liked the way you described this with the graphics. It made it very visual and easy to understand.
Steve@Lifestyle Design´s last blog ..The Delicate Balance of Outsourcing a Project
Steve, great to hear from someone as experienced as you! Actually, using Market Samurai, I have the ability to see where the links are coming from, what the text of the link is and much more. I will discuss this soon in a post
I thought the images were ‘ugly’ but as long as people get the point. I think I’ve ‘got’ it too, doing these case studies has been eye opening. I feel the focus taking over. Time to hit up MS again to look up a good keyphrase… a great one hopefully
You did an interesting research there. I’ll also do some tests, because I’m curious about this
Alex Dumitru´s last blog ..How I Got From 0 To 1,000 Visits per Day in One Month
Cool Alex, I’d love to hear from you regarding your test.
Love it moon! I use this strategy on my niche sites as you know and it just makes it that bit easier to rank for your main keyword.
Hope you finding yourself some great niches to try this on.
Thomas Sinfield´s last blog ..Keyword Winner SEO Plugin – Launch Info Now With Video Review
Thanks Thomas. Have you tried it on keyphrases that get big and small daily searches? Has it been effective in both cases?
You have been working hard Moon. at the moment I just have my one blog that is doing well with ranking as in a small niche but this information will be very valuable once I start setting up mini-niche sites. Thanks for taking the time to share.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia@lavenderuses´s last blog ..A Dental visit with a difference…where’s the lavender
Great Patricia, I hope this information saves you a lot of time. Let me know if you have any questions.
Hey Moon,
You nailed this one right on the head. It’s what I like to call the “exact keyword domain name bonus” in Google (though I’m not the first to call it that). From my own experience, getting an exact match domain is THE way to boost your site’s search engine ranking without doing much other SEO work. Granted, it does depend on the competition, but having this one factor working for you really offers a huge boost.
Awesome case study here – it really helps lay out all the facts, and you provided some great examples.
- Eric
Eric | My 4-Hour Workweek´s last blog ..Niche Site Duel – Update 5- A Small Change That Will Make a BIG Difference
Eric, it seems this one factor can go a long way. Of course as you saw, despite having the exact match domain, a couple of the cases had to still build backlinks. There have been cases where I’ve seen exact matches take on authority sites. I’ll be testing this very, very soon.
Thanks for dropping by and adding your input!
Hello Moon,
Interesting study you did here, I do think that having the exact match domain can help you, but that isn’t a sole factor, although it can be the edge you need with a close competitor. But IBL still rule the SERP top results.
By the way “Again, portablegrill.net is almost a replica of gasmotorscooters.org which makes me think that this must be default setup template page that people are using for a basic setup or the same person has a hold on both of them” in fact this are parked domains. Parked domains can be “parked” for a variety of reasons the main one is domain flipping, companies monitor what domains people are searching and buy them so that they can sell it for more money later, also some premium domains (sometime assumed premium only because of its name) which their owner didn’t renew can be grabbed by this kind of companies. While the domains are parked they will generally keep ads on it and a link to place a bid for the domain.
Alex@Jocuri´s last blog ..Curse Camioane Monstru in noroi
Alex, that makes sense (both the sites being parked domains, that is). I didn’t see a link to place a bid for the domain (maybe I was in a rush??) so I assumed other things.
Thanks for your input, Alex.
I did a small case study myself with an interesting result that closely reflects your results, Moon. A few days ago, I searched for a key phrase with a decent amount of monthly searches (between 7000 and 8000) and I was able to secure the .com domain for it. Today, I noticed that the website is ranking at spot 13 for the key phrase I am targeting. This is really quick and a result that baffles me since the niche is not that small. In other words, I must say that it surprises me what an impact the exact domain match has on the ranking of a website.
However, I must say that it is my impression that it is especially true for key phrases that are not intentionally targeted by the websites that are ranking for the key phrase (if you get what I mean). There is a noticeable difference between competing with websites for a specific key phrase and competing with websites that “accidentally” compete for that key phrase. Since I was deliberately competing for a specific key phrase and was able to secure the .com domain, I had an advantage (for that key phrase). Anyway, this is an interesting case study and I’m very glad I made some effort to study this phenomenon myself, but kudos to you, Moon, for pointing it out to us!
Bart, excellent case study for yourself! In my case, I was surfing for keyphrases for personal mini-site usage and started noticing exact match domains easily ranking on 1st page, sometimes top 5 results.
7k-8k a month is a nice amount of searches…. and that was exact searches? If it landed you #13, that’s awesome. I do understand what you’re saying. There are so many factors that go into website ranking, it can all be a bit daunting sometimes. But you must experiment!
Thanks Bart!
Moon. you honestly hit this one out of the park!
Repect.
Massively
Alex´s last blog ..Keyword Winner or Keyword Loser A WordPress Plugin Review
Thanks, esp. coming from Mr. Keyword Expert
I once owned a domain with the exact keywords and it was ranking high in Google with almost no backlinks nor pagerank!
Very interesting research, Moon! I love reading about your experiments!
Have a great day!
Cheers!
Gloson
Gloson´s last blog ..Performing the 1Malaysia Song that I Wrote and my tribute to my country
Thanks Gloson! I don’t doubt it, that’s why I’m testing two new mini-sites with exact match keyphrases. I’d love for them to rank in the top 10 without any backlinks. Wouldn’t that be just awesome??
Hope you’re doing well!
I am curious if anyone has done any testing to know if any weight is added if you get a .com domain over a .net or .org domain.
Kevin,
I’m not sure anyone can ‘definitely’ show you which one has more weight. I have seen all three ranked in #1 spots, including .us. If an exact domain is available regardless of .net, .com or .org (or .us or .biz), I’d go for it and focus on on-page seo and off-page backlinking.
My point with this post is to show that exact match domains have too much weighting, not wether or not my clients want to buy them or not.
I believe that everyone should have the same opportunites to rank as everyone else, and the results should rank by how relevant the site is to that term, by owning an exact match domain you have a major unfair advantage and relevancy rules are thrown out the window. The only exception to this rule should be brands, which is why I beleive exact match domains rank in the first place.
Tv Serials´s last blog ..Watch Khottey Sikkey – 19th March 2011
Good way to break it down. Thanks Tv.